Bells in Liverpool

[Belgrove]

This sounds a splendid event and a glorious addition to the RLPO

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/18/benjamin-grosvenor-rlpo-review-philharmonic-hall-royal-liverpool-philharmonic-orchestra-kahchun-wong-mussorgsky-bells-kirill-gerstein-lpo-london-philharmonic-nikolaj-szeps-znaider-royal-festival-hall-seong-jin-cho-barbican

Did anybody go?

[smittims]

I wasn't there, but I was interested to see the article, thanks to your post.

Many pieces of music call for 'bells' and all too often the glockenspiel or tubular bell is resorted to as a substitute. The finale of 'Symphonie Fantastique' is an example, where the score clearly expects a deeper sound than a normal tubular bell, and Webern's op.6 no.4 comes to mind too. The truth is that real bells have several pitches which combine to make the characteristic 'bong' sound, including what is called the 'diffference tone', well imitated, I always think, by Rachmaninov in the horn parts at the climax of the third movement of his eponymous choral symphony. So Liverpool may well have found a solution.

[Pulcinella]

I think I've read that the RLPO hires/hired out its bells as it already has/had some spectacular ones, so wonder if this is a new set.

(At first I thought that this might be about Bells on Sunday coming from the Anglican cathedral; another truly impressive set.)

[Simon B]

The RLPO has had a full set of church bells for a few years now - so no, not new, although recent:

https://www.liverpoolphil.com/news/press-releases/details/royal-liverpool-philharmonic-purchases-largest-collection-of-church-bells-of-any-uk-orchestra-with-support-from-generous-donors

Hitherto it was relatively easy (if expensive) for any UK orchestra to hire C and G for the Symphonie Fantastique. Cost was usually the reason to not do so. Other pitches were more of a problem. E.g. when the BBCNOW played Shostakovich 11 at the Proms a few years ago, they had church bells for most of the required pitches but had to fall back on bass tubular bells for ?Bb as nobody had one.

Bass tubular bells are a reasonable substitute for church types, ordinary tubular bells less so. You'd have to be pretty desperate to use a glockenspiel, the dominant pitch is octaves adrift and the sound utterly feeble by comparison. The RLPO set make a particularly spectacular din - earplugs required for anyone in the immediate vicinity. The magnificently OTT Henry Wood orchestration of Debussy's Cathédrale Engloutie has never sounded remotely as impressive as it did in Liverpool a few seasons back...

[smittims]

When I said 'glockenspiel' I was thinking of Sibelius' 4th symphony, where the score simply says 'glocken'. Soem conductors interpret that as 'glockenspiel' and some use tubular bells (and sometimes both in octaves!). Teh story goes that when the Sibelius society recording was planned in 1937 Walter Legge asked old Sib. what he really wanted and he said a set of little bells, which they managed to obtain for the recording. I don't know what happened to them afterwards.