The band commenced its 2012 concert season with its annual New Year Viennese concert at the Regent Centre in Christchurch. Whether it was the mild weather for this time of year or the Andre Rieu effect a 300 plus audience filled the theatre - the best attendance for over 5 years!
The first concert after the Christmas break is always tough for the band having not played in ensemble since early December, but they launched into "Children of the Regiment", a Julius Fucik march in fine form to commence the programme. The concert featured, as you would expect a pleasant mix of Strauss and Mozart music. The band featured two of its soloists on the programme. John Starks, euphonium. played an arrangement of Schubert's "Serenade" and Peter Hartley, baritone, presented his own arrangement of a melody from a Paganini opera "Girls were made to love and kiss".
The conductor and compere for the evening was the band's resident conductor, Bill Willis. Bill was keen to point out that although we could not totally recreate the Vienna New Year concert on the 1st January at the Musikverein, Golden Hall (Wien, Austria), we had at least duplicated one piece from their concert - Johann Jnr and Josef Strauss's Pizzicato Polka.
Click the programme image on the right to see the bands complete programme for the concert.
The bands programme drew to a close with the inclusion of the ever favorite Emperor Waltz Op.437 and ending with the classic "The Blue Danube"
The "Radetsky March" - an encore by demand, bought to an end a positive start to the bands year and sent the audience home in an up tempo mood to start the year.