Concert: Flowers Band

Flowers Band

Conductor: David Childs

Gloucester Cathedral

19 May 2018


The UK is home to dozens of superb cathedrals dating back many centuries. Providing breath-taking spaces for worship with awe-inspiring architecture and epochs-worth of history, cathedrals are understandably popular venues for 21st Century secular concerts. This concert given by Flowers Band was the first in a planned Cathedral Series staged by Kapitol Promotions, taking place in the majesty of Gloucester Cathedral, home to the tomb of King Edward II and used more recently as Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films. Despite their undoubted grandeur, cathedrals can nonetheless be rather challenging acoustically (Gloucester has an approximate eight-second echo!), so I headed to a seat as close to the front as I could find.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary and conducted by David Childs in his swansong as Principal Conductor, Flowers began with music of Slavic influence. Shostakovich’s Festive Overture was an excellent start, and the band’s eyes noticeably widened with wonder at the almost never-ending ‘reverb’ on its final note. Joining Flowers in the concert was ReChoir - a vocal ensemble from Caerphilly, accompanied with great panache by Christopher Bond on piano. Brimming with engaging vitality, the group performed various traditional songs and provided an excellent contrast to the sounds of brass, with the semi-amplification working well.

The band featured many of its fine soloists - none were more impressive than soprano cornet player, Paul Richards, who delivered a superb rendition of Jonny Bates’s Let Freedom Ring. The band also performed a segment of music by Karl Jenkins, which included Robert Childs’s arrangement of the Stabat Mater, affording many opportunities for more soloists to shine. The final part of the concert, entitled Best of British, included Jupiter from local composer Gustav Holst’s The Planets Suite, a sumptuous Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations and finally Jonny Bates’s Diversions after Henry Purcell - the fugal nature of which didn’t fare well in the cavernous space, but which nonetheless provided an epic finale to the evening. Compèred throughout by Dave Hayward, this was an extremely enjoyable concert
to kick off Kapitol’s Cathedral Series.

PHILIP HARPER



Read more reviews, interviews and features, by subscribing to BBW Digital. Alternatively, subscribe to the printed magazine delivered by post: £40 (UK); £68 (Europe); £81 (Rest of the World)