I will never forget the joyous cheer from the full-to-capacity Royal Albert Hall audience after the Aurora Orchestra finished Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor (in its 200th anniversary year) at the 2024 BBC Proms: we performed the entire work from memory under the baton of Nicholas Collon alongside 110 members of the National Youth Choir, 18 BBC Singers, and the soloists Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano), Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), Brenden Gunnell (tenor) and Christopher Purves (baritone); the singers also embellished parts of Friedrich Schiller’s celebrated text, Ode to Joy, using British Sign Language (BSL).

Our #BeethovensNinthUnwrapped is now on @BBCiPlayer! Watch our exploration of Beethoven's final symphony with @nicholascollon and actors @rhiannon1may and @ThomasSimper, before we perform the whole piece from memory with @natyouthchoir and @BBCSingers.
https://t.co/n6teEOjXJh pic.twitter.com/DYK1FHx3YH

— Aurora Orchestra (@auroraorchestra) August 30, 2024

After over an hour of zen-like focus I was roused by the enormous cheer; my gaze broadened to take in the standing ovation from this 6,000-strong audience: I felt my eyes welling up. I stood there alongside my trumpet colleagues, Sam Kinrade (2nd trumpet) and Adam Wood (bumper), and absorbed this moment of sheer joy—an apt emotion for this particular symphony. My thoughts were briefly drawn to the contrast between this ovation and the near silence that followed Beethoven 7 when we performed it in that uniquely quiet Proms season of 2020. Those thoughts soon dissipated and were replaced with feelings of pride, achievement, and relief.

'As an explosion of joy and expression of humanity, this performance at the Royal Albert Hall of the composer’s last complete symphony couldn’t be bettered'

Rebecca Franks, The Times, ★★★★★

This project has been mooted as Aurora’s toughest memorisation challenge to date; even those who performed The Rite of Spring at the Proms last year seemed to agree that Beethoven 9 was an even taller order from a memorisation perspective. Personally, I felt the relief of two huge projects in that moment of elation: as well as learning Beethoven 9 from memory, I also recently launched my self-published book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet. That seemingly endless task had taken up so much of my time and energy over the past 7 years and it was only at the rousing ovation, after performing Beethoven 9 from memory, that it finally hit home that I had crossed the finishing line with that project as well.

One of the hallmarks of an Aurora Prom is their now almost-trademark ‘presentation’ of the work: on this occasion conductor Nicholas Collon guided the audience through many musical aspects of the symphony, with a fluidly adaptable orchestra at his disposal. He even borrowed eight members of the BBC Singers to demonstrate each degree of the major scale in solfège (complete with hand signs). Nicholas Collon delivered this insightful presentation at a perfect pace and with flawless memory recall, charisma, humour, and well-judged (ad-libbed) banter: it was a pleasure to witness this master at work.

Thanks to the vision of their creative director and principal flautist, Jane Mitchell, an Aurora Orchestra performance, especially one at the BBC Proms, is often imbued with added meaning, narrative, and context, and this was no exception. In this case, the theme of hearing loss was explored with interpretations from Beethoven’s heavily one-sided conversation books. These captivating scenes were interspersed with musical commentary. The staged elements, directed by James Bonas, were brought to life by actors Rhiannon May and Tom Simper who delivered their lines with perfect timing, while simultaneously communicating in British Sign Language. Additional BSL interpretation was provided by Kate Green. (Incidentally, Kate used to work for Aurora and she left to pursue her passion for BSL, so this was a wonderful collision of worlds!) As ever, the presentation was full of significance and interest, and it demonstrated the gargantuan effort from all concerned: Bravo Jane and team.

‘Mitchell has truly found a gold-mine in Beethoven’s Konversationshefte (Conversation Books), now available in English translation. In these note-books, Beethoven would require people to write down what they wanted to say to him. These one-sided conversations were used to bring the story of the evolution of the work to life. It was told vividly and entertainingly by actors Rhiannon May and Tom Simper and by conductor Nicholas Collon. And whereas such exegeses can run many risks in a concert setting, this one kept its momentum and interest going throughout. It just felt right and definitely didn’t overstay its welcome. Mitchell and Collon have found all kinds of clever ways to use the music, the actors, the musicians, members of the BBC Singers, and indeed us in the audience, to tell the story’

Sebastian Scotney, The Arts Desk

There were many brilliant unplanned moments along the way too: my favourite was one of kinetic dynamics where all of the first violinists spontaneously huddled into the centre of their invisible desks for a rhetorically quieter phrase (in bar 505 of the fourth movement, for anyone playing along at home) before expanding back out for a stronger iteration within the same phrase. It was also brilliant to watch and listen to trumpeter (and fellow Manxman), Sam Kinrade, playing the notorious B-flat second trumpet part with such great aplomb in the alla Marcia section.

In addition to the performance at the BBC Proms on Wednesday 21 August 2024 we also had the pleasure of performing the presentation and symphony at Saffron Hall on Sunday 18 August 2024. The audience reaction at this packed-out venue in Essex was similar to that at the Proms, with an immediate standing ovation—some even waved handkerchiefs in the air in homage to the story of Beethoven’s 1824 premiere (which was mentioned in the presentation).

This was a major project in the 2024 diary and it felt like the watershed ‘end of an era’ for my book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet. I enjoyed every part of this Aurora Orchestra project and felt very lucky to brush shoulders with such incredible players and singers, making new friends and acquaintances along the way (my sister always says: ‘You’re with your people!’ when I play with Aurora). It is also always a pleasure to play for Nicholas Collon who is such an amiable conductor, and nothing short of a genius. He is passionate about Beethoven and that really shows. I can now allow the memorised music to slip from my mind, but I'll never forget this wonderful experience.