Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s triumph in our World’s Favourite Orchestra poll may – at first glance – raise a few eyebrows. What is a sleepy seaside town like Bournemouth (and I was born there, so am entitled to make the claim!) doing snatching the crown from reigning champions Cleveland, a much bigger outfit? And where, I hear you cry, were the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Phil or the London Symphony Orchestra? Surely these are more entitled to claim to be among the world’s best orchestras, so why didn’t they feature strongly?
The clue is in the title. World’s Favourite Orchestra. Favourite. Not best. Even the orchestra’s most ardent fans wouldn’t suggest that – day in, day out – the orchestra can challenge the big beasts of the orchestral jungle. It is an extremely fine orchestra, led by a dynamic young Ukrainian conductor, Kirill Karabits and – on their day – they can pull off superb performances. Karabits has been focusing on Russian composers, particularly Prokofiev, in recent seasons and their performances and recordings have won widespread admiration. Previous principal conductors have brought their specialisms to bear, from Marin Alsop in American music to Paavo Berglund, peerless in Sibelius. Romanian conductor Constantin Silvestri’s recording with the BSO of Elgar’s In the South is arguably still the finest in the catalogue.
How did Bournemouth pull off this coup? I would argue that the orchestra has a strong base of loyal supporters – as many orchestras do – but that they also cover a wide area where they are quite often the only visiting professional orchestra. Despite their name, the orchestra hasn’t been based in Bournemouth for decades, relocating to Poole long before their old Winter Gardens home was razed to the ground in 2006. During the course of a typical season, however, the orchestra tours programmes to halls from Basingstoke and Portsmouth right the way down to the Southwest, to Bristol, Torquay and Exeter. In recent seasons, the BSO has also performed as pit orchestra for some Grange Park Opera. So, not just a loyal fan base, but a large loyal fan base, keen to support.
The orchestra deserves credit for promoting the campaign through social media. Twitter and Facebook pages have been busy prompting supporters to pop along and register their vote and I know that concert subscribers received an email a fortnight ago, spurring them into action. Even today, Kirill Karabits himself filmed a brief address to BSO supporters in a last-ditch appeal for votes! A well-deserved victory for Bournemouth’s team.