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Ecce Cor Meum Premier, Royal Albert Hall – November 2006
Sound By Design provided PA reinforcement support for the world premier of Sir Paul McCartney's classical work Ecce Cor Meum, which took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 3rd November 2006.
'Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart)' was commissioned by Magdalen College, Oxford and took nearly a decade to write. It was inspired by Sir Paul's late first wife Linda and was described by the musician as a 'labour of love'.
The first live performance featured soprano Kate Royal and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Orchestra conducted by Gavin Greenaway. They were joined by The Boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge and The Boys of Magdalen College Choir, Oxford.
Sound By Design worked in collaboration with Fleetwood Mobiles who were commissioned to record the audio for DVD. Principal Classical Engineer, Phil Wright, mixed FOH for the project using a DiGiCo D1 console, taking splits of the Fleetwood supplied mics. Our bespoke MSL-2 loudspeaker system, permanently installed in Royal Albert Hall, was utilised along with a series of surround loudspeakers for offstage string effects in one of the movements.
The brief demanded transparent reinforcement of the work, in order not to colour the recording mix, or detract from what is a wholly classical work, while delivering clear vocals and an intimacy for the audience with the smaller forces in the ensemble. The end result was well received by both Sir Paul, and Tim Summerhayes, Sound Supervisor for Fleetwood, and as a result Phil was delighted to be asked to travel to New York to mix the US Premier of the same work at Carnegie hall.
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