Classical Music Re:Imagined: Parsifal - The Quest for the Grail

'Deeply Moving’
The Independent ****

'It made you feel as if you were at the centre of an Arctic gale with frost on your chin!’
The Guardian ****

Welcome. What you are about to experience is Classical Music, but not as you know it.

This is Concerts Re:Imagined, a season of live classical music in the Oak Room, curated by the Hospital Club and the Arensky Chamber Orchestra.

Expecting cramped auditoriums and a silent troupe of musicians in bow ties? Formal programmes and a dry (in every sense!) evening sitting in silence? Think again.

Think a penthouse cabaret club in Central London. Think secret programmes and chamber music jams. Think mysterious love potions and magical elixirs. Each concert features a relaxed setting full of sofas and cabaret tables, a bar of master mixologists and above all, a new musical world to explore every time.

You’ll begin with themed food and drink inspired by the music; then there'll be a pre-concert show by soloists from the orchestra (or perhaps a post-concert chamber music jam?); next, there’ll be a live programme note filled with stories that take you behind the scenes: deep into the meaning behind the notes and the lives of the extraordinary people that wrote them.

Then, with the tension at breaking point, it's the main event, with the full Arensky Chamber Orchestra. It's a high-octane performance of one of Classical Music’s greatest masterpieces, so close up, so clear and electrifying that you feel like you’re part of the orchestra.

On October 14th you will enter the Realm of the Holy Grail with the music of Wagner’s opera Parsifal. Once so noble and pure, the Realm is a twilight world of shame and decay. Amfortas, its King, lies disgraced and in agony - seduced by a magical temptress and wounded by his own Holy Spear. Until he is absolved of his sins, he refuses to reveal the Grail and its healing power has seeped from the land. Beyond the walls of his castle, a wicked sorcerer lies in wait hoping to steal the Grail, a woman cursed for centuries desperately seeks redemption and a young fool searches for the enlightenment that can restore balance to this world. This is Wagner’s last great opera Parsifal. This is The Quest for the Grail.