Welcome to one of the largest fan websites on the internet. Mantovani, the "Grand Master"* of light orchestra music  wanted his large string orchestra to sound as if it were playing in a cathedral. Avoiding echo chambers or electronic gadgetry of any kind, he achieved this unique majestic and elegant sound using nothing but his arrangements, orchestrations, and his amazing leadership. There were no electronically amplified strings or other instruments atypical to a large concert or recording orchestra. The orchestrations used the natural acoustics of the concert halls and recording studios. The arrangements simply achieved the absolute best from the instruments used and the talent of virtuoso musicians. Nothing "easy listening" came from Mantovani and His Orchestra. The presentations required careful listening as any dedicated fan will tell you. The delicate and poignant renderings, harmonies, and amazing counterpoints are legendary and are still appreciated by music lovers around the world. Even simple themes were dressed up to classical, concert worthy, and heart touching performances under the baton of Mantovani. This site is dedicated to perpetuating his legacy and that of the talented virtuoso musicians also responsible for the music.

Mantovani heard something in melodies that made them better and then interpreted what he heard into elegant orchestra arrangements. He made melodies sweeter and more touching than imagined even by the composer. For instance, check out this link to Strauss Blue Danube to support this opinion. You will not hear the Blue Danube played more beautifully even in Vienna.

About the opening theme: "Greensleeves" was Mantovani's favorite composition -- in fact he named his home in Bournemouth "Greensleeves." This magnificent tone poem was arranged by Ronald Binge, the developer of Mantovani's signature sound. To many Mantovani fans there may have been no more creative music collaboration than Mantovani and Binge and Greensleeves is proof.  There are many other examples such as "Charmaine" and "A Scottish Rhapsody". To hear the piece again, click here.

To hear other examples of the outstanding orchestrations by Mantovani and His Orchestra, visit the website Jukebox.

Kudos to Maestro Newgarth, Franck Leprince, Paul Barrett and those wonderful musicians. The reviews and comments are coming in. One thing certain, the genuine Mantovani Sound was real and in Poole, UK on Sunday, January 27, 2008. The concert was completely sold out for the performance by the forty-eight piece large string orchestra. To see the program and learn more about the project please visit our "Projects" page.

Dream fulfilled
By Jeremy Miles
Magic of Mantovani, Lighthouse, Poole
A PACKED house, a standing ovation from the Mantovani family. This concert was a triumph for Paul Barrett, the Poole businessman and percussionist who first dreamed of playing with the Mantovani orchestra when he was just 13 years old.
Last night, at the age of 64, his ambition came true when he walked on to the stage as part of a full-scale orchestral re-creation of the late bandleader's trademark cascading strings.

The 45-piece orchestra under leader Franck Leprince and conductor Sam Newgarth played favourites from the maestro's repertoire that included hits like Charmaine and Greensleeves and themes from films such as Moulin Rouge and The Big Country.

With introductions from co-hosts, broadcaster Ed Stewart and actress Alexander Bastedo, the audience lapped up timeless classics from the light orchestral repertoire.

As Mantovani's son Kenneth Mantovani commented after the show the achievement was "absolutely remarkable".

 

From fan Max Green:

"As the son of Jackie Greene Who was a leading Violinist in The Mantovani Orchestra (more accurately, Mantovani And His Orchestra)I was a member of the film crew at Poole Lighthouse, Wow a really great performance, congratulations to all musicians and wow the timpanist was superb. Gentlemen ENCORE! ENCORE."

From Colin MacKenzie:

