About Us

About Us

The orchestra comprises some of the best period instrument specialists in the UK. They are considered to be some of the best in their field. Their performances and recordings have been described as ‘revelatory, luscious, outstanding and illuminating’.

‘Through dedication and scholarly work, the Band have gained an enviable niche for themselves within the early music movement, as being ‘one of the UK’s finest period instrument orchestras’.

Their distinguished players are committed to education work and passing on their enthusiasm and knowledge to the next generation of music lovers- they teach in the top music conservatoires in the UK – the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Guildhall and Trinity Laban.

 

“Strings are gleaming and engaged, their woodwind sublime, their brass bright and flexible, their percussion alert….

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

 

The Hanover Band

HANOVER (Not Hannover; Germany) In terms of British history the majority of the music we play is from the Hanoverian period. Hanover also refers to Hanover Square in London, where Haydn performed his symphonies and arias in the Salomon Concerts in the 1790’s.

BAND (ref: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)
‘An instrumental ensemble, larger than a chamber ensemble. Thus the ’24 violins’ of Louis XIV were called ‘la grande bande’ to distinguish them from Lully’s ‘petits violons’, and Charles II’s similar ensemble was known as ‘the King’s Band’. By extension, ‘band’ came to mean an orchestra in colloquial British usage’.

THE HANOVER BAND a period name for a period orchestra.

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