If you squeezed your eyes shut for just a moment and listened to the St. Albert Community Band, you would have almost believed you were at the Winspear Centre attending a symphony pops concert.
They were that good.
Last Sunday, 40 Years of Music was a rare history-making moment. In celebrating the band’s contributions through four decades, 90 current members and alumni reunited for a two-hour-plus concert filled with lush music, rounds of laughter and a rush for the Kleenex box as sentimental tears flowed freely.
Unlike most of the band’s concerts, this one was sprinkled with speeches. President Gerry Buccini spoke about the band’s 600 musicians that have crossed the stage. MLA Ken Allred presented the band with a $7,300 poster-size cheque from the Community Initiatives Lottery Fund. And in a touching moment Mayor Nolan Crouse gave Buccini, the only original member left, a golden key to the city.
But the afternoon really belonged to conductor Laurelie Nattress, who performed her official swan song after serving 14 years. Dressed in conductor’s blacks, she introduced each piece with her signature, tongue-in-cheek humour.
The band opened with Brian Appleby’s stirring arrangement of O Canada, a splendid piece full of glorious fanfares that instilled pride of country and made more than a few crowd voices singing quaver with emotion.
Gliding straight into Canada’s second national anthem, the band played Dolores Claman’s original brassy Hockey Night in Canada theme song. Peppered with an explosive energy, this robust and lively arrangement didn’t do much for the Habs. However, it successfully brought back a flood of memories from the Oilers’ goal-scoring glory days.
In sharp contrast the band displayed great tenderness, sensitivity and poignancy throughout Frank Ticheli’s Loch Lomond, a gentle, melancholy piece that was played with extreme control yet roiled with titanic emotions.
Just before playing John O’Reilly’s In Memorium, Nattress asked us to take a moment to remember peacekeepers, soldiers and beloved family and friends who passed away. The band found the perfect tone of this percussion-based piece that started with a slow marching beat, shifted into a galloping movement and ended with a clash of cymbals.
The band went on to perform the spritely Norwegian Folk Rhapsody, a sweeping By Loch and Mountain and the rollicking Cartoon Symphony featuring The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Simpsons and the slinking Pink Panther.
Most moving was the closing number — As Summer Was Just Beginning, a song for Jimmy Dean. It is Nattress’ favourite, a surprise prepared by the band and conducted by flautist Patricia Hengel. With little rehearsal time, there were more than a few off-key notes but Nattress just covered her face with a tissue and cried. It was a gentle, caring goodbye to an old friend that ended a notable era, yet left the door open for great things to come.
Review
40 Years of Music<br />St. Albert Community Band<br />Sunday, May 23<br />Arden Theatre
