Collaboration, that's what you need
The new Multitudes festival at the Southbank Centre brings together world-class artists, just to see what happens
Walt Whitman’s much-memed (and quite long) poem, Song of Myself, published in 1855, if you please, contains the following lines:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
I reminded myself of this (because, as is the fate of so many works that disappear into meme, I had forgotten where it was from - and in the process I realised I’ve never read the whole thing) earlier this week while reading about a new multi-arts festival to be held at Southbank Centre next year, entitled, inevitably, Multitudes.
It’s not a terrible name, as it happens, because the whole point of it, as far as I can gather, is to encourage the cross-fertilisation of artistic genres, anchored by world-class orchestras, including five of the Southbank Centre’s resident bands - Aurora, Chineke!, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, and the Philharmonia - alongside a bunch of others.
They’re collaborating with circus troupes, visual artists, electronic musicians, poets, dance and theatre companies to, they say, “dramatically reimagine the concert hall experience”, which is no bad thing.
It’s not happening for a while (it runs from April 23 to May 3 next year), but I mention it now because tickets are already on sale - and already selling - and I think it’s going to be a really exciting event.
The names involved are pretty impressive (William Kentridge, Mickalene Thomas, George the Poet, Kirill Serebrennikov, to name a few) and I kind of want to see all of it. So I think it’s worth booking ahead. Listings and links are below.
Circa x London Philharmonic Orchestra: Daphnis and Chloé
Wednesday April 23, Royal Festival Hall
The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs alongside Australia’s internationally renowned circus company, Circa. They will present a rare full-length performance of Ravel’s ‘choreographic symphony’ (effectively a ballet, but only an hour or so), Daphnis and Chloé, partnered with Circa’s daring contemporary choreography and circus.
William Kentridge x Philharmonia Orchestra: Oh To Believe In Another World
Thursday April 24, Royal Festival Hall
Two works sharing themes of freedom against totalitarianism and oppression are brought together when the Philharmonia performs Dmitri Shostakovich’s subversive Symphony No. 10 (a direct response to the death of Stalin) alongside a screening of acclaimed South African filmmaker, visual artist and activist William Kentridge’s Oh To Believe In Another World.
George the Poet x Chineke! Orchestra: R.I.S.E
Friday April 25, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Chineke! Orchestra joins forces with the renowned poet and podcaster George the Poet for a night of music, spoken word and poetry around the themes of resilience, change and identity.
Tom Morris x London Philharmonic Orchestra: Mahler 8
Saturday April 26, Royal Festival Hall
Theatre director, Tom Morris leads a creative team collaborating with the London Philharmonic to present Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8. Morris’s credits include War Horse, Dr Semmelweis and Touching The Void, and he marshalls the services of three choirs, eight ‘starry’ singers and one of the largest orchestras ever put on stage to perform the work often called the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’.
Clark x Melanie Lane x Manchester Collective: Refractions
Saturday April 26, Queen Elizabeth Hall
The innovative, shape-shifting Manchester Collective ensemble join with musician and electronic music producer Clark and choreographer/performer Melanie Lane for a brand-new performance work, Refractions, where dance and electronics respond to classical and contemporary repertoire.
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Mickalene Thomas x The Multi-Story Orchestra
Saturday April 26, Hayward Gallery
Peckham’s brilliant Multi-Story Orchestra performs in the Hayward Gallery for a unique series of shows featuring young musicians and singers as they respond to American artist Mickalene Thomas’ exhibition, All About Love. Thomas’s work celebrates female and LGBTQIA+ empowerment, challenging our definitions of beauty, sexuality, celebrity, and politics while introducing new ways of seeing the female body. The orchestra has form in dragging the presentation of classical music kicking and screaming into the 21st century, so this should be thrilling.
Kirill Serebrennikov x Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Symphony of Shadows
Sunday April 27, Royal Festival Hall
Russian theatre and film director and exiled anti-Putin dissident Kirill Serebrennikov creates a new filmic response to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Russian-British conductor Vasily Petrenko, to examine issues of freedom and resilience.
Punch Records x City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: LEGACY
Monday April 28, Royal Festival Hall
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Punch Records bring together some of the best musicians from Birmingham and the West Midlands across grime, hip hop, rap, and orchestral music. Four Birmingham-based grime artists, including Lady Leshurr, will be embedded with the CBSO for three months, creating a new collaborative work for the festival.
Sasha Waltz & Guests x London Sinfonietta: In C
Tuesday April 29 and Wednesday April 30, Queen Elizabeth Hall
London Sinfonietta and dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests present Terry Riley’s foundational 1964 minimalist work, In C (an ‘open’ composition with no specified instruments or instructions). Waltz and her dancers develop choreographic material that follows a similarly variable structure, designed not to be fixed.
Huang Ruo x BBC Concert Orchestra: City of Floating Sounds
Wednesday April 30, Royal Festival Hall
I’m slightly conflicted about this one, since I HATE it when people play music aloud out of their phones, but you have to in order to make this work, becoming part of a moving orchestra as you journey through London, crossing paths with other audience members to build up layers of sound from strands played on phones (from a bespoke app), culminating in hearing the full orchestra play the culmination of the piece live in the Royal Festival Hall. The path taken and who is met on the journey can all change what audiences hear, re-creating the symphony itself through various movements of the audience, meaning no two performances are the same.
Frantic Assembly x Aurora Orchestra: Carnival
Saturday May 3, Queen Elizabeth Hall
My fave, Aurora Orchestra, who do everything from memory, collaborates with award-winning physical theatre specialists Frantic Assembly for a new, dynamic staging of Saint-Saëns’ vibrant introduction to orchestral instruments, The Carnival of the Animals, with movement, design, lighting and new text by Kate Wakeling. That’s followed by the world premiere of Richard Ayres' Dr Frompou’s Anatomical Study of an Orchestra, a riotous partner piece in which the instruments stage a revolt against the madcap scientist who keeps them captive and subjects them to sinister musical experiments. Sounds bonkers, should be amazing.
The latest episode of my podcast, The London Theatre Review, is out now, with reviews of Dr Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan, and Barcelona, with Emily in Paris herself, Lily Collins, alongside Money Heist star Alvaró Morte, and an interview with Six the Musical and Why Am I So Single? creators, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Find it here or wherever you usually get your podcasts, and if you like it, please do subscribe and leave us a review.