Nottingham
Concert Band (Robert Parker) and the Nottingham Bluecoat Singers recently
staged the 2010 St George"s Day Concert at the invitation of the Royal Society
of St George in the city’s own Albert Hall. Compère
for the evening was BBC Radio Nottingham commentator Colin Slater MBE.
The 60-strong band performed an English-themed
programme for the evening (St. George is England's patron saint), blending
traditional patriotic favourites with a selection of light classics and popular
music from the last 100 years.
After Kenneth Alford"s Standard of St George
heralded the entry of flags and banners, the band filled the Albert Hall
Westminster Meditation by Hucknall-born Eric Coates, and Walton’s challenging
Crown Imperial march. Johann de Meij’s arrangement of James Bond themes took
the audience by surprise, though the mood changed quickly again with Albert Ketèlbey’s
light-hearted In A Persian Market. The band was joined in this by the Nottingham
Bluecoat Singers before they stepped into the spotlight with their own
delightfully eclectic selection, which included pieces by John Rutter, Edward
German, Gilbert and Sullivan and Sting.
The second half opened with more from Eric Coates: a
full and enthusiastic percussion section means that Nottingham Concert Band’s
interpretation of The Dam Busters March is always a crowd-pleaser, and it was
made all the more exciting for St George’s Day this year by the overlay of
rarely-heard words sung by the choir. A medley of Sea Shanties, Nimrod from
Elgar"s Enigma Variations and Allan Street"s local favourite Goose Fair then
set the scene for a stirring finale, with an exciting evening brought to a close
in flag-waving fashion by Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and Elgar"s Land of Hope
& Glory.
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