From wartime dance hall to boxing arena to venue for political rallies, Belfast’s Ulster Hall has a grand and stormy history, dating back to 1862. Charles Dickens performed there; the Protestant loyalist Ian Paisley gave firebrand speeches; Led Zeppelin first performed Stairway to Heaven. Since 2009 it has been home to the Ulster Orchestra, Northern Ireland’s only professional symphony orchestra, which played throughout the Troubles of the 1970s and 80s, never cancelling a concert. Where better to stage the world premiere of a work with activist commitment embedded in its title?
Riot Symphony, composed by Conor Mitchell, was the latest collaboration between the orchestra and the edgy, multidisciplinary Belfast Ensemble, of which Mitchell is artistic director. They combined their contrasting talents to give an exhilarating first performance last weekend. Mitchell, whose caustic Abomination: A DUP Opera (2019) tackled homophobia in Northern Ireland, embraces music as a tool for protest. He has written in the programme note: “Maybe I’m drawn to [insurrection and resistance] because I come from Northern Ireland where, in my youth, everything was charged with sectarian meaning. Even the warlike drums of the Orange bands every July meant something.”
