Repertoire

YASUHIDE ITO: Festal Ballade (Festal Scenes)
PHILIP SPARKE: Reflections on an Old Japanese Folk Song
NIGEL CLARKE: Samurai
ISAO MATSUSHITA: TenKu-no Inori (Prayer of the Firmament)
ALFRED REED: Symphony No. 5, Sakura

Artists

Barcelona Municipal Band
Douglas Bostock, conductor

Program

Japan has more concert bands per square metre than any other country in the world. In that part of the world, passion for concert band music is overwhelming and has an impact on everyone who experiences it. We present a concert combining works by Japanese composers and works by western musicians inspired by Japanese culture and in it there is only one main protagonist – the sound of the band.Douglas Bostock spent over 20 years conducting bands and orchestras in Europe and Japan. He has a deep understanding of the music of Japan and he presents works of different styles: festive, romantic, gentle and dramatic. After WWII, Japan committed to establishing a programme of school bands all over the country. Little by little the programme grew and eventually led to professional bands being established, and the sound of the band became part of day to day life for Japanese citizens. In the last competition organised by the All Japan Band Association almost 14,000 bands took part! This modern reality demonstrates the strength of the ancient culture that features in this concert.

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