Regardless of whom you may have been thinking about, there is an ensemble really called "The Really Terrible Orchestra" - and they give concerts.  You could even go.  If you wanted it to be Really Terrible, of course.

Some discussion about this phenomenon appears in the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/11/01/bmmcall101.xml

What do you think?  Would you perform in such an orchestra? Why do its players do so?  Is this about "music", or is it more a social phenomenon?

The answer to 'why play in it?' probably makes more sense than 'why go to its concerts?'. Learning how a piece of art works from the inside is always a valuable experience, and the orchestra was founded for its players rather than an audience; even if they make an imperfect hash of a piece, they'll have had a valuable insight into just how it alll fits together from the inside: a much more worthwhile exercise in musical analysis than some of the vapid dissection one hears from certain sources in Discovering Music.

 One might ask the same questions about an amateur dramatic or operatic society: the function is partially social, but there's also a personal challenge involved for the performers, both individually and collectively. In these days where much of our entertainment is on tap, though glossy but vacuous, there is a place perhaps for something far less polished, but real. Technical inexperience doesn't necessarily totally preclude interpretative insight either: the earliest recordings of Le Sacre , for example, where orchestras are being audibly stretched beyond their abilities, nevertheless convey facets of the score which are all too often glossed over in performances by modern, technically perfect, ensembles who have the piece so far under their fingers that they could play it in their sleep - and for all their involvement, might as well be.

Q: Why would you go to hear a performance by the Really Terrible Orchestra?
A: So you know which players not to book for your own concerts.


And as for playing in it....  well i can't speak for playing in the RTO, but some sort of parallel applies to my local orchestra.  I often get grumpy about it never being good enough and never improving.  But I still play in it.

Why?  Well, one of the reasons is that it's actually still one of the better amateur ones in the region I live in.  The other main reason is that rehearsals are not religiously every week, and tend to be just over a few weekends before performance.

Tommo

I've always thought it sounded like a bit of fun so I'd probably go if I had a chance!
I understand Alexander McCall Smith plays in it as there is an interview with him about it in a recent BBC music magazine.

Yes, I'd certainly go to hear them (and the Edinburgh one) if I could. It would just be so very funny.