Spira Mirabilis

[aeolium]

I'd be interested to learn if anyone is going to see a performance by the conductorless orchestra Spira Mirabilis at Aldeburgh this weekend. I think they are giving two short concerts on Friday and Sunday:

http://www.spiramirabilis.com/en/Projects.aspx

The only other orchestra that consistently performs without a conductor that I know of is the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, but I don't think they have attempted something like the Schubert Great C major symphony, which Spira Mirabilis are performing in Italy in December.

[Serial_Apologist]

They tried it in the early days of the USSR. I don't have any details to hand, but iirc Prokofiev was pretty impressed.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

They tried it in the early days of the USSR. I don't have any details to hand, but iirc Prokofiev was pretty impressed.

Yes - "Sempifans" or something like: determined to show that Music, like society, could be run on co-operation and negotiation and didn't need some glorious star leader to tell them what to do. Didn't survive long into the Stalin era for some reason ...

[Serial_Apologist]

for some reason ...

[MrGongGong]

The Britten Sinfonia frequently perform conductorless

[Petrushka]

Surely someone has to make interpretative decisions? To quote Karajan in a similar context, you can't have a democratic vote every time there is a tempo change.

Rehearsals must last a long time...

[amateur51]

I can't imagine why orchestral players would want to play without a conductor, as they'd have no-one to blame for an indifferent performance

There again, I suppose they might get to split the conductor's fee
:

[aeolium]

On the other hand, chamber groups are used to having to work out things like tempo, phrasing etc without someone telling them how to do it (and this can extend to quite large ensembles, e.g. a wind group playing Mozart's Gran Partita). I have heard very compelling performances from the conductorless Orpheus CO, admittedly not in anything as large-scale as the Schubert 9th symphony. That's why I'd be interested to hear from anyone attending any of the Spira Mirabilis Aldeburgh performances.