Festival: The Rest is Noise

Southbank Centre's The Rest is Noise festival continued its focus on politics and spirituality with Henryck Górecki's popular Third Symphony, coupled with Krzysztof Penderecki's lesser-known Violin Concerto – but it was the latter work which fared better.

The Southbank’s The Rest is Noise continues to draw the crowds, although the promise of Steve Reich himself can’t have made this concert too hard to sell. Reich’s own contribution to this evening, the culmination of a weekend of music and events entitled “Superpower”, was limited to some clapping and letting go of a microphone.

Introduced by Southbank Centre’s artistic director, Jude Kelly, this latest instalment of The Rest is Noise festival felt like one of those events that rarely finds its way into the concert diary. A packed hall witnessed one of those feats of sheer physical, intellectual and emotional energy that you are unlikely to forget.