ITALY

Lorenzo della Fonte, my colleague on the conducting team, said “e miracolo” - a miracle of an island, Procida, with only 10,000 inhabitants, and an excellent wind band of about 50, inspired by a conductor of great charisma and musicianship, Francesco Trio.


  • Personaggi e interpreti:
  • L’isoletta: Procida
  • La banda: Banda Musicale di Procida
  • Il direttore: Francesco Trio
  • Il comandante in capo: Tim Reynish
  • La musica:
  • Holst: First Suite
  • Woolfenden: Illyrian Dances
  • Bridge: Pageant of London (1911 – prima esecuzione italiana)
  • Holst: Marching Song (1908 – prima esecuzione italiana)
  • Gli ammiragli: fate un po’ voi

Grazie a tutti, ragazzi.

Lorenzo broke into purple prose on Facebook

NEWS FROM island in the middle of our beautiful Tyrrhenian Sea has an island. island is unpretentious, modest and hard-working, a little 'caught in the middle of two older sisters and famous, a little proud. A kind of Cinderella, in fact. Sometimes the sea gets angry, and pain for everyone, big and small, because the sea always commands. But for most of the time there shines the sun and we grow lemons. islet there is a band. But a true though, that knows how to do part of the tradition but also avant-garde, and knows how to do it well, for several years, with young musicians and prepared, a good director responsible and intelligent. During the past week the sea was very angry …to the islet had come a great teacher. Or rather, it would come two (of teachers, not of great masters), but the second one does not talk about it because it goes for years and is nothing new. So the band played, once again, new music, carried by that great, that must have been great for strength because from the distant Great - exactly - Britain: another island, that, waaay bigger, despite what someone writes like Bill Bryson (the title up there.) Music is very important that, in many years since it was written, no one had ever played in Italy, not only on the two largest islands and disdainful, but also on the whole mainland, where the band will continue to run over hill and dale, led by directors whose thinking is often only to finish first in many music competitions, controlled and visited by large and powerful admirals. Suffice it to say that the three days on the island were magical, great music-making, great hospitality with wonderful food and wine, a marvellous glimpse of the world of the town bands in Italy, thousands of them playing for church processions, festivals, parties. What a great tradition.