The Guides… Some people don't know them at all. Others associate them with a worn-out brass band or flashy performances. Those in the know understand: The Guides, that's quality, that's sound, that's versatility, that's pure enjoyment. And that's exactly what we experienced on that first Friday of September.
In the imposing Sint-Romboutskathedraal in Mechelen: enjoyment, remembrance, and support. The concert commemorated the fact that, exactly 80 years ago this day, English reconnaissance vehicles of the 23rd Hussars, supported by Canadian infantry, rolled into Mechelen from Kapelle-op-den-Bosch as the vanguard of American and Canadian Sherman tanks that confirmed the liberation.
Just as in that dire wartime situation, there remains an ongoing need for help. That's why this concert was dedicated to International Childhood Cancer Day, "a Day of Hope and Heroism." Mayor Bart Somers, Alain Gysels, Commander of the Land Component Competition Center, and Ivan Loiko, Commander of the Communications and Information Systems and Administration Training Center, all addressed these circumstances.
The program perfectly matched the concert's backdrop with titles such as Symphony 'Hell & Heaven' by Spanish composer Oscar Navarro and Remembrance by Christopher Marshall, who traveled specially from the USA to Mechelen for the world premiere of his delightful work. As modest and charming as this French New Zealand American was—someone who happened to be blessed with a name that immediately brings to mind the Marshall Plan, which eased so much post-war suffering—so captivating is his music. It was tailor-made for the more than seventy-member Guides: melodic, driven, virtuosic, contemporary. Yes, modern classical music can be beautiful too!
This was also proven by Oscar Navarro's Symphony Hell & Heaven. The intriguing opening, carillon bells, sound effects and voices, and serene organ playing created a hallucinatory intergalactic journey through the afterlife. Like the Royal Music Chapel of the Guides, which was founded in 1832 on the orders of King Leopold I, this iconic wind orchestra combines innovation with tradition, especially under the inspired leadership of its passionate conductor Yves Segers. Since March 2008, he has wielded the baton over the orchestra, and countless compositions have come to life on CD or on stage under his direction. Both from Belgian composers like Frederic Devreese, Jacqueline Fonteyn, Jan Van der Roost, André Waignien, and François Glorieux, as well as from foreign composers.
Yes, there was the traditional Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach, but in a successful, thunderous transcription by Arthur Prevost. Yes, England was represented by the familiar Enigma Variations by Elgar, but performed so charmingly and overwhelmingly that it provoked those 'arm-squeezing moments'—those gripping passages that instinctively make you squeeze your partner's arm.
Yes, there were the traditional marches. You either love them or hate them, but they're always rousing. And yes, there were flowers—well-deserved ones too—for Radio Klara's presenter Inneke Plasschaert. It was noticeable during the presentation and speeches that the feared acoustics in a cathedral like Sint-Rombouts adversely affects everything amplified through the microphone.
