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- Malcolm Arnold
A Grand, Grand Overture (1956)
- Paterson Publications (World)
Written for the 1956 Hoffnung Music Festival
For 3 Vacuum Cleaners, 1 Floor Polisher, 4 Rifles and Orchestra
- 2(pic)222/4331/timp.2perc/org/str
- 3 vacuum cleaners, 1 floor polisher, 4 rifles
- 8 min
- 21st March 2026, Wolverhampton Grammar School, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Programme Note
Malcolm Arnold’s A Grand, Grand Overture was written for the first of the celebrated Hoffnung Concerts, held in the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 13 November 1956. Those who were involved in the performance, among them Sam Wanamaker and John Amis, have left unforgettable pictures of the rehearsals, with hard-bitten professionals helpless with laughter as they witnessed the birth of one of music’s most celebrated practical jokes. For the Overture is scored for full symphony orchestra and organ – and three vacuum cleaners, a floor polisher and four rifles, which at the climax of the piece viciously silence their heavy-breathing rivals. The work is also larded with many horrendous juxtapositions of key, and with an insanely prolonged coda – and as if all this were not enough, the main theme of the Overture is one of Arnold’s most inspired tunes ever.
© Piers Burton-Page
© Piers Burton-Page
Media
A Grand Grand Overture
Scores
Reviews
The death of Sir Malcolm Arnold last month transformed the closing concert of the Arnold Festival in Northampton, planned to mark the composer’s 85th birthday, into a celebration of his life and music.
Arnold’s A Grand, Grand Overture lived up to its title with mock-heroic gestures and a wildly protracted coda. The score requires vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, but what lifts the overture is the radiant presence of one of Arnold’s most affecting “big tunes”. [...] In tribute to Arnold’s versatility and achievement, the RPO played with passion and commitment, and the audience’s enthusiastic reception was a reminder of how this composer never lost faith in the power of communication
Arnold’s A Grand, Grand Overture lived up to its title with mock-heroic gestures and a wildly protracted coda. The score requires vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher, but what lifts the overture is the radiant presence of one of Arnold’s most affecting “big tunes”. [...] In tribute to Arnold’s versatility and achievement, the RPO played with passion and commitment, and the audience’s enthusiastic reception was a reminder of how this composer never lost faith in the power of communication
30th October 2006
Discography
The Collection: Concertos & Orchestral works
- LabelRCA
- Catalogue Number74321 883922
- LabelBandleader
- Catalogue NumberBNA 5155
- EnsembleJust Rentals Cory Band
- LabelEMI
- Catalogue NumberCMS7 63302-2
- ConductorSir Malcolm Arnold
- EnsembleMorley College Symphony Orchestra
- LabelHMV
- Catalogue Number5 72480-2
- ConductorMalcolm Arnold / Robert Irving
- EnsemblePhilharmonia Orchestra / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- LabelDecca
- Catalogue Number444 921-2
- ConductorMichael Massey
- EnsemblePhilharmonia Orchestra
- LabelConifer
- Catalogue Number75605 51240-2
- ConductorVernon Handley
- EnsembleRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra
Overtures
- LabelChandos
- Catalogue NumberCHAN10293
- ConductorRumon Gamba
- EnsembleBBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Orchestral, Brass & Piano Music
- LabelConifer Records Limited
- ConductorSir Adrian Boult / Vernon Handley / Sir Malcolm Arnold / Elgar Howarth / Mark Stephenson
- EnsembleLondon Philharmonic Orchestra / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / London Philharmonic Orchestra / BBC Concert Orchestra / Grimethorpe Colliery Band / Philip Jones Brass Ensemble / London Musici
- SoloistBenjamin Frith, piano
