Moving An Orchestra

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28792, 13 January 1959, Page 12

Moving An Orchestra

“Mabel” weighs five .tons, but the 98 menibers of the BAC. Symphony Orchestra don’t hold size and weight against the lady. In fact they Would not have her an inch smaller.. She is the pantechnicon which transports their instruments and music stands from studio to public concert hall, from town to town when they are on tour, and sometimes from country to country. In charge of “Mabel” is, the chief orchestral porter. Bill Edwards, and time rules his life as rigorously as that of any musician watching the conductor's baton. To unload Ibis valuable cargo of musical instruments—they are insured for £25,000 — takes Edwards and his assistants two and a half hours from platform to van and vice versa*, so , that when the orchestra is scheduled to give concerts in different towns in quick succession the prcbestrsl porters often have to drive all through the night after an evening concert in order to have the instruments ready for rehearsal in the next town on the following day. .. Sleepless nights are all in the normal run, and in fact when the 8.8. C. Symphony Orchestra toured Ireland in May, 1958, some bunks on the steamer had to be given up to double basses which there had been no time to load into “Mafcel,” so that the instruments could have a good night’s rest. The harp, as sensitive tq cold as any Victorian heroine, is always swathed in blankets on such journeys.