'The miraculous amplification that comes from the wooden enclosures of stringed instruments is the result of materials not usually found in a reclamation yard,' wrote Pascal Wyse in the Guardian, 'and violin-maker Rob Cain's admirable desire to stick to the scrap brief was tested to destruction - a source for a bit of Dragon's Den tension in the show.'
 
This performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture by the 'Scrapheap Orchestra' which was shown on BBC4 over the Christmas break took place at the Royal Albert Hall in July last year. It was played using instruments made from scrap and discarded items by eleven British instrument makers, played by members of the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Charles Hazlewood.
 
Wyse continues:
 
According to maker Ben Hebbert, the situation for the larger instruments such as cellos and basses was even worse: "They're big, so the scrap possibilities are limited: if you find something that's really going to work, it will probably be unique. The fun one was the cello made out of a Land Rover fuel tank. On the first rehearsal it sounded like a hornet trapped in a jam jar, but we cut bits away and adjusted. It's ended up as a beautifully playable instrument - but we're struggling to get up to even half the volume of the traditional instrument. It has great resonance if you kick it, but if you bow it, it doesn't. We were depending on its kickability as a measure of how musical it would be. It's really informing of the evolution of these instruments and why it is, in 400 years or so, we haven't really changed them." He is most proud of a zinc bathtub double bass, which he says really sings out. Not wanting to destroy the tub, he has designed the instrument so it can just be lashed together. "You can go from bath to bass in 10 minutes."
 
But why the 1812 Overture? Wright took some convincing. "I worried that it was going to sound utterly ridiculous, and that maybe there are more classically based pieces that would sound better. But I was wrong. Hearing the wind, brass and the percussion do the 1812 actually makes a much bigger impact."
 
Right up the to wire in the Albert Hall, adjustments were made. French horn bells were trimmed, flute keys were filed, and the teddy bears used as percussion beaters on the ends of sticks had to be mutilated so children in the audience wouldn't get upset seeing a bear smashing his head against a bass drum.
 
"I'm quietly confident," said Hazlewood, as the orchestra tuned up to someone blowing down a length of old waste pipe that sounded for all the world a bit like an oboe.