Three Views of Mount Fuji
The Band of the Coldstream Guards
Conductor: Lt. Col. Graham Jones MBE
Egon CD SFZ 146
This recording was made in London’s Henry Wood Hall in July 2008, prior to the Regimental Band of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards’ tour of Japan later in the year, the ninth time that the band had travelled there since 1985.
The disc opens with Lt. Col. Graham Jones’ march in the traditionally British military style, Salute to Victory, before a lively arrangement by Lance Corporal James Scott of music from three television series of the 1970s
in Who Loves ya Baby? Featuring the themes from Space 1999, Kojak and The Streets of San Francisco, the band is joined by guitars and a vigorous percussion section in what is an enjoyable work.
Musician Helen Betteridge is the violin soloist in John Williams’ theme for the movie, Schindler’s List, which is followed by one of the major hits from the band’s tour of the USA last year, A Very British Tribute, a collection of four songs – Suo Gan, Loch Lomond, Londonderry Air and I Vow to Thee My Country – representing the four constituent parts of the UK and brought together by Warrant Officer Class One Greg Machin, Bandmaster of the Coldstream Guards. The traditional Greensleeves is followed by a solo from the band’s accomplished flautist, Lance Corporal Rachel Smith, in Francoise Borne’s fiendishly difficult Fantasie Brilliante on Themes from Bizet’s Carmen, which leads into the enjoyable title track, Rodney Newton’s Three Views of Mount Fuji. In three short movements and based on the work of the Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1850), who actually painted 36 views of the iconic volcano, the music employs typically Oriental harmonies and is mainly reflective in nature until the last movement, The Great Wave at Kanagawa, which depicts a tsunami with the great mountain only in the background. Mark Purvey’s arrangement of the popular anthem, La Baum, is another reminder of the band’s successful tour of the USA and it is followed by an imaginative medley in The Beatles – Echoes of an Era, which features top class solo playing from brass players throughout the band. The medley of Tom Jones hits, What’s New Pussycat, is an agreeable selection, both arranged and sung by Lance Corporal James Scott, Radetsky March is arguably the best known march in the world and therefore requires no introduction from this reviewer, and the programme closes with Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, which is arguably almost as famous.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and mainly light programme from a military band in typically slick, pre-tour form, the content of which will appeal to many lovers of band music.
Kenneth Crookston
