Review: CLASSICAL MIXTAPE: A LIVE TAKEOVER, Southbank Centre

Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover is part of the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary programme. Aimed at the under-30s audience, who are underrepresented at the venue, the event offered a casual, relaxed and social approach to classical music.

All the Southbank Centre's six resident orchestras were in attendance. The London Philharmonic (conducted by Edward Gardner) and the Philharmonia (conducted by Marin Alsop), bookended the night in the Royal Festival Hall, where the stalls were at capacity from the start.

Royal Festival Hall compere Vogue Williams introduced the event, promising an evening where you could dip in and out of sets at will, which would have offered an innovative and unique experience to first-timers and classical devotees alike.

Audience members were invited to explore the other venues to curate their own classical mixtape from the evening, although in practice this fell down somewhat because of overcrowding, lack of organisation and small venues quickly becoming full.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, who play early music on instruments of the period, elected to perform as a ten-piece 'oompah' band. Quirky and entertaining, yes, set in the main foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and even prompting a singsong from The Sound of Music.

Over in the Clore Ballroom, where many events take place unticketed during the Southbank Centre's regular programme, the Chineke! Orchestra were dotted around the space on platforms, allowing the audience to get close up to the conductor and musicians.

However, it proved impossible to visit the Aurora Orchestra in the Purcell Room due to overcapacity and large queues, leaving a question of why the larger Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium was not in use. A lack of signage and crowd control caused problems early on in the foyer, which was unfortunate.

The same issues came into play for the London Sinfonietta, which performed in the former storage space in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Undercroft. As this went to capacity very quickly, leaving those interested to queue up to 20 minutes in the pouring rain, it made that 'make your own mixtape' philosophy questionable.

Knowing the Southbank Centre well, I was left feeling that other spaces might have been brought into play in the Royal Festival Hall - the level 5 cocktail bar, the level 1 foyer, even the St Paul's Roof Pavilion. Perhaps even the Hayward Gallery, although that depends on running exhibitions.

The music we heard was, of course, accomplished and professional, from portions of "Beethoven's 5th" and Howard Shore's "Lord of the Rings suite" to the familiar sections of Holst's "The Planets". Very much "classical light" and might have allowed smaller configurations of the orchestras to offer something very different.

The Southbank Centre's orchestras are each well worth seeing, but for some, Classical Mixtape would have proved frustrating. I spoke to some other paying attendees who expressed concern with the lack of organisation across the evening. In my view, the event was over-subscribed and would have benefited from clearer signage, better crowd control within the Queen Elizabeth Hall complex, and more consideration for the fact that an outside space was involved during winter.

The use of the PA system might have been helpful for information and routing, particularly after the first Royal Festival Hall set, although the ushers did their best in that space to direct people in different directions.

It would have been helpful to newcomers to have a bit of information about each venue, including how to get to it, especially for an unfamiliar venue like the Undercroft. However, given the target audience who may be more used to busy spaces, this may have been a successful and approachable event for them.

The venue solicited feedback via QR codes on the wristbands we were given. I left rather frustrated with the lost potential and certainly disappointed, but I applaud the Southbank Centre for trying something different, immersive, and provoking.

Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover took place across the Southbank Centre on 5 February

Photo credits: Jake Davis, Hildegard Titus.