PatronBy making discipline a prime issue, the modern orchestra may have assumed a unique position in the artistic world. A hundred years ago, the most highly regarded orchestras came to be those that played with the greatest precision. Such orchestras represented a real contrast with the very loose approach to ensemble that had been the custom.
As Paul Driver wrote in the Sunday Times (13 December 1998), “I had a shock of such happiness on hearing the NQHO play Weber’s Der Freischutz overture that I felt as though this utterly individuated ensemble sound – each strand reinforcing the distinctiveness of the others, rather than mutely blending; each phrase bursting into flower rather than seeming rehearsed – was what I have been longing for all my life.”