The Bernstein Project - Mass, Royal Festival Hall | reviews, news & interviews
The Bernstein Project - Mass, Royal Festival Hall
The Bernstein Project - Mass, Royal Festival Hall
Total artwork, nine months in the making: 500 mostly amateurs rock Lenny's masterpiece
Monday, 12 July 2010
Marin Alsop and the electric guitars, tip of the 500-strong iceberg in Bernstein's 'Mass'Sam Peach
It's been quite a week for youth and the vernacular in the world of so-called “classical” music. Multiply by four the seven fledgling stage animals currently firing up John Adams’s “earthquake-romance” in London's East End, add an orchestra of 13-to-24-year-olds from four continents, student dancers, amateur choirs young and old and just a handful of professionals, and that's only the starting-point for this hair-raising, goosebump-inducing, 500-strong performance of what many of us believe to be Bernstein's most cohesive masterpiece.
It's been quite a week for youth and the vernacular in the world of so-called “classical” music. Multiply by four the seven fledgling stage animals currently firing up John Adams’s “earthquake-romance” in London's East End, add an orchestra of 13-to-24-year-olds from four continents, student dancers, amateur choirs young and old and just a handful of professionals, and that's only the starting-point for this hair-raising, goosebump-inducing, 500-strong performance of what many of us believe to be Bernstein's most cohesive masterpiece.
Share this article
Add comment
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Classical music
Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Chauhan, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - from grief to peace
Anna Clyne, Shostakovich and Richard Strauss tell us about loss, struggle and healing
Bach Brandenburg Concertos, OAE, QEH review - forever young
Zest, dash and fun in rejuvenated favourites
First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertos
On ignoring the composer's 'Basta, basta!' above the part for the original soloist
Andrej Power, LSO, Mäkelä, Barbican review - singing, shrieking rites of darkness and light
Radical masterpieces by Sibelius and Stravinsky have never sounded more extraordinary
Mailley-Smith, Piccadilly Sinfonietta, St Mary-le-Strand review - music in a resurgent venue
Neglected London church now the home of a vibrant concert series
Classical CDs: Mandolins, multiphonics and multiple pianos
Classical horn concertos, a Gallic record label celebrated and Seventies pop meets the French baroque
Kolesnikov, Hallé, Elts, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - the dude who dazzles
Fun French music forms a foil to naked, virtuoso pianism
Fauré Centenary Concert 5, Wigmore Hall review - a final flight
The master of levitation in transcendent performances from Steven Isserlis and friends
Ohlsson, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - grace and power in Brahms
A time-travelling journey through the Austro-German Romantic tradition
Fauré Centenary Concert 1, Wigmore Hall review - Isserlis and friends soar
Saint-Saëns is no also-ran in the opening event of a wondrous homage
'His ideal worlds embraced me with their light and love': violinist Irène Duval on the music of Fauré
On the centenary of the great French composer's death, a fine interpreter pays homage
Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, La Nuova Musica, Bates, Wigmore Hall review - thrilling Handel at full throttle
Vibrant rendering filled with passion and delight
Comments
...
...