All Things Orchestral, hosted by Mylene Klass, launched BST’s Hyde Park’s opening night on Friday with stunning performances by the world famous Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra assembled on the Great Oak stage.
The inclusive evening saw special guests including MILOŠ, Esther Abrami and Le Gateau Chocolat, whose colossal musical range delighted the crowd.
As families and friends settled on the grass conductor Michael England led his orchestra as musicians played diverse classical and film scores including themes to Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future.
Classics such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Richard Strauss’ Sprach Zarathustra saw father’s waltzing with toddler daughters, mothers stepping with toddler sons.
As a fierce afternoon sun shone on musicians a flute solo introduced Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Morning mood.
Milos was the first guest with a sublime adagio followed by ferocious strumming of a Spanish fandango by Boccherini.
He also played a tango by Piazzola and a 600 year-old piece the name of which Klass said was left to our imagination.
Milos and Klass were contemporaries at the Royal Academy of Music with the guitarist telling the crowd: “Myleene was one of the cool cats and I was the one who was queuing for practice rooms and having lessons.”
“I was queuing for practice rooms,” said Mylene who accused her friend of “throwing [her] under the bus”.
Esther Abrami performed beautiful pieces from her new album Cinema, including the theme to the film Chocolat and Lakme’s Flower Duet by Leo Delibes and the theme to the Hunger Games.
“It’s so nice to actually have people just chilling and having a drink and sat down, it’s how classical music should be enjoyed,” she told the crowd.
Larger than life drag queen Le Gateaux Chocolat, with a voice just as deep, entered the stage dressed in a dazzling sequin dress and wig and wished everyone “Happy Pride Hyde Park” to whoops and applause.
After demonstrating the depths of his voice, which he said was “rather like a whale”, he performed an extraordinary rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
The evening also saw the first European premiere of Laura Karpman’s All American, which celebrates female composers Mildred Hill, Emily Wood Bauer and Anita Owen.
Klass told the crowd that for a very long time in classical music women were not allowed to compose so they used pseudonyms.
Bringing Karpman on stage, she said: “You’ve just broken through the glass ceiling – I love the irony of using a kitchen sink and some pots and pans, what made you decide on that?”
Karpman responded: “Mildred Hill wrote the most famous song in the English language, Happy Birthday, so I decided we should bust her out of the kitchen and bring the kitchen along.”