A rare view from arguably the best seat in the house. For May’s UO Playback, we bring you a photograph of the newly enlarged Ulster Orchestra in rehearsal in 1981, with Principal Conductor Bryden (‘Jack’) Thomson in full flow.

A special May Day concert in 1981 heralded a new chapter in the orchestra’s history, as it evolved into an augmented group of 55 players following a merger with 18 players from the recently-disbanded BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra.

The new, independent Ulster Orchestra Society was established in 1980, and the orchestra’s expansion was made possible through generous support from the Arts Council, the BBC, Belfast City Council and Gallaher, whose sponsorship also funded a series of regional concerts in towns and cities including Ballymena and Newry, as well as five performances in Derry~Londonderry in 1981-1982 alone.

The orchestra’s enlargement, with the addition of piccolo, two horns, three trombones, harp, percussion and extra strings, opened up a wider range of repertoire and significantly boosted the orchestra’s capacity to play large-scale romantic works. It was hoped this would broaden the orchestra’s appeal, and its popularity grew, with a sharp uptick in audiences attending subscription concerts in subsequent seasons.

The May Day concert featured an all-Russian romantic programme of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Borodin’s Polovotsian Dances, and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, with soloist Dmitri Alexeev. The concert was broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday 3 May 1981.

May 1981 also saw further success for the orchestra as it topped the classical charts with its Chandos recording of Hamilton Harty’s An Irish Symphony (Spotify link).

Were you in the audience back in 1981, or did you dash out to buy the record? Keep sharing your memories with us – we love to hear them!

Images courtesy of David Byers.