Over the last couple of weeks, I went to see two very different but equally ambitious concerts. One was with violist Lawrence Power at the Barbican Centre in collaboration with film director Jessie Rodger (creative studio Âme,) violinist Vilde Frang, vocalist Maddie Ashman and Collegium Orchestra, the other with Julian Azkoul and United Strings of Europe at the Southbank Centre.
At the Barbican, Darkness Visible blended live performance with digital projections, aiming to create an immersive journey through the City of London at night. The programming was excellent, with music by Bach, Dowland, Mozart, and the beautiful Cassandra Miller’s Simone Weill-inspired viola concerto I Cannot Love Without Trembling - an extended lament. Time, place, and sound were being explored - the strongest effect, though, had still been the music itself.
At the Southbank, United Strings of Europe presented send back the echo, an exploration of sound, deafness, and how we listen. Featuring deaf actress Vilma Jackson, interpreting and performing music and text connected to Ludwig van Beethoven and Evelyn Glennie, the programme included works by Jessie Montgomery, Gareth Farr, and Jasmin Rodgman. Especially Glennie’s words gave shape to the entire experience, reminding the hearing audience that listening extends far beyond the ears - an emotional and deeply insightful reflection at the heart of the performance.
The concert culminated in a powerful arrangement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 for string ensemble, a work already intensely powerful and emotionally charged in its own right, and which, in the context of the programme, took on an added emotional weight and resonance for the audience.
Classical music has been pushing against tradition for decades, experimenting with format, technology, staging, collaboration, and audience experience. Whether in opera stagings, where AI is increasingly being explored as a creative tool rather than something to resist outright, or in performances that combine music with film, theatre, movement, or digital media, the art form continues to test its own boundaries.
Working within the budgets that most arts organisations actually operate on, these projects cannot compete with the scale or spectacle of a Beyoncé stadium show. Instead, they rely on imagination, ingenuity, and a willingness to think differently. And often, the results are extraordinary.
Of course, not every ambitious idea fully delivers. Live performance can never quite match the polished perfection we are now conditioned to expect from streaming platforms and online content. But that is also part of what makes these experiences so valuable and touching on many more levels. If we stay curious, keep showing up with an open mind, and allow space for experimentation (including trial and possibly some error,) then we will enjoy what it has always been about: remarkable creative thinking paired with extraordinary talent - work that is ultimately only fully understood and enjoyed when experienced together, in situ, and in the moment.
I see you out there.