Vienna comes to Bournemouth

BCB saw in the New Year performing its Viennese concert at The Regent Centre Christchurch for the 18th year running.

On a very wet and windy afternoon a sizable audience came to hear the music of Vienna as performed by BCB.
The band kicked off with the Florentiner march and soon had the audience chuckling as one cornet player played a wrong note (deliberate?) causing the conductor to look at him sternly and serveral members pointing to him! If anyone has heard the Mnozil Brass version of this march, they will understand the lighter side of this. The 'cuprit' was John Bailey and he was let off, as 3 days before the concert he got married to his fiance, Sarah. The concert featured 2 premiere performances especially written for the event, Schubert's Grand March Heroique arranged by Peter Hartley and the Mozart Overture - Idomeneo arranged by the conductor Bill Willis. Both pieces were well received by the audience. Lehar's Gold & Siver waltz had the audience swaying to the music before 2 polkas acknowledging Eastern Europe, the Hugarian and Czech polkas followed. To finish the first half the band played Johan Stauss's Perpetuum Mobile and as the ending approached, the sections of the band took their leave, leaving only the conductor and one solitary bass player!.

Perpetuum Mobile started the second half, again with one solitary bass player, and gradually the remainder of the band returned before the finishing the piece with a trimphant ending. The Mozart Overture - The Impresario followed, plus the Strauss waltz, Morning Papers and Josef Strauss's Firebell Polka. The soloists were in fine form as Rachel Bartlett (Flugel)played Say Ye Who Borrow, Helen Kinder (Euphonium) with Papageno's Aria, and Alf Hughes playing the Rondo from Mozart's 3rd Horn Concerto. The finale was of course typical Viennese tradition, The Blue Danube, before the audience clapped their way through Strauss senior's Radetsky March bring the concert to its conclusion.

The band are an experienced unit in this form of music making, and this one of the most popular concerts at this venue, it is always well received by an appreciative audience, and this one was no exception.