Programmes

MiniClassics

The title of the new Classic Buskers' album, this new programme, concludes with one of their most ambitious arrangements ever - Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture complete with bells cannon and a startingly authentic Russian hat. Before that, the audience is treated to an enormous variety of music on highly original instruments including Bach's "Sheep may safely graze (it does!) overtures by Offenbach, Mozart and Rossini, Balkan folk music and an arrangement of Ravel's Bolero which uses sonorities unknown even to that master of orchestration.

Buskers Baroque (or Handel with Care)

As committed proponents of original instruments, The Classic Buskers have developed a new Baroque programme which has already been enthusiatically received at the Dublin and Gottingen Handel festivals and the Bath Bach festival. Bach features prominently, with arrangements of concertos Brandenburg and otherwise, movements from his orchestral suites and cantatas and a remarkable semi-staged version of "Sheep may safely graze". Handel is represented by the Water and Fireworks Music, an organ concerto or two and of course the Messiah. "Seasons" and other concertos from Vivaldi, a real Adagio by Albinoni, pieces by Purcell, Rameau and the Bach clan combine to form something very rare - a genuinely funny Baroque concert.

Opera(n)tics

Puccini's 150th anniversary year (2008) provided the inspiration for the Classic Buskers' new Opera programme. This intriguing spectacle features music from Monteverdi to Mascagni, with with arrangements in the spirit of Victor Borge and singing in the tradition of Florence Foster Jenkins. It includes overtures, choruses, entr'actes and horned helmets. Puccini's Chrysanthemums, arias from Madame Butterfly and Tosca, plus other lesser known works will appear in arrangements which would possibly have been subject to protracted litigation during the composer's lifetime.