Remember flashmobs? This was the best

Remember flashmobs? This was the best

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

July 23, 2024

Ten years ago, the musicians and people of Nuremburg capture the spirit of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

Forty million people watched the video.

It was an innocent, trusting time.

 

 

Comments

  • Petros Linardos says:

    What happened to flashmobs?

    • Philipp Lord Chandos says:

      They were stopped by Covid and selfishness.

    • R. Kavesh says:

      The flash mob shown above, like just about all flash mobs, was a fake, a phony, and a fraud where the entire thing was a lip synch.

      • norman lebrecht says:

        Your evidence?

        • R. Kavesh says:

          Just watch the thing. The mouths frequently don’t align with the text ad the sound quality is way too polished for a “spontaneous” outdoor gathering.

          • Susan Bradley says:

            Perhaps you would like to give us a frame-by-frame description of exactly where it is wrong. I’ve just rewatched it, and I see no mouths not ‘aligning’. Even the child playing recorder at the start is using correct fingering.

      • Petros Linardos says:

        In that is the case, this looks like a hell of a complicated production.

        • R. Kavesh says:

          It is and was. First they recorded it with orchestra and chorus under studio conditions, then they had to teach the crowd the words, and then they filmed it with performers playing to a pre-recorded soundtrack. But if you take a close look, the string bowings in particular don’t match what is being played and people’s lip movements aren’t matching the text. Only thing worse than fake news is when people believe it.

      • Hmus says:

        I personally witnessed two such events by the Opera Co of Philadelphia – they were not faked.

        Of course that was before certain political interests decided to poison the internet to divide-and-conquer… oh never mind.

        “…What made the fatuous sunbeams toil at alll to break earth’s silence…”

      • Peggy says:

        I feel so sorry for you.

  • Philipp Lord Chandos says:

    And what has become of the world ever since?

  • Guest Conductor says:

    Perhaps not the finest performance however it was a fantastic display of the human spirit.

  • MOST READ TODAY: