When you think of an orchestra, what comes to your mind?
If you’re anything like us, you’re probably either picturing a high school music class or a relatively stuffy performance in a giant concert hall.
For others, however, orchestral performances are the height of music and composition—and we have to say, it’s pretty impressive to see so many classically trained musicians playing so well for such a huge audience. Even so, the best orchestra performances add a special twist to the tried and true formula.
And that’s definitely what the musicians in this video decided to do.
The video we’re talking about was loaded to YouTube in April 2013.
It was uploaded by the Rainer Hersch Fan Channel. For those who don’t know, Hersch is a British stand-up comedian who has performed all around the UK and in countries all over the globe.
Still, Hersch is also classically trained as a pianist and a conductor…and he works those skills into his shows as well. As such, he often leads an entire orchestra as part of his performances.
Though they all play their instruments perfectly well, there’s also always a few wrinkles added into the arrangements…
In the video we’re talking about today, Hersch conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
As the performance begins, the musicians all set into a performance from the “William Tell Overture” by Rossini. When it begins, Hersch and the orchestra do all the standard things you’d expect an orchestra to do, and they sound great.
But before long, things get a bit strange. First, Hersch adds in a strange horn cue where it shouldn’t be… and then before long, his musicians are repeating bars of music and falling off beat.
After that, he does a musical cue—and the entire horn section starts playing something entirely different.
With that, he looks back at the crowd as if he has made a huge mistake…and everyone bursts out laughing!
Before he can get too off-track, Hersch starts conducting again and tries to bring the performance back. A moment later, he shouts, “Nothing!” and the violins start playing near silently.
After that, he tells them to play as loud as they can! Next, he makes the clarinet players stand and even transitions to a random person typewriting in the middle of everything.
As if that weren’t enough, he has the violin players pluck their strings in synchronicity with him juggling!
After seeing all this unfold, the whole audience busts out in applause.
Next, he has the violinists “cough” out a rhythm section with proper notation and everything. By now, the audience is cracking up and everyone’s on the same page about what the performance is supposed to be.
Halfway through, he even starts a set talking about how different orchestras arrange themselves that has the crowd roaring—but we’ll leave it to viewers to discover that on their own!
Since the video was uploaded, it has been viewed nearly 12 million times!
Needless to say, Hersch’s creative comedy is definitely appreciated.
While orchestra performances are impressive all on their own, Hersch’s unique performance brings together all kinds of different ideas and disciplines to make something truly hilarious and original! If we ever saw this live, we would definitely be back again and again.
Congratulations to Rainer Hersch and the Philharmonic Orchestra! Be sure to watch the whole clip in the link below:
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