This unusual event with its unusual title offered an inspired concept and much enjoyment for the audience on Sunday evening, 9th October. The performances were held in seven different venues, with the audience travelling between the venues in three different groups led by pupil tour guides. Each group enjoyed a presentation of a short history of the venue, a musical performance and a carefully considered walk to the next venue on their unique programme carousel.
Performance spaces included both large and intimate arenas, and a few were off the beaten track. The black walls of the Fives Court were dramatically lit in subdued colours as Schola Cantorum sang Duruflé in the cathedral-like acoustic. Their second piece was Whitacre’s ‘Lux’, a piece about light, for which the singers placed the lights of their mobile phones on the floor in an otherwise pitch-black space. It was stunning, unique and magical in equal measure.
Michael Woo (S) offered Schubert’s Gb Impromptu on the piano in Crosby’s impressive library, the Chapel was host to OSJO2, and the Yarrow Gallery (with its obvious associations with the First World War) was a heart-moving setting for three war songs offered by Jack Wallace-Woodroffe (G), Coco Brown (W) and George Cobb (L), with art work by pupils hung purposefully in the background. The new SciTec building was home to a punchy number from Laxton Brass, followed by the Cripps Library hosting a Moldavian Folk number performed by a bristling ensemble of strings.
All the audience groups gathered together for the finale in the Patrick Engineering Centre where the OSJO1 performed a rousing and sonically impressive set from the Car Pit, much to the utter enjoyment of all.
Q Thomas