A Few Young Cellists Began Playing in a Spanish Market Square. Then Musicians Kept Stepping Out of the Crowd

It was late on a Saturday morning, September 3, 2016, in Algemesí, a small town south of Valencia, Spain.

People were going about their weekend around the Plaça del Mercat, the town’s market square.

Then a few young cellists sat down on folding chairs, opened their music, and began to play a slow, quiet melody that sounded almost like a prayer.

Music lovers may have recognized it. It is the opening of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” which begins with an old Russian hymn.

A man in a purple shirt stepped out of the crowd and began to conduct. Saxophones joined in. Then flutes and clarinets, trumpets, trombones and euphoniums, as musicians of all ages walked out from among the shoppers carrying their instruments.

People stopped what they were doing. Children crowded in for a closer look. Phones went up all around the square.

Tchaikovsky wrote the piece in 1880 to remember how Russia fought off Napoleon’s invading army in 1812. In America, it is famous for another reason. In 1974, the Boston Pops added cannons, church bells and fireworks to its Fourth of July concert, and the overture has been part of Independence Day ever since.

There were no cannons in this market square. Instead, the drummers pounded big bass drums and timpani, and the chimes rang out as the music thundered toward its famous finish.

The musicians are the Banda Simfònica d’Algemesí, the town’s symphonic band, led by conductor Alberto Ferrer i Martínez. Three years earlier, their flash mob of Ravel’s “Boléro” in the very same square had been watched by millions around the world.

This one was a hit too. The band’s official video has now been watched more than 11 million times. And three days later, they played the full overture at a big evening concert in the town’s main square, this time with real cannons, church bells and fireworks.

Watch the faces in the crowd as the music grows. By the end, it feels like the whole town has joined the band.