The Night Shift, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, QEH

Period orchestra successfully pursues youth vote

by Jasper ReesFriday, 16 October 2009

Short-sleeve order: Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the OAE in The Night Shift

Go on, admit it. You’ve done it too. Someone is talking in your vicinity and you’ve turned round to give them evils. It’s a manoeuvre I’ve been perfecting for years. The classic rebuke is in the speedy twist of the neck, a withering glance in the perpetrator’s general direction (but not, crucially, into their eyeballs: too confrontational) followed by the slow, affronted turn back to face the front. For one night only, the gesture says, you are singlehandedly ruining my life. I didn't pay more than I can afford to listen to you whisper through Beethoven/Shakespeare/”The Great Gig in the Sky” (yes, they can strike anywhere, any time).

The impression is of a predominantly young audience, the prized holy grail for all concert halls, actually enjoying themselves

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