TRACK OF THE WEEK
Every week Frank selects his own favourite track of the week from our weekly Music Podcast, and it's completely free to listen too, here on Frank Renton on Brass. As he says this week,
"2022 marked the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, a composer of vast experience and output, who whilst not everyone’s cup of tea, has certainly stood the test of time.
He didn’t write much for the brass band, three pieces in fact and I guess that he didn’t much like their amateur culture, and he absolutely hated the often incessant and uncontrolled use of vibrato.
I was in the Royal Albert Hall in 1956 when it was announced that he was the guest of honour for the day, would present the prizes and write the set test for 1957, Variations for Brass Band. In his speech he made his feelings quite clear, and whilst he was admired for his honesty I don’t think that he won many friends!
He also wrote a Prelude on Three Welsh Hymns and an Overture to Henry the 5th, probably written for an historical pageant in the 1930s but then unheard for twenty years as the music languished in a cupboard out of sight. But it’s a good work and received a cracking performance from the Tredegar Band with their conductor Ian Porthouse, on their latest album, Vaughan William on Brass, and what’s more it my Track of the Week here at Frank Renton on Brass."
We hope you’ll enjoy our free track of the week that's below - and then will join us to hear all our many programmes, interviews and music podcasts. It’s a lot less than a cup of coffee a week!
