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Sunday, September 24, 2017

The Music of the Night



There is nothing quite like a musical night in the cool of the evening. No matter what your musical preference, to leave the worries of the day behind and to take your leisure being entertained by your choice of musical programme, is magic.

On Saturday night, September 23rd, starting at 11pm the City of LLiria was treated to a double concert performed by two bands consisting of about 85 musicians each, presenting programmes of classical music that went on to about 3:30 am. The Bands were: La Banda Simfonica Unio Musical de LLiria, and La Ateneu Musical I D' Ensenyament Banda Primitiva De LLiria. The names of the bands are expressed in the native Valenciano dialect.

LLiria is a medium sized city that lies 26 kilometres north-west of downtown Valencia and is the seat of the government for the region. It is also the city of music as this city's bands have performed in many localities around the world to great acclaim. Every pueblo has a musical program in place into which young children are entered as a way of giving them focus as they grow. The net result is more to concentrate on means less social problems from young people.

The concert was held outside in the main City Hall (Ayuntamiento) plaza. The mere fact that it did not end until near 4am, is accepted as being perfectly OK as the city is celebrating its Autumn Festival, the Festival of St. Miguel and everybody is up and about anyway.

The musical pieces that are played tend not to be well known, rather more often than not they are written by local composers and are complex as to tax the expertise of band members. The conductor of the orchestra  Simfonica is Pablo Marqués Mestre. He was born in Castellon and has built up such a brilliant career history that he is known and respected all over Spain. He is growing his international experience as well.

The execution of the works was exquisite but challenging and we thoroughly enjoyed both the pieces. In the first half of the concert, presented by the Banda Simfonica there were two major works as follows: La Vall de la Murta in three movements, composed by Andrés Valero-Castells, followed by "Wait of the World" in three movements composed by Stephen Melillo. Both composers were in attendance for the performance of their compositions. That must be so very special, if all goes well.

The first half of the concert concluded close to 1am, but by then the temperature had fallen and it had become too damp for what we were wearing so we had to decamp home. A shame really as I'm sure the second half featuring La Banda Primitiva would have been just as interesting.

Life in Spain truly is absorbing. When the Spanish hold a Fiesta they really know how to do it right.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael