There is no rule that orders or regulates this local custom like vermouth. To savor the colors. The vermouth concert included in yesterday’s party program featured the Logroño Music Band, which animated the moments preceding that other healthy custom like food. At 1:00 pm, the members of the Band filled the shell of El Espolón with instruments and music in front of an audience of various ages, although the elderly monopolized most of the municipal chairs set up for the occasion.
Under the direction of José Ángel Cabezón, ‘Mesonera de Aragón’, by maestro Monreal, received the first standing ovation from vermouth.
All this to welcome one of those songs that triumphs both in city festivals and in the instruments of the Banda Logroñesa. The pasodoble ‘Paquito El Chocolatero’, in its original version by Pascual Falcó, has led some, not too many, to surrender to the most typical dance of charangas.
And since there is no self-respecting vermouth without a sincere ‘chin-chin’, the third of the concert toasted, that of the composer Ferrer Ferrán. With two bottles, one of cava and the other of wine as improvised instruments, one of the musicians accompanied the band in the performance of “El Brindis”. After the song, the musician and the band director toasted each other and the audience. He responded to the gesture, without a glass of wine in hand, with the applause of the participants.
The fourth theme was already starting, ‘La Leyenda del Beso’, by Soutullo and Vert, and as is customary even in vermouths with children, they don’t like staying too long without doing anything. While the older ones savored the flavors of the concert, Pomper attracted the attention of the younger ones with a show of impossible soap bubbles. Next to the Espartero fountain, each of these voluminous soap shapes carried a few little ones behind them that sought their explosion right above them.
“I do not forget Spain”. “Spanish Fire”, by Randy Beck, set the tone for the musical’s fifth theme. That’s why there is no good vermouth without good wine, some came to applaud the Municipal Band of Logroño, glass in hand, but coming from the Pinchos and Wine Contest which was held all morning in El Espolón, a few meters away. from La Concha.
‘I do not forget Spain’, by Ángel Sáez Benito, was playing when the first fans appeared in the audience on a day of sunshine and blue skies, but that did not remind us of the heat of this summer. A light breeze accompanied the chords that resounded under the masterful baton of José Ángel Cabezón.
‘Estampas Riojanas’, by José Fernández Rojas put the seventh of the vermouth and ‘Gigantes y cabezudos’, by Fernández Caballero the eighth as a reminder of the walks that our giants and big heads will offer throughout the week. The vermouth concert drew to a close with ‘The Marriage of Luis Alfonso’ as an incessant flow of people crossed the promenade dedicated to General Espartero, pausing to contemplate a much loved and appreciated musical group in Logroño.
Like any self-respecting vermouth, the latter should leave a good taste in the mouth. This honor was taken yesterday by ‘Champagner Galopp’, by Hans Christian Lumbye ‘dedicated to an audience who concluded the vermouth with a standing ovation.
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