2. Film Noir: City at Night - Leonard (Lenny) Stack (World Premiere)
conducted by the organizer of the inaugural World Accordion Orchestra - Joan C. Sommers (USA)
Program notes: The programmatic idea is of a dark deserted street at night where menace lurks anywhere. The second theme announces a "floozy" sauntering in. The middle section increases in tension and violence as all sorts of mayhem occurs. Finally the main theme is recapitulated and it ends with a quiet ominousness. This music is reminiscent of the film noir movies of the late 1940's and early 1950's.
 

3. Springtime Symphony - Graham Romani
Dedicated to the B.C.A. Orchestra in memory of Matyas Seiber (1905-60)
 
I Movement: conducted by Elaine Beecham
II Movement: conducted by Ronnie Brown
III Movement: conducted by Brian Laurie
IV Movement: conducted by Elaine Beecham

Program notes: This work, which was given its world premiere performance by the National Accordion Orchestra, conducted by Francis Wright, on the occasion of the 21st CIA Coupe Mondiale held in the De Montfort Hall, Leicester, and is the first full-scale Symphony written for the medium of the Accordion Orchestra.

In the usual four-movement symphonic form, the work is an expression of the composer’s thoughts on the season of Spring. The first movement, in Sonata Form, expresses the gradual burgeoning of Spring over the earth, the bursting of the buds and flowers, and the songs of the birds and all the other signs of Nature of the coming of spring. The second movement is a slow-moving expressive elegy for the passing of Winter, while the third movement, in contrast, is a gaily rhythmic scherzo with a hint of mediaeval May songs and dances. The final movement is a paean in praise of Spring, interspersed with rustic peasant dances, and embodies fresh versions of the themes heard in the previous movements.

The Symphony is dedicated to the B.C.A. Orchestra in memory of the late Matyas Seiber (1905-60) whose tone-poem “Spring” (1937) was the first original work in symphonic idiom for the Accordion Orchestra.