Band gives concert

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32588, 23 April 1971, Page 10

Band gives concert

From the warm and moving sonority of Vernon Griffiths’s scoring of a wellknown hymn tune to the virtuosic technical demands made on the players by Eric Ball and Gilbert Vinter, the Skellerup Woolston Band showed its high degree of manipulative and interpretative skill during a lunch-time concert in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre yesterday. This well-balanced band with its crisply orientated percussion section exploited the theatre’s acoustical excellence to the full. Great clarity of texture was achieved and a rich tonal quality was always in evidence. There was none of the blatant blasting which can mar indoor performances of this type. In fact, subtlety and finesse were the qualities which characterised much of the playing in ensemble if not always in rhythm. Mervyn Waters conducted with confident efficiency. It is a rare pleasure to observe a conductor with real technique. It not only looks good but the performance reflects this visual stimulation in posi. tive musical terms. Mr Waters and his bandsmen set a professional example.— J.A.R.