Annual Autumn Festival in Vlaardingen

An overflow crowd filled the hall at the Waterweg Central Corps in Vlaardingen, The Netherlands, on Saturday, 6 November 2004, for the annual autumn concert of the Vlaardingen Band of the Salvation Army (Bandmaster Alan Gibson). This year's concert also featured the Rotterdam East Corps Band of the Salvation Army (Bandmaster Carl Rosenquist) and the Nostalgie Brass Band Amsterdam (Bandmaster Fred van der Woude). A DVD recording of the concert will be produced and is available through the Vlaardingen Band web site at http://www.vldsaband.tk.

The Nostalgie Band was the first to play at the concert. All of their selections for the evening were from the pen of Eric Ball, beginning with Torch of Freedom. This was followed by Ball's lyric arrangement of All in the April Evening. The band's major piece for their section of the program was one of Ball's classic works, The King of Kings. Flügelhorn soloist Theo Martens presented the solo Reverie.

The Rotterdam East Corps Band then took the stage, beginning with a festival fanfare written by Martin Cordner, one of the rising young composers in the Salvation Army. The band's second item was another new arrangement, this one by Australian Salvationist Graeme Press, of a work originally written for choir, War on the Floor. William Gordon's transcription of parts of Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony, Excerpts from "The Little Russian" was the band's major offering. Rotterdam East Band has a large number of young players, and this was acknowledged with an arrangement of the Sunday School chorus Zaccheus (Ralph Pearce). They continued with the Maori fol tune Hine e Hine (Peter Graham) and concluded with the Founder's song, O Boundless Salvation.

The Vlaardingen Band ended with their own selections, opening with Laudes Domini (William Gordon). This was followed by a cornet quartet, Joyous Proclamation. Next, the trombone section was featured in Goff Richard's arrangement of I Will Follow Him, from the film "Sister Act". Other items included an excerpt from 50s Medley and This Little Light of Mine. Coby Gibson-Naujoks sang William Gordon's jazz arrangement of Rock-a My Soul with the band. The major work for this portion of the concert was Geoff Bullock's contemporary worship song The Power of Your Love, arranged by Martin Taylor. The band returned to a devotional mood with In this Quiet Moment, maintaining their concentration and musicianship despite being challenged by a mobile telephone ringing in the audience. The concert concluded with Kenneth Downie's setting of The Father's Blessing, "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

Source:
Email from Steef Klepke
Vlaardingen Band

Posted by Webmaster 28 November 2004 09:57:05