MANTOVANI MAGIC AT THE LIGHTHOUSE, POOLE (UK) Paul Barrett's Mantovani Orchestra played their long awaited concert at Lighthouse, Poole's Centre For The Arts, on Sunday 27th January last. For those who have the "Mantovani Ear" the big questions were: would there be enough musicians on stage to recapture the magic of Mantovani? Had they had enough time together at rehearsal? Would conductor Sam Newgarth have the "ear" for the music? And would Paul Barrett be able to perform to the ability of his muse, the former Mantovani percussionist Charles Botterill?      As Mantovani's biographer, I perhaps more than most pondered these questions as the time drew near. I was invited to the rehearsals, but decided to stay away because I wanted to approach the concert with a completely open mind. Alan Dixon and Rich Cox, who have both contributed from time to time to this Site, were of braver stock and went along with Mr and Mrs Ken Mantovani and Peter Civil, Mantovani's former French horn player, to the final rehearsals. When I met Alan about an hour before the concert was due to start, I asked him with trepidation, "Well?" What a sense of relief I had when he replied, "They've got it, they've got the Sound!"      And indeed they had. Using six violas, six cellos and four double basses to accompany the 18 violins, the orchestra under the very capable hands of Sam Newgarth played a wonderful selection of Mantovania for at least three hours with a short interval break of 20 minutes. The overall sound was as close to Mantovani as you'd get without the maestro being present himself. But even Monty seemed to be looking down approvingly from above, for a touch of genius had ensured his presence; above the stage a large screen showed clips of his TV shows and films and still photography of the Great Man throughout the evening as the orchestra played below.      I should have known better than to worry about the credentials of this Mantovani Orchestra. After all, Paul Barrett has been a Mantovani afficiando for as long as I can remember. He was a great friend of Charles Botterill and was tutored by him. As a result, he is no mean musician himself, able to play all percussion instruments in some style. And he knows the music backwards. It has always been his ambition to present a full complement of musicians on stage to reproduce the "Mantovani Sound" and with the help of his hard working orchestra leader Franck Leprince and the conductor Sam Newgarth, MBE, plans were made to promote the concert in aid of the Musicians Benevolent Fund. A good publicity programme ensured that a capacity audience of over 1400 people were at the Lighthouse to welcome the Orchestra. It was an inspired idea to start and end with "Charmaine", for it settled everyone down immediately and also left folk with a warm contented glow as they emptied the theatre to go out into the foggy night air.      From where I was sitting, centrally, about 15 rows back, the balance between strings and brass seemed about right. Trumpeter David Bertie was in good form on "Around the World" and "Tonight" from "West Side Story" and the trombones gave him good support throughout. Occasionally the brass was a little ragged, mainly the French horn player alas, who was no Peter Civil. But this was a live concert and there is always going to be the odd "glitch", but I didn't hear too many of those. Edward Hession on accordion came well recommended by the doyen of the instrument, Jack Emblow, who has now retired from live performing. Hession was very accomplished, no doubt about it, and was in top form on the likes of "Under Paris Skies" and "I Love Paris". He gave the orchestra that extra sparkle, the extra dimension that made you exclaim in the 1950s and 60s, "hey, that's Mantovani!"     And what of the strings? For various reasons rehearsal time was limited so prior to the concert each participating musician was sent a CD-R of the original Mantovani versions of the tunes to be played. So they knew what they had to do. It was interesting to talk to guitarist Lin Flanagan in the morning as he arrived at Lighthouse. He told us that he had heard guitar and mandolin playing simultaneously on the original Mantovani recording he had been sent of "Come Back To Sorrento", which caused him a problem as he was expected to play both at the concert! After some debate with Sam Newgarth, it was decided to use mandolin; after all, said Lin, "You can't have Sorrento without mandolin!" A wise choice!      Back to the strings... to recapture the true "Mantovani Sound" you probably need to use the minimum numbers chosen by Paul and Franck. Of course, nowadays, for financial reasons, it is almost impossible to go touring with such a large orchestra. But by making use of a full complement for this one-off concert the "Sound" was achieved and a grand time was had by all. Another key factor in the evening's success was the kindness of Monty's son Kenneth who fully co-operated with Paul in so generously supplying the original scores. Without those you cannot reproduce the "Sound." In other ways Ken and his family were of great assistance, particularly in supplying photographs for the very classy concert programme which was on offer.      Vocalion Records sent down a good supply of CDs so that the fans could choose souvenirs before and after the concert, and Monty's biography was also on sale. And, of course, the principal sponsors, Bentley Hampshire, also played a full part in getting the show off the ground.

