The beginning of the symphonic season is full of musical emotions
Some 1,400 people were treated to a magical concert held at the International Auditorium, when the Torrevieja Symphony Orchestra performed under the direction of maestro José Francisco Sánchez. The programme featured musical compositions and illustrations created for cinema, TV series and video games, generally in new arrangements by world-renowned composer Pedro Contreras.
Maestro Sánchez divided the programme into four blocks, each performed in succession, beginning with some examples of music from classic action films.
Antoni Jakubowski
Music critic
The main theme of the film “Exodus” was an excellent prelude that connected in a fluid and natural way with other emotional themes of this classic first part, in which we have also enjoyed fragments of: “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, with the stellar performance of the famous whistler Kurt Savoy and “The Gladiator”, with the fabulous vocalist Lucía España. Thanks to their extraordinary artistic values, the musical examples offered by our Symphony with maestro J.F. Sánchez and soloists, constitute a great attraction of similar concerts around the world.
During the last decades, film music has in many cases become so independent that some musical parts of romantic films have become solitary – those that already live a life of their own. This category includes, among others, the musical themes from films such as: “Limelight,” “Gone with the Wind,” “Farewell Hill,” “What a Wonderful World” and “The Audition; La La Land.”
The second part of this impressive evening was dedicated to video game soundtracks, the category that has come a long way from primitive bleeps and bops to epic orchestrations, being a fundamental part of the gaming experience. In this part the Symphony and maestro Sánchez offered the following examples: “The Legend of Zelda”, “The Simpsons”, “Super Mario, Bros Odyssey”, “Howl’s Moving Castle”, “Fornite” and “Game of Thrones”.
In the fourth block, the performers have dedicated themselves to interpreting music from Video Adventures. This genre was extremely popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The following titles have been presented: “Around the World with Willy Fog”, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “Once Upon a Time, Man”, “Back to the Future” and “The Neverending Story”.
In short, during the concert of the Torrevieja Symphony under the direction of maestro J.F. Sánchez, we have experienced a journey to different moments in our lives. It was a brilliant performance, where the dramatic and romantic parts were brought together in an incredibly emotional way, combining serenity and melancholy with the sonorous intensity of drama. Without a doubt, all the performances of the singer Lucía España and one of the whistler Kurt Savoy, They contributed to making the concert more attractive.
Among the many passages by the solo instrumentalists, the solos by the concertmaster and the 1st cellist brought a very significant power. It was an extremely attractive programme, in which the important part was the extraordinary symbiosis between the conductor Sánchez and the OST, giving life to a compact, well-integrated and very colourful sound.
The concert ended with a standing ovation and a fragment of “Mission Impossible” as an encore. A truly exceptional evening. CONGRATULATIONS.