Halle Orchestra at Downton Hall

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Jeff Byard was called in to plan an outdoor event at Downton Hall, Shropshire, featuring the Halle Orchestra with a choir of 200, performing amongst other classics, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

Halle Stage

A giant dome stage over 24 metres deep was erected for the performers, with special stage risers brought in for the Halle and 200 strong choir at the back of the stage.

Technical installation for the classical concert began 2 days before the event, to ensure the multiple mic set-up could be correctly focused above the choir.

Every section of the Orchestra was carefully, and individually mic’ed, using high quality condenser microphones. The 56 microphone lines had to be each marked from stage back to the front of house mix tower 60 metres away.

Halle FOH Desks

The speaker systems were concealed left and right of the stage, tuned with a spectrum analyser to ensure the system was operating within tolerance for totally natural sound response, which is essential for classical productions.

The audience wanted to hear the orchestra and soloists, not the PA.

The awesome percussion section essential for the stirring music of the Burana included a giant 8ft diameter drum, a full set of timpani, 2 glockenspiels, 2 side drums, plus an array of other percussion instruments.

Everything had to be mic’ed, and mixed to sound natural and dynamic as the way it was intended.

The dulcet tones of local schoolchildren from Moor Park School, were heard too through the concert system.

Micing up Halle

For the operatic vocals, we chose the Schoeps MK4 microphone system, referred to as 'the classical microphone' of choice by such artists as The Three Tenors. Despite a light cross-wind on the evening, every word was heard at the back of the venue, and up to 300 metres away.

The audience were enthralled by the whole experience, which on the final reprise of the incredibly moving Burana, roused them to stand and applaud for over 3 minutes. Not a single complaint about the sound despite the less then favourable weather that night!
It is well known throughout the sound industry that classical music is the most challenging of all genres to reinforce, simply because no one actually wants to hear the PA system, people want to hear the performance. It is this simply philosophy that we are consistently striving to achieve.

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