Sheffield musician Paul Barrett has a lifelong love of Mantovani magic

That was music to the ears of one former Sheffielder who has loved the light classical music conductor, composer and arranger’s distinctive “cascading strings” sound all his life.

Paul Barrett went with his father to see Mantovani and his orchestra in Sheffield City Hall in the 1950s.

As a boy, the retired family plumber’s merchant firm boss met Mantovani’s percussionist Charles Botterill, who took Paul under his wing as his musical mentor.

He said: “I used to go once a month from the age of 12. My father took me to the station and I went on my own and got on the train and the Tube to Kenton in Middlesex.

“I used to stay with them at weekends. He used to give me lessons and became a lifelong friend.

“I met Mantovani many times. He lived in Bournemouth and I used to visit him in his bungalow, which was named after his best-seller, Greensleeves.”

One of Paul’s memorable meetings with Mantovani and his wife took place when the conductor had Alzheimer’s disease, two to three years before his death, aged 74, in 1980.

“He came down from the bedroom in a maroon silk dressing gown and sat with me in his lounge.

“He said, ‘I don’t remember you. You know Charles Botterill. Would you like to hear my latest LP?’. We sat next to each other as it played.”

Paul, who also performed as a percussionist many times on stages in Sheffield and further afield, maintained a relationship with the family after Mantovani’s death.

He suggested that he would like to get the orchestra to play again.

By this time he had moved from Sheffield to Sandbanks, near Poole in Dorset, partly for his health and partly to be near where his hero lived.

Paul said he put together a 45-piece orchestra which played its first concert tribute to Mantovani in 2008 in Poole with Paul as percussionist.

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Actress Alexandra Bastedo and broadcaster Ed Stewart compered the show.

The Magic of Mantovani Orchestra continues to perform on an annual basis.

Paul runs a website, www.mantovanimusic.com, which sells DVDs. Inquiries: 07866 315966.

The album, Mantovani and Me, will be released by the Decca record label on June 19.

It features remastered recordings from the 1950s and 60s, with new vocals from Maltese tenor, Joseph Calleja.

Songs on the new album include Moon River, Que Sera and Strangers in the Night.

Dame Vera Lynn, who turned 103 last week, recorded her iconic song The White Cliffs of Dover with Mantovani’s orchestra foe Decca in 1942, on her 25th birthday.