Brontë Mass update

Philip Wilby's Brontë Mass is reviewed in The Times. The review is more positive than yesterday's in The Guardian:

Nothing could be more evocative of Yorkshire than a Brontë Mass – the Latin Mass text mingled with poems by the four Brontë siblings – written by a distinguished Pontefract-born composer and sung by one of the region’s oldest choral societies. What a pity, then, that more of Yorkshire’s musical public didn’t flock to support the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, which commissioned this big, enjoyable 30-minute choral and orchestral score in memory of a long-standing stalwart who had died unexpectedly. Even in Yorkshire choral societies surely can’t go on churning out the same old oratorios for ever. Yet it seems, sadly, that those bold enough to try something new are condemned to perform to half-empty halls.
The irony is that there is nothing in Philip Wilby’s Brontë Mass to frighten anyone used to such avant-garde composers as Delius, the Walton of Belshazzar’s Feast or the Britten of the War Requiem. Heavens, there’s even a full-blown fugue and a Disneyesque Gloria with probably the longest pedal-point since Brahms’s Requiem.
Wilby’s strength is his old-fashioned craftsmanship, his craggy, astringent, brass-infused climaxes, and his clear and sensible treatment of the words, particularly for the baritone (the intelligent Leigh Melrose). A weakness is his failure to match the ecstatic and otherworldly poetry of the Brontës with equally exalted or mystical music. And despite David Hill’s impassioned conducting, and some alert playing from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the premiere sounded as if it needed another full rehearsal and at least 20 more tenors and basses. But at least there will be a second performance a in April, this time accompanied by the Black Dyke Band, no less. That won’t be a quiet affair. (Richard Morrison)

On the brass band version of the piece, the Yorkshire Post has some additional information:

THE Black Dyke Band are not renowned for tackling a work usually reserved for a symphony orchestra. But the brass band are gearing up for a new work, to be premiered in Leeds, which is written for both a symphony orchestra and brass band. (...)
The Black Dyke Band will perform it next April and on Thursday were at St George's Church, Leeds, to try the band version at the choir's final rehearsal ahead of the concert.
The work has been commissioned in memory of John Brodwell, a late chairman of the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus.
Mr Wilby said: "It was during preliminary discussions with the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus that their Chairman, John Brodwell, died, and in my mind their commission for a new choral work changed into a score in his memory." (Joanne Ginley)

In The Yorkshire Post there is a video with the Black Dyke Band in rehearsal for the Brontë Mass.

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