‘Sex, Money, Race, Religion’: Unlikely pair Philharmonia Orchestra and Gilbert & George collaborate on one-off concert

Gilbert & George, the artists known for their vibrant and often controversial works, are teaming up with the Philharmonia Orchestra for a one-off concert in London this month.

Considering the artists once declared that ‘music is the enemy,’ the collaboration is an unlikely one. The concert will take place at the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre on October 5 and comes as an exhibition of the pair's work opens at the Hayward Gallery, also at the Southbank Centre. The concert, titled ‘Gilbert and George: Sex, Money, Race, Religion,’ after one the pair’s pieces, will be one of the opening shows in the orchestra's 80th anniversary season. It will blend images of Gilbert & George’s with a programme of symphonic pieces that resonate with the title’s four themes.

Gilbert & George are some of London’s most celebrated and boundary-breaking contemporary artists. They began working together while studying sculpture at St. Martin’s School of Art in London in 1967. In a 2002 interview they told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It was love at first sight’ and they married in 2008. With a self-described ‘anti elitist’ approach to art, it is perhaps a surprise that the couple are Conservatives and outspoken supporters of Margaret Thatcher.

Their work has gained plenty of media attention, particularly for featuring depictions of (among other subjects) nudity, racial slurs, sexual acts and bodily fluids (including faeces and semen). Among their various accolades are the Turner Prize and an inclusion on The Guardian’s 2013 list of the ‘The 50 best-dressed over-50s’.

Some might consider them unlikely bed fellows for the Philharmonia Orchestra. The latter was founded in 1945 and is widely regarded as one of the finest symphony orchestras in the world. As well as the Southbank Centre, they also hold residencies in Canterbury, Leicester, Basingstoke, Bedford, at Garsington Opera and at the Three Choirs Festival. They have performed in China, Japan, Columbia and Mauritius as well as extensively throughout Europe and in America.

‘In some ways this idea of bringing together visual art and music is quite tried and tested, but there's something that's very different about this project, which is that Gilbert & George are on the record as saying: “Music is the enemy”,’ says the creative producer of the concert, Toby Chadd. ‘So, as opposed to most of these projects, where you have visual artists talking about the music that they love, this was completely different.’

The concert will feature an eclectic range of music, including pieces by the English composer Edward Elgar, the German composer Richard Wagner, the jazz pianist Duke Ellington and a melody of songs chosen, despite their supposed distaste for the artform, by Gilbert & George.

‘What fascinated me about [the project] was that it was not at all immediately obvious what it was,’ Toby adds. ‘I've done a lot of cross-art-form projects, but this was one that was a real creative dilemma.’

‘There's lots of orchestral music through the centuries that responds to those themes [Sex, Money, Race, Religion], and so part of the show is bringing together music from very, very different stylistic and cultural backgrounds. For example, for Sex, I took a movement from Wagner, an ancient love story told in one of the most iconic operas of all time. On the face of it, it is a world away from Gilbert & George’s work, which describes particularly what it is to be homosexual, much of their art being made during a time when that was illegal. And yet, when you put the two together, resonances reveal themselves.’

The medley of pieces chosen by the artists that features in the concert is perhaps its most interesting element, Toby thinks. ‘Given that Gilbert & George have such a strong public image, there's something very personal about finding out about the music that they love. It gives us a new angle on them as artists and as people.’