Last night The Docklands Sinfonia brought a bit of festive magic to the East End of London, to Limehouse specifically – in the magnificent St Anne’s Church.
It was a full and generous programme, with Italian music from Verdi and Respighi, the latter’s Pines of Rome complete with enchanting bird song. But the highlight was the world premiere of Lucy Pankhurst’s new work for orchestra, Ticket: 250654. This is the ticket number issued to the eight musicians hired by the White Star Line for the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Written in this centenary year as a tribute to their extraordinary bravery (all eight perished, playing their instruments until the very end), this was a kind of tone poem, depicting (it seemed) the scale and magnificence of the ship in a grand opening, to the icy chill of the freezing water. Lucy made brilliant rhythmic use of the Morse code: the Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS distress signal. She also used the number eight as an influence in the structure. It was a haunting, often beautiful but ultimately moving piece – what a privilege to be there (and indeed meet the composer). The performance ended with a moment’s silence, and then – with extraordinary timing – the church bells rang out for eight o’clock.
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