"Orchestra Casanovas" closes the season with a highly successful family concert

The heart grows when the auditorium of the City Theater, filled to capacity, is flooded with such joyful energy of the young. The symphony of smiles and this incredible focus of our youngest performers and music lovers made Sunday's midday concert performed by the young Casanova Orchestra, simply one of a kind. The musical gathering was transformed into a popular, exceptionally attractive family concert, as it is not often that audiences have the opportunity to encounter music, performed in a manner and version full of spontaneous surprises.

And what kind of music did the age-diverse audience enjoy this time?

El maestro José Francisco Sánchez, director of the Casanova Orchestra, which he founded, with the participation of several local art groups, offered the public a show of sorts, inviting the following to participate; Coro UAnima and Academia ArKhome - dir.Taras Khomyak, Coro Rondo de la Escuela Coral Municipal - dir. Elena Calcino, Mery Dance Academy - dir. Mary Martinez, and Asociación Apanes Torrevieja and Masa Coral José Hodar - dir. Miguel Guerrero Serrano. The announcer was conducted in a witty manner by Maestro J.F.Sánchez together with Miguel Martinez.

The "Casanova Orchestra" under the baton of Maestro Sánchez led the audience into a wonderful musical atmosphere, solemnly opening the meeting with the Prelude to the Opera "Carmen"- by G.Bizet. Conducting the concert, they professionally led the audience through an extremely stylistically diverse maze of sounds. And so we heard in turn Vivaldi's "Spring" with the solo part of the orchestra's concertmaster, who impressed with his technique as well as expression and elegance of performance. Similarly, we can recognize the singing of the baritone soloist in the melodies of "O Sole Mio" y "Por una cabeza." The youngest children enjoyed the melody from the movie "Indiana Jones."

The charming composition of the afternoon was certainly the interpretation of the "Toy Symphony." The Orchestra's musicians, with Maestro Sanchez on the podium, conveyed the true beauty of the music sparkling with wit and clarity and acoustic effects. At the same time, we admired the talent of the young "instrumentalists," performing bird and other noises with remarkable precision and grace, using popular fairground toys as instrumentation.

In the next number, the audience had a chance to show off, because who doesn't know "La Cucaracha"? The entire hall sang along with the orchestra, accompanied by a ballet troupe of eight girls.

A surprise was the presentation of "Rondo" by W.A. Mozart in an interesting version for a garden watering hose, a funnel and a mouthpiece from a French horn. It turned out that in this way a damaged real instrument can be replaced.

The next number was "Hungarian Dance No. 5" by J. Brahms, in a version conducted by maestro J. F. Sanchez and five children at the same time. Certainly, the youngsters came to the conclusion that conducting is a simple and easy matter, and who knows if in the future they will not express a desire to "replace" the maestro.

A great piece was "Plink, Plank, Plunk," performed by the orchestra "pizzicato" without a bow, but only plucking the strings with their fingers a la guitarra.

The choirs performing "Himno a la Alegría," "Kusimama," "Siyahamba," "Soy Español," and 'Torrevieja" shone in a special way, proving the prevailing opinion in the musical world that the most beautiful instrument is the human voice. In the interpretation of the choirs, we admired exemplary intonation and great transmission of energy and joy of singing.

To sum up, the concert was extremely successful with a standing ovation and an encore. One should wish the organizers more such successful attempts to convince the young that classical music is definitely worth loving, because music in the heart and a smile on the face is really something.