On March 29th, the Auckland Mandolinata Orchestra and the North Shore Accordion Orchestra (both conducted by Bryan Holden) gave a joint concert in Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand.

The event featured the New Zealand premiere of “The Curiousity Waltz” by the Australian composer Robert Schulz. He originally wrote it for guitar and when he played it for his daughter and asked what she thought of it, her response was – “Curious”. So it became The Curiousity Waltz. Scultz later rewrote it for accordion and mandolin orchestra. Bryan Holden acquired this from him last year, sadly shortly before he unexpectedly died. The Mandolinata rendition of this piece featured Danielle Beston on accordion.

Other pieces on the Mandolinata program included:

“Les Jeune Debutantes”, an overture written by the Dutch composer Johannes B Kok. He specialised in mandolin orchestras, writing over 100 pieces.

“Speranze Perdute” (Lost Hope). An Italian piece by the Roman composer and mandolinist Alessandro Morelli originally for mandolin but adopted later by other instruments.

“Gorgona” a Greek song. The title literally means “The Mermaid”. This is a song of unrequited love, comparing it to unattainable desire such as loving a mermaid and how love can be beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.

“Bareback Riders!” – movement 4 of a suite written by the Australian composer Richard Charlton in 2009 called “A Day at the Circus”. This movement represents the thrill of those daredevil horse riders doing all sorts of acrobatics.

Next on the program was the North Shore Accordion Orchestra (NSAO). They began their program with:

“Palladio” – the first movement from Concerto Grosso for Strings (1995) by the Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins. Palladio was inspired by the sixteenth-century Italian architect, Andrea Palladio, whose work embodies the Renaissance celebration of harmony and order. Mr Jenkins is at this time still alive and well and in his eighties now. Another of his famous compositions is “The Armed Man” which is a mass.

Accordion soloist Jeff Hooton played and sang his own composition entitled ‘Ken and Roy’, which was a tribute to his Great Uncles Ken and Roy Hooton who were both Anzac infantry and dairy farmers from Albany in Auckland.

This was followed by “Anitra’s Dance” from Peer Gynt by E. Grieg. This is a beautiful and delicate piece which features a single dancer, Anitra of course.

Then Andre (accordion) and Josh (drums) duo entertained us with a jazz piece called “Spain”, an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea.

“Radetzky-Marsch” by Johann Strauss (senior). The Austrian people are very proud of their “Strauss’s” and this one, along with the Blue Danube, are always on the program of the New Year concert in Vienna. And the crowd always clap along under direction from the Maestro.

The audience were then treated to a combined orchestra performance of Finiculi Finicula.