A celebration of the masses: Review of Hill and Horizon – epic light show presents Elgar and Vaughan Williams | Classical music

Tthis was the song of the birds in the courtyard of Queen Elizabeth Hall. In the same hall, hanging from the ceiling, there were strings and cables displaying thousands of walnut LEDs, wrapped in large bars above the heads of the players and the front half of the audience, promising to light up the place like it was Harrods in December. This was Echoes of Hill and Horizon, an unexpected and exciting coming together of techno and English pastoral music at this year’s Multitudes festival.

Just over an hour of Vaughan Williams, Warlock and Elgar were played by Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – who don’t usually play this, but who drew on their experiences in the old music that inspired them. Their long playing, at the same time lean and pleasant, was filtered through the many speakers that make up the hidden QEH system, which sometimes interferes with the orchestral music but allows for the impressiveness of the place or the sound like a church.

All this was covered by the brilliant light that happens above us, courtesy of Squid soup. It was at its most magical in Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending: the bird represented by Kati Debretzeni’s solo violin took on the form of a small icy light with a narrow aura of red, without further ado, flying above us as each light came to life. At first we could only hear Debretzeni, his musical performance seems to come from wherever the lights lead us. Then, emerging from the darkness, they moved around the stage as the lights changed the colors of sunlight and harvest – yellow, ocher, russet – followed by green leaves and deep blue.

Some pieces were abstract, a feast of synaesthesia. Peter Warlock’s courtly Capriol Suite had indigo splodges moving as if they were fine dance steps, or little red explosions like fireworks, or a swirling turquoise ribbon. No prizes for guessing the leading version of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves. Elgar’s Serenade for Strings brought a series of paintings, Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis showers of stained glass and red. Thanks to the power of the playing and the dynamic nature of Evan Rogister’s singing, it all came together to create a spectacle that felt weightless and captivating.