Concert ‘John Barry – From James Bond to Eternity’ in Mallorca (Spain) – Summary
The music of the legendary John Barry was the protagonist of a concert offered on Friday, July 6th, 2018 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain). Antònia Pizà, member of the Asociación Balear Amigos de las Bandas Sonoras (ABABS) – Balearic Association of Friends of Soundtracks, tells us about that evening in this short article.
THE CONCERT
On July 6th, the Banda Municipal de Música de Palma (BMMP) – Municipal Music Band of Palma, offered a concert dedicated entirely to the music of John Barry, included in the Cicle d’estiu series that has as main stage the Bellver Castle, a circular fortification that dates from the fourteenth century, one of the few of its kind that exist in Europe and the oldest of all of them.
One more time, the Balearic Association of Friends of Soundtracks (ABABS) and the BMMP, collaborated with enormous success in a project that will continue in future dates.
Divided into seven blocks, the concert ‘John Barry: from James Bond to Eternity’, ranged from the professional beginnings of the British musician to the early 1990s, including one of his masterpieces, Dances with Wolves.
The BMMP, conducted by José Joaquín Esteve Vaquer, opened the evening with the energetic Easy Beat, which made the audience dance, in a completely sold out venue.
Joan Carles Palos was the host of the night. With his habitual loquacity, he contextualized each piece before being interpreted, doing a didactic intervention.
The first block titled ‘The beginnings’, showed the jazz qualities of the composer, when he led the formation The John Barry Seven.
‘James Bond’, the second block, included several themes from three of the productions created by Ian Fleming: From Russia with love, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice.
Zulu, Born Free, and Out of Africa, formed the block ‘Africa’, one of the most cheered blocks due to the well-known and emotional music for the film that has Meryl Streep and Robert Redford as main protagonists.
The first part of the concert ended with the block ‘Romanticism’, having one of the most beautiful compositions of the British musician, Somewhere in time, accompanied by an Indecent Proposal.
After a brief pause, Midnight Cowboy opened the block called ‘Drama’, which continued with Raise the Titanic and closed with Chaplin.
Following came the music of The Black Hole, which was part of the nearly last segment of the night entitled ‘Science-fiction’.
And thus we reached the end of the evening with the block called ‘The eternity’. Seven songs from the western Dances with Wolves, a movie directed and starred by Kevin Costner, which delighted a totally receptive audience from the beginning with the first notes played.
From these lines, ABABS publicly wants to thank Rosetta Editions for their altruistic collaboration and Sergio Hardasmal for allowing us to ‘borrow’ the title and cover of the book ‘John Barry. From James Bond to Eternity’, which he co-authored together with Luis Saavedra.
Article by Antònia Pizà (ABABS)
Photos by Joan Palos Seguí (ABABS)
