DÉJÀ VU History just keeps on repeating itself…

The ‘Beast from the East’ weather front that covered much of Europe in snow in March proved a pain for the BBC Concert Orchestra, which found itself stuck in a hotel in Skegness. It was a stroke of luck, though, for Lisa and Reece Brown, who were getting married at the hotel that day – on hearing that the couple planned to have a recording of Pachelbel’s Canon at their big occasion, the BBC CO players offered to play it live instead. They are not the first musicians to have made good use of being stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time… When, back in 1917, composer Herbert Howells found himself facing a long train delay at Reading Station, he simply got his manuscript book out. By the time said train arrived three hours later, he had drafted his Puck’s Minuet, Op. 20. In 1960, meanwhile, conductor René Charrier and a friend were forced to stop off in Port Arthur, Canada, when, en route to Toronto, their car broke down. To pass the time, they had a play on a display piano at a local furniture store. Hearing them, the store’s music-loving owner started chatting to them about his dream of setting up an orchestra and persuaded them to stay around – just weeks later, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra met for its first rehearsal. Planes can be every bit as unreliable as trains and cars, as the Philadelphia Orchestra found on its flight to Macau in 2013. No worries though, as, stuck on the tarmac with no imminent hope of take-off, four of the players treated fellow passengers to a recital of Dvorˇák quartets.