Vocalion Records sent down a good supply of CDs so that the fans could choose souvenirs before and after the concert, and Monty's biography was also on sale. And, of course, the principal sponsors, Bentley Hampshire, also played a full part in getting the show off the ground.      A full listing of what was played is given at the end of this review. There were many highlights...the rousing "Tania" got us off to a great start, this being one of Monty's most impressive compositions, full of gypsy fire and rhythms, and was followed by a soothing version of "Moulin Rouge" which was Monty's no 1 single in England in the summer of 1953. The interesting choice of the lovely Italian song "I Only Know I Love You" showed maestro Barrett using a variety of percussion instruments including the brushes. Cecil Milner's arrangement of Mantovani's "Italia Mia" was a delight and Ronnie Binge's definitive scoring of "Greensleeves" maintained our interest before a rousing version of "Granada" showed the whole orchestra at its best. A selection of tunes from around the world ensued including "Besame Mucho" and "Swedish Rhapsody" and for the Americans in the audience "Give My Regards To Broadway". This led us up to a charming interlude in which a couple in the audience were singled out. They had written to Paul asking that "Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing" be played for the commemoration of their wedding anniversary. A bouquet was present to the surprised couple, who had no inkling that their request was to be honoured (it was not shown in the programme contents), and much to their delight the orchestra played a full version of Roland Shaw's arrangement. Before the interval we enjoyed a terrific selection of Viennese bons-bons including a lovely version of "Blue Danube". Ken Mantovani then gave a welcoming address to the audience at the start of the second half after which we sat back to experience "The Stars And Stripes Forever", followed by a spine tingling version of "Stardust" and a lovely "cascading" effect on Mantovani's own "Lonely Ballerina". At rehearsal Vittorio Monti's "Czardas"  had given most trouble to the string players, but on the night it was played with great verve. Benny Carter's "Summer Night" was also reproduced with great feeling and then we enjoyed five Broadway melodies, three of them from the pen of Richard Rodgers, who was one of Mantovani's favourite popular composers. You could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium as "Some Enchanted Evening" was played. Four hits from the silver screen followed, including a stirring musical account of "You Only Live Twice", an evocative "Summer Place" and a magnificent version of the expansive "The Big Country."      The finale was one used by Mantovani in many of his concerts, the superb "Italian Fantasia" which includes such traditional airs as "O Sole Mio", "Maria, Mari!" and "Funiculi, Funicula". After a short speech of thanks from Paul a charming encore was offered as a medley, consisting of the evergreen "Autumn Leaves", "When The Lilac Blooms Again" and, of course, "Charmaine."      The thunderous applause at the concert's conclusion showed what the paying customers thought of what they had just heard.      The concert was a triumph for all those who had worked so hard to ensure that it took place. Only they know how much attention to detail went into the mix. The proceeding were compered expertly by television personality Ed Stewart and his lovely poised co-compere Alexandra Bastedo, the film and TV actress. Ken Pottle, the continuity announcer, also kept things moving along smoothly. It was good to see Mrs Vera Binge, the wife of Monty's one time arranger Ronnie, in the spotlight, and Rich Cox, who had travelled over from the West Coast of America, and Tim Milner, the nephew of Monty's chief arranger Cecil Milner, were also asked to take a bow by Ed Stewart from the stage.      Although I realise what an enormous task it must have been to bring everything to a successful conclusion, I hope that it might be repeated at a later date. In the meantime, congratulations to all for a very special night of memories.      First half - Charmaine, Tania, Moulin Rouge, I Only Know I Love You, Italia Mia, Greensleeves, Granada, Around The World, Under Paris Skies, Besame Mucho, Come Back To Sorrento, Swedish Rhapsody, Give My Regards To Broadway, Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing, Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, On The Beautiful Blue Danube, Perpetuum Mobile      Second Half - The Stars And Stripes Forever, Stardust, Lonely Ballerina, A Day In The Life of A Fool, Czardas, Summer Night, Do-Re-Mi, Some Enchanted Evening, Out of My Dreams, I Love Paris, Tonight From "West Side Story", You Only Live Twice, Moon River, Theme From A Summer Place, The Big Country, Italian Fantasia.      Encore: Autumn Leaves - When The Lilac Blooms Again - Charmaine. Colin MacKenzie.