Brian Blackwell ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>In a documentary featuring Gardiner / ORR doing Beethoven and Berlioz,
>Gardiner admitted that the name 'Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique'
>might be a slightly pretentious name for a freelance orchestra based in
>London.

"Slightly" pretentious?

>They were formed to play early Romantic music on instruments of the
>period, and have recorded the Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos,
>the Schumann symphonies, the Faure requiem, and many more.  They play
>phenomenally well considering they're a thrown-together orchestra (I'd be
>willing to wager that the average technical standard of a London freelancer
>is higher than that of players from the big-name European orchestras).

Little surprising in this really:  British orchestral musicians hjave
long been known for their phenomenal sight-reading (partly as a result of
too few rehearsals) and the ORR surely shares a large part of the London
HIP-pool which also forms the OAE, LCP, Hanover Band, Englsih Concert etc,
etc.

Deryk Barker
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