The Southbank Centre's 'Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover' promised a unique evening with six world-class orchestras performing short sets, allowing audiences to roam freely. However, the event was marred by long queues and uninspired programming, leaving many attendees frustrated.
The evening began in the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Media personality Vogue Williams introduced the performance, but the six-minute excerpt felt disjointed, followed by a medley of Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings music and the finale from Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. While the orchestra played impeccably, the selections lacked musical coherence.
After the opening, audiences were expected to move between four smaller venues hosting other orchestras. However, the Royal Festival Hall's 2,700 attendees were released simultaneously into spaces with insufficient capacity, causing bottlenecks. Many spent the evening queuing rather than listening, with friends meeting in lines and asking if anyone had actually heard any music.
When performances were accessible, results varied. The Chineke! Junior Orchestra played Margaret Bonds' Montgomery Variations in the Clore Ballroom, but young performers seemed uncomfortable. The London Sinfonietta's Steve Reich extracts in the undercroft were hypnotic, though space was limited. The Aurora Orchestra's Mahler-inspired adventure in the Purcell Room was nearly impossible to access due to queues.
In contrast, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment entertained foyer crowds with a Sound of Music medley in Bavarian attire, using beer glasses as percussion. The Barbican's Sound Unbound festival demonstrated that classical music in bite-size chunks can work, but the Southbank's event suffered from poor logistics and a lack of smaller ensembles in public spaces.
