Concert produces fireworks

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 9

Concert produces fireworks

Cascades of fireworks boomed, whizzed, and sparkled for an impressed crowd of more than 29,990 people at the Classical Sparks entertainment in North Hagley Park last evening. The explosive brilliance of the Lucifer Fireworks and Searchlight Company’s display stole the final limelight from the Tchaikovsky finale played gracefully by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

Thousands of children, who had to wait until near the end of the 90minute concert to see the fireworks, surged to one side of the stage where the fireworks were being lit beside Victoria Lake. Before the fireworks began, many children had been restless and repeated calls over the loudspeakers asked parents to claim their lost children.

Both parents and children seemed suitably stunned, however, when three controlled fireballs split with a boom above

their heads. The heat from the fire radiated across most of the audience, some of whom gasped. Spiralling skyrockets zoomed Into space through a maze of huge searchlights.

Under the baton of New Zealand’s internationally acclaimed conductor, William Southgate, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra played a Gershwin medley and works of Sibelius, Dvorak, Chabrier, Rodgers, and Coates.

As Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien” reached its crescendo, balls of light exploded into the sky as the music dazzled and impressed the audience.