Orquesta Joven de Almería

 December 27 2015

My wife and I attended an excellent concert at the Auditorio Municipal Maestro Padilla in Almería. It featured the Orquesta Joven de Almería and the  Orquesta Infantil de Almería and was conducted by Michael Thomas.

 

The infants performed the carols “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, “Joy to the World”, “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells”. The young children were conducted by Michael Thomas and their performance was quite charming.

Then came it was the Youth Orchestra of Almeria’s turn. The youngsters treated us to an excellent concert that began with ‘Finlandia’ composed by Sibelius.

My wife and I attended this concert for three reasons:

(i)     we had attended a previous concert by the youngsters of the Almería Orchestra (OIAL & OJAL) and had thoroughly enjoyed it;

(ii)    we often attend concerts by the Almería Orchestra (OCAL) conducted by Michael Thomas;

(iii)   we wanted to support our friends Colin and John Whyman who were making a presentation at the concert

Colin & John presented a violin to young Dario Rodriguez Ventura.

This was followed by a speech in Spanish and English by Colin Whyman who, with his brother John, had donated a large collection of records, sheet music and books to the members of OCAL & OJAL.

The Youth Orchestra then performed Edward Elgar’s “Chanson de matin” with young Dario Rodriguez playing the violin.

After a break the orchestra (OJAL) continued their performance  with music by Benjamin Britten, Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart and Prokofiev before finishing with Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride”.

The Youth Orchestra were then joined with the infants (OIAL) and performed “Silent Night” and the encore – another rendition of “Jingle Bells” with some of the audience joining in (well I did anyway!)

Excellent!

 


other blogs by Robert Bovington:

"Photographs of Spain"	http://bovingtonphotosofspain.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Impressions"	http://bobbovington.blogspot.com/
"postcards from Spain"	http://bovington-posts.blogspot.com/
"you couldn't make it up!"	http://bovingtonycmitup.blogspot.com/
"a grumpy old man in Spain"	http://grumpybobbov.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Expressions"	http://spanishsayingsbovington.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Art"	http://bovingtonspanishart.blogspot.com/
"Books About Spain"	http://bovingtonbooks.blogspot.com/

My Musical Journey

by Robert Bovington

My musical journey probably began when, as a young boy, I sang 'Home On The Range' at Christmas during family singsongs and, once on stage at 'Peter Pan's Children's Playground' on Brighton seafront, for which I was rewarded with a stick of rock. My journey progressed through my early years by briefly embracing Classical music when I sang in the Standford Road School Choir in a concert of Bach & Handel. 

But music became an interest and finally an obsession in the late 50's when I was given an old 'wind-up' gramophone and I played my 'collection' of 78's — about half-a-dozen records that arrived with the gramophone — the only one I remember at all had someone singing 'Mountain Greenery' but I know it wasn't Mel Torme's recording. Shortly afterwards, I saved my pocket money and purchased my first record — Woolworth's Embassy records cover version of 'Stupid Cupid' and 'Carolina Moon' — I could not afford the Connie Francis version!

Unlike Leslie Garrett's household, ours was not a particularly musical family — my mother would listen to 'Music While You Work' and sing along to the odd Dorothy Squires record or Theresa Brewer's 'Music, Music, Music'. My father's musical contribution would mostly be "Can't you turn that bloody row down?" though he did have a penchant for Charlie Kunz piano music.

My early sojourn into the world of music was, like most teenagers of the late 50's, by the way of pop music and, in particular, rock 'n' roll and skiffle — mostly via our very first 9 inch screen black & white TV. We would watch '6-5 Special' featuring Don Lang and his Frantic Five and Nancy Whisky and shortly afterwards 'Oh Boy!' where I can remember a young Cliff Richard doing his 'Elvis the Pelvis' impersonation.

