It's a family affair in Manchester
Post categories: Radio 3, The Genius of Mozart, Theramin
|21:07 UK Time, Wednesday, 5 January 2011
The Salford Family Orchestra
Mozart in Manchester again ... I’ve been introducing the second of a trio of lunchtime concerts the BBC Philharmonic have been giving here at New Broadcasting House. My colleague Catherine Bott will present the last one, which we broadcast on Friday - which leaves me with a slightly sad feeling, as I’ve probably just done my last ever broadcast from Studio 7. The Phil will be amongst the first to occupy the new BBC North site at Salford, which they move to in May. It’s sad to say goodbye to Oxford Road, from where I made my first ever broadcasts for Radio 3 nearly fourteen years ago. I was also presenting a Manchester news programme at the time, and earlier went to find the studio where we worked from. It’s now a store room, with a thick layer of dust covering every surface. The BBC Phil players and staff are very excited about their new home – they get a splendid new studio, with better acoustics, better backstage facilities, and rather more comfortable seating for the audience. And the Blue Peter garden on the roof.
The orchestra have been working regularly in Salford ever since the move was first announced. Two years ago it formed the Salford Family Orchestra, amateur musicians aged between 8 and 80, who either play an instrument or sing, and now have the opportunity to be mentored by the Phil’s professionals. They’ve been part of The Genius of Mozart - at the end of last year they spent a weekend creating their own take on two key works, the Jupiter Symphony and the Requiem. They even introduced a theremin into Mozart’s musical sound world - that strange, wailing electronic instrument invented nearly a century ago. Tim Steiner, animateur of the project, told the SFO he was convinced that Mozart would have made use of the theremin had it been around in his day – it is after all, just a short step from the glass harmonica.
While some of the Phil’s players were working in Salford, another group were at Cardinal Newman VIth Form College in Preston – where music students had composed a series of short new works based on themes from the Mozart catalogue. They were played by ‘Phil’s Connections’, a quartet of orchestra members who swap their acoustic instruments for electronica. Electric bass and violin, timpanist playing drum kit, and violist on accordion and electric piano. After an all-day workshop, parents, teachers and friends got to hear the pieces in an evening concert. Mozart alive, well and inspiring a new generation of musicians in Lancashire.
Back here in central Manchester, the BBC Phil have one more Mozart Lunchtime to record (Shai Wosner playing K482) for broadcast on Friday - then they turn their attention to the Requiem. Concert staff are currently arranging extra chairs for Studio 7 to seat the forces of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus. The Phil’s chief conductor designate Juanjo Mena will be on the rostrum so it promises to be an exciting performance. Its transmission next Wednesday night will follow a Requiem in a liturgical setting from New College Oxford, in the Choral Evensong slot - giving a fascinating chance to hear the same work in two very different contexts.
Trying out the theremin
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