It’s one thing for an orchestra to return to the classics in their isolation – we’ve seen wonderful performances of Swan Lake, Ravel’s Boléro and the Enigma Variations.
But it’s a whole new ball game to learn and perform an entirely new work having never once played it with your fellow musicians.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra partnered with Spitfire Audio to create a video performing a brand new work by Paul Thomson from their individual homes in lockdown.
Thomson sent sheet music for his composition Final Flight to all 71 of the players, along with a visual conductor score and metronome click to keep in time, while they recorded on their phones. Engineer Jake Jackson mixed and knitted all of the clips together.
Other orchestras including the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic and the English National Ballet’s Philharmonic have also released videos playing music from lockdown. You can watch a collection of them here.
