Orchestra of the Passos Manuel Garden Salon of the Coliseum of Porto
I-Tunes:
“…The so-called “salon music” was always considered a repertoire destined to amuse, to create a care-free atmosphere of well-being; but all of this was based on a sense of good taste that must never be undervalued.
It is in no way a minor art, but rather a music which fulfills a determined objective and fills a particular space in people’s daily lives.
In this way, the work of the Orchestra of the Passos Manuel Garden Salon of the Coliseum of Porto can never be thought of as a retreat or even an attempt of recuperating something on the way to extinction. On the contrary, it points the way to a certain good taste that is fundamental and should never be lost, present in some unpretentious music. This music will obviously evolve, transform, and renew itself with the passing of time, but always within the principles connected to the defense of a value extremely threatened and degraded nowadays, which is called: quality of life.”
António Victorino D’Almeida
(February 2005)
Details:
Some time ago, it wasn’t necessary to wander very far though the city of Porto in order to find pairs of dancers ready to demonstrate their art of fine dancing. The center of the city was replete with spaces possessing their own private orchestras and receiving all those disposed to an afternoon of leisure.
The Passos Manuel Gardens were inaugurated on March 18, 1908, and throughout three decades were the place of refuge for Porto’s bohemian nights, for lovers of cinema (the Gardens boasted the most developed projector of the time), the music hall, and other cultural events. The Parisian gardens, which presented the greatest musical successes of the period and always created a stir throughout Europe (with the Waltz, the rag-time, the one-step, the two-step, the march, the maxi, the fox-trot, the tango...), served as the model for the Passos Manuel Gardens.
In the beginning of the 20th-Century, the city of Porto was a center of musical activity in the country and the Passos Manuel Gardens, where an important part of the life of Porto occurred, were the cultural site and meeting place of Porto society. An elegant place, with ample gardens, it offered all sorts of entertainment: a garden walk, a movie theater, a gaming hall (a space today occupied by the cinema Passos Manuel), an open air theater, kiosks, a luxurious restaurant, a business café, a concert café where an orchestra and two sextets were in permanent residence, a ball room, a night club, a band-shell, where philharmonic bands performed, and a children’s park. To be in Porto and not visit the Passos Manuel Gardens was like going to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower or going to Rome without visiting the Vatican. The space was so important to the city that it even had its own coin, which was accepted in café’s in the surrounding area.
In 1938, the Passos Manuel Gardens ceased functioning and were later demolished to provide space for a new theater: the Coliseum of Porto. Orchestras playing songs of the time passed by the Coliseum. There was music for various formations, from sextet to nonet, piano, two violins, viola, violoncello and contrabass (string sextet), and even clarinet, flute and oboe. All that remains from that time are newspaper reports, photographs, souvenirs and remnants consisting of more than 2,000 scores, which provide the basis of the orientation of today’s Orchestra of the Passos Manuel Garden Salon of the Coliseum of Porto.
In 1991, the Garden Salon Orchestra gave one special performance for the commemorations of the 50th Anniversary of the Coliseum of Porto. In 1996, with the acquisition of this performance space, the Association of Friends of the Coliseum of Porto decided to again take up this project. On November 25, 1998 the orchestra returned, performing at the inauguration of the Garden Salon of the Coliseum of Porto, and on 31 December, made their first appearance on the program “Praça da Alegria”, transmitted by Channel 1 of RTP. There they performed regularly until December 2001. On December 19, 2001 the orchestra played at the Gala commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Coliseum and since then it has performed in various cultural and recreational events in Portugal and the north of Spain.
At the end of the year 2002, the Coliseum of Porto proposed to reinvigorate the lost tradition of the dancing spaces, providing its contribution to the revitalization of the downtown area. Once a month, the nine musicians of the orchestra animate Sunday afternoons, recreating the freshness and joy of the environment of the Passos Manuel Gardens at the beginning of the 20th Century. In February 2005, the orchestra performed at the Carnival Dances of the Coliseum Micaela, in Ponta Delgada, on the occasion of the inauguration of that magnificent concert hall, after its complete restoration.
Although its name and the scores that make up its repertoire are the property of the Association of Friends of the Coliseum of Porto, which supports this project, the Orchestra of the Passos Manuel Garden Salon of the Coliseum of Porto is an autonomous endeavor - one that is unique on the Iberian Peninsula, due to its repertoire from the late 19th and early 20th-Centuries.
Association of Friends of the Coliseum of Porto
1 - NO FOOLIN’ 03’04’’
G. Buck & J. F. Hanley (Fox-Trot)
2 - WALZERTRÄUME 07’36’’
Oscar Strauss (Waltz)
3 - LA BAILARINA 02’51’’
A. Pelllottieri (Tango)
4 - NAPOLI SERENADE 04’00’’
A. D\'Ambrosio (Serenade)
5 - ROSES D'AUTOMNE 04’31’’
Pierre Arezzo (Waltz)
6 - ANONA 03’32’’
Vivian Grey (Intermezzo, Indian Two-Step)
7 - TAKE A LITTLE ONE STEP 03’10’’
Vincent Youmans (Fox-Trot)
8 - ROYALE ESPAGNE 04’54’’
Edmond Missa (Waltz)
9 - PIROUETTE 03’11’’
Herman Finck (Intermezzo)
10 - DANCING MOON 04’20’’
Georges Aubry (Dance)
11 - GRIZZLY BEAR 02’47’’
George Botsford "arr. Francis Salabert" (Rag-Time)
12 - AMERICAN LIFE 02’58’’
H. Frantzen "arr. Francis Salabert" (March & Two-Step)
13 - ELJEN A MAGYAR 03’30’’
Casabianca (Hungarian March)
Ref.: NUM 1129
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