The vibrant enthusiasm of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra under its principal conductor Clark Rundell is captured on this excellent recording

The five composers included on this disc give a varied cross-section of late-twentieth century British wind band music.

The series has plugged a gap in recorded music and brought attention to the wealth of music available for wind orchestra.

This release continues the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra’s innovatory survey of wind music from around the world. The RNCM Wind Orchestra is recognised as one of the leading conservatory ensembles in the world and performs internationally. It has already released several highly enjoyable discs on Chandos, all notable for their energy and brilliance.

Liverpudlian composer Kenneth Hesketh has a special interest in writing music for symphonic wind ensemble. Hesketh wrote Diaghilev Dances in response to a commission from a consortium of British music colleges, as homage to the dramatic and colourful scores written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. This opulently detailed scoring, with keyboard and harp adds to the usual wind ensemble line-up. Adam Gorb is well known internationally for his wind ensemble compositions. Gorb describes Awayday as reflecting his experience as a musical director in the theatre and his love of ‘the great days of the Broadway musical, with its irresistible brashness and irrepressible high spirits’ – though the frequent changes of metre suggest also a dash of Stravinsky or Copland. Buxton Orr wrote A John Gay Suite, based on themes from The Beggar’s Opera, the hugely popular ballad opera, for which the author John Gay fitted words set to many existing folk tunes and other popular melodies. John McCabe describes Canyons as a personal response ‘to the imposing landscapes of the American South West’, stressing that these are ‘not merely grandiose’ but also ‘bursting with an inner energy’. The four movements are played without a break and builds up in texture and rhythmic pattern. The final composer in this collection is Sir Malcolm Arnold. His Water Music is permeated with dotted rhythms of the baroque French overture - homage to Handel’s Water Music, and continues with a single tune in the vein of some of Arnold’s popular English Dances, repeated in different keys and colourings.

This is an important collection of contemporary British composers, and new wind music, played with distinction.

Don’t be put off if some of the composer’s names are unfamiliar; this is accessible music, infectiously played and expertly engineered.
Decked out in expert orchestration, played to perfection and recorded in typically sumptuous sound, it provides an ideal conclusion to a splendid disc.
This disc of ‘British Wind Band Classics’ contains some real musical treats, played with relish and a true rhythmic verve…
The Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra is an outstanding ensemble of young musicians, and this entertaining new programme, entitled ‘Homages for Wind’ shows these players at the top of their form. Anyone who enjoys symphonic wind music will want to hear this CD – it’s very well played and conducted, and the repertoire is all very engaging… With good notes and spacious Chandos sound, this is a most enjoyable disc.

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