I could not afford records so I would spend my evenings with my ear glued to a crackling valve-driven radio listening to the latest hits on Radio Luxembourg. In 1959, my grandma gave me an old tape recorder and I started recording all the hits — 'Apache', 'Counting Teardrops', 'Are You Lonesome Tonight'... During the next couple of years, I would record from radio programs that included 'Saturday Club' & 'Easy Beat'.  The tapes must have sounded dreadful as the recording method consisted of placing the plastic microphone near the radio's speaker — very different from modern recording methods!

Once I started earning a living, I purchased a record player and began buying 45's. Sam Cooke's 'Another Saturday Night' and Elvis Presley's 'Good Luck Charm' being the first of many.


Since those early days, my musical taste has expanded rather than changed. I still occasionally play some of my old records including artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles, Santana and Dire Straits but my preference is for Classical music.

I like most types of Classical music: concertos, symphonies, baroque, sonatas, opera and chorale. My CD collection ranges from medieval music to 20th century composers ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Arvo Pärt and I have a piece of music allegedly composed by Henry VIII! 

I currently prefer music composed by the more traditional composers though, especially Mozart and Beethoven and my favourite genre are the romantic concertos, particularly violin. As I explore the world of Classical music, I frequently discover or rediscover musical gems like Vaughan Williams 'Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis'. With the vast amount of superb music in existence, I would find it difficult to name my favourite piece. I particularly like Max Bruch's 'Violin Concerto' and his 'Scottish Fantasy', there is Rachmaninov's 2nd and 3rd 'Piano Concertos', Mozart's 'Clarinet Concerto' and now that I live in Spain, I have been listening more often to Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez'. There are many more in the same category and Johan Sebastian Bach's 'St. Matthew Passion' is up there with them!

Zarzuela concert Roquetas de Mar

Attended an excellent concert at the Teatro Auditorio de Roquetas de Mar Saturday, 20 April 2013 - it was an anthology of zarzuela, the Spanish equivalent of operetta. It was a delightful mix of operatic and popular song, as well as dance. 

Zarzuela is said to derive from the name of a Royal hunting lodge, the Palacio de la Zarzuela near Madrid, where, allegedly, this type of entertainment was first presented to the Spanish court.

more photos here 

other blogs by Robert Bovington:

"Photographs of Spain"	http://bovingtonphotosofspain.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Impressions"	http://bobbovington.blogspot.com/
"postcards from Spain"	http://bovington-posts.blogspot.com/
"you couldn't make it up!"	http://bovingtonycmitup.blogspot.com/
"a grumpy old man in Spain"	http://grumpybobbov.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Expressions"	http://spanishsayingsbovington.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Art"	http://bovingtonspanishart.blogspot.com/
"Books About Spain"	http://bovingtonbooks.blogspot.com/

Favourite Popular Music

to see more, click on the link below:-
http://pinterest.com/robertbovington/favourite-music-rock-pop/

other blogs by Robert Bovington:

"Photographs of Spain"	http://bovingtonphotosofspain.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Impressions"	http://bobbovington.blogspot.com/
"postcards from Spain"	http://bovington-posts.blogspot.com/
"you couldn't make it up!"	http://bovingtonycmitup.blogspot.com/
"a grumpy old man in Spain"	http://grumpybobbov.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Expressions"	http://spanishsayingsbovington.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Art"	http://bovingtonspanishart.blogspot.com/
"Books About Spain"	http://bovingtonbooks.blogspot.com/

Favourite Classical Music

to see more, click on the link below:-

http://pinterest.com/robertbovington/favourite-music-classical/

other blogs by Robert Bovington:

"Photographs of Spain"	http://bovingtonphotosofspain.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Impressions"	http://bobbovington.blogspot.com/
"postcards from Spain"	http://bovington-posts.blogspot.com/
"you couldn't make it up!"	http://bovingtonycmitup.blogspot.com/
"a grumpy old man in Spain"	http://grumpybobbov.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Expressions"	http://spanishsayingsbovington.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Art"	http://bovingtonspanishart.blogspot.com/
"Books About Spain"	http://bovingtonbooks.blogspot.com/