RTO was delighted to receive the following (genuine!) reviews following our return to the Fringe in August 2022 with our new conductor Count Michael Von Graham!
Amidst the splendour of world class ensemble up the road in the Usher Hall came The Really Terrible Orchestra making, indeed, a truly joyful noise (the venue was St Cuthbert´s) best described as awesome cacophony. These players happily admit that they failed Grade 3 in their youth and have not, in truth, progressed a great deal further. The music making, interspersed by seriously bad jokes from their conductor Michael Graham and a touching speech from their founder Alexander McCall Smith, concentrated – at times mercifully – on short pieces ranging from Beethoven to Sondheim via Haydn enhanced by kazoo.
But eloquence, sonority, rigorous precision is hardly the point here. Hilarity is. And they pitch it just right, despite pitch being a considerable challenge. Many orchestras would kill for the happy diversity of the cheering audience – from the 107yr-old to whom we sang birthday greetings, to the lusty howling along of babies in a carry cots.
As finale, we sang along to Abba and `Thank you for the Musi’c. Put your hands together for this lot. Long may they make us smile.
Mary Miller
‘How can one follow such an explosion of delight – the RTO’s superhuman, multifarious presentation shone beyond words – truly a remarkable improvement to your vital scores, each one an enlightening new Work of Art, a wonderment in the making, indeed a glowing memory… the scope was never-ending, I remain transfixed with joy.
Thank you, thank you, unique and glorious RTO.
Lorraine
