Victoria’s Leone band rose to the occasion

The Leone Philharmonic Society of Victoria presented its band’s annual concert last Sunday at the Aurora Theatre which it owns and runs, under the direction of conductor Colin Attard.

This year’s concert included a particularly different and equally interesting genre. This varied from romantic music to jazz and more contemporary 20th century music, without anticipating or repeating what is now an annual occurrence in the Leone Goes Pop series of concerts.

The programme opened with the Toccata for Band – a 1957 composition by American composer Frank William Erickson.

It was followed by two operatic numbers; the nine-movement suite from Bizet’s Carmen and the intermezzo from Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz. The first suite evoked memories of the recently successful production of Carmen at the same Aurora Theatre. The intermezzo that followed was conducted by assistant conductor Josef Debrincat. The romantic section was rounded up with another suite – this time in three movements – from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake.

Following that, Annabelle Zammit who compered the event, introduced the contemporary part which opened with the medley A Morricone Portrait. This included music by the celebrated film music maker Ennio Morricone from the films My Name is Nobody, Metello and the song Here’s to You from Sacco e Vanzetti. It was followed by some presentations and a commemorative speech by club president Michael Caruana.

The concert came to a grand conclusion with the much-awaited An American in Paris (1928) by George Gershwin. The band rose to the occasion and performed this showpiece with zest to the sheer pleasure and admiration of the hundreds of people who graced this Gozitan opera house.