The concert that took Poole Lighthouse by storm earlier last year is returning to the area.
Three decades after his death, the music of Mantovani – Orchestra king of the romantic strings – lives again.
In this groundbreaking concert at Bournemouth’s Pavilion Theatre an exciting new orchestra will recreate the majesty of Mantovani’s unique sound.
The concert, featuring many of Britain’s leading musicians and conducted by BBC Friday Night is Music Night favourite Roderick Dunk, is being staged as part of the Bournemouth 200 celebrations.
It could not be more appropriate. For conductor, arranger and virtuoso violinist Annunzio Paolo Mantovani spent his final years living happily in retirement in Bournemouth. The concert also marks the 30th anniversary of his death in April 1980 at the age of just 74.
Presented by former BBC Radio 2 broadcaster Ed `Stewpot’ Stewart, this extraordinary concert, sponsored by Poole Audi, will highlight such enduring favourites as Charmaine, Moulin Rouge and Cara Mia.
It will also see Phantom of the Opera and the themes from the Bond movies given a touch of inimitable Mantovani magic.
The evening will serve as a reminder of just how popular this Italian-born light orchestral genius was. In the 1960s Mantovani became the first recording artist to sell a mil1ion stereo records and even outsold The Beatles.
The concert is the brainchild of Poole businessman and musician Paul Barrett, whose love of the shimmering, cascading string sound of Mantovani has been a lifelong passion. A meeting with the, maestro after a concert in Sheffield when he was just 13 years old, inspired a fascination that would eventually lead to the young percussion player studying and learning to play every arrangement. A friendship with Mantovani’s Tong-serving percussionist Charles Botterill provided him with the chance to learn at the feet of the master and ultimately buy many of his original instruments.
For years Paul Barrett dreamed of playing with ‘Monty’s band’. ‘It wasn’t to be.
Now in his own retirement, he is realising the dream. Not only has he hired his own hand-picked Mantovani Orchestra with full backing from the late bandleader’s family but he will be playing every percussion part himself – This concert, which will also utilise the Pavilion’s famed Compton organ and a big screen projection, is the culmination of three years work that has already produced two critically acclaimed Mantovani concert performances, a double audio CD and a limited edition DVD.
Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre – Sunday 18th April 2010 – 7.30pm
For further information contact Paul Barrett at 01202 706937
www.bic.co.uk
