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Blenheim Palace On Song
Canegreen managed the sound over the four nights at the first Blenheim Music Festival this summer. The historic Palace hosted Katie Melua and Jamie Cullum, Van Morrison, The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and Barry Manilow over four nights, with audiences filling the Palace courtyard on each night.
The festival’s production manager Pete Edmonds had to be ever conscious of the environmentally sensitive setting throughout the installation of a full concert technical production and temporary seating, especially as the Duke of Marlborough still resides in the Palace. With a strict noise limit (of 55dB) imposed by the licensing conditions at the nearest residence, located 500 metres from the event, Pete had two of the UK’s leading PA exponents on site, in the form of Canegreen’s Andrew Frengley and Pete Hughes.
Canegreen installed a Meyer line-array system to help them manage the sound distribution and achieve good acoustic reproduction. For Canegreen Director Andrew Frengley, the main challenge over the weekend came on the Saturday show with the London Symphony Orchestra and the characters of the West End musical ‘The Rat Pack’.
The London Symphony Orchestra has just begun a year of celebrations to mark their centenary, and this concert at Blenheim Palace was their first outdoor performance for over five years. LSO leader Carmine Lauri and administrator Sue Mallet (responsible for managing the technical and personal welfare of the orchestra) approached the show with a considerable amount of trepidation, as Sue explained: “We had some unfortunate experiences, getting terrible sounds at outdoor concerts in years gone by. Andrew Frengley of Canegreen was super, reassuring us in advance and, more importantly, coming through with a great sound on the night. We were extremely happy with the results and sounded just like the LSO should sound.”
The LSO’s first half, with conductor Dirk Brosse, featured music from Hollywood films and brought some movie magic to the Palace Courtyard. The second half of the show, conducted by Mathew Freeman, saw the LSO backing the main characters of the West End musical ‘The Rat Pack’ with a set filled with classic songs that the audience loved.
In picture: Canegreen’s Andrew Frengley and Pete Edmunds at Blenheim Palace.
12th July 2004
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