Review: SPRING, STRINGS, AND TASTY THINGS at Green-Wood Cemetery Was Delightful

Sometimes macabre, sometimes whimsical, always beautiful, Death of Classical presents some of the most unique classical music and opera experiences in New York City. What they do is bring classical concerts to the masses straight out of crypts, graveyards, and catacombs. DoC’s May 24th immersive concert, Springs, Strings, and Tasty Things continued the company’s tradition of weird yet lovely death-based musical fare. 

Springs, Strings, and Tasty Things was a baroque concert and spring festival set amidst the gravestones of The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. The evening started at 7 pm, just before sundown, with attendees given a map of the music and food scattered along the cemetery's paths. 

The first hour was a sort of a cocktail hour and musical experience. As we wandered the historic grounds, we were greeted with spirit tastings and performance pairs from the baroque band Ruckus playing chamber music nearby. Performers were paired with or near the food and spirit tastings; for example, Strings Duo paired with tacos and a Mezcal and Tequila tasting station. 

While many people don’t think of “cemetery” along with “festival”, that’s what we got and it was, honestly, an extremely pleasant experience. 

A big part of that was the cemetery itself. The Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 and is now a National Historic Landmark. They are home to one of the largest outdoor collections of 19th- and 20th-century statuary and mausoleums. The landscape earned them a reputation as one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world. It’s early popularity helped inspire the creation of public parks, including New York City’s Central and Prospect Parks. Nowadays you can catch beautiful skyline views from the top of Battle Hill, which we had the pleasure of seeing as the sun set. 

As we walked along the path, we’d come across new spirit tastings (included with ticket price), food trucks offering a huge variety of food (for purchase, though there were some free snacks) and more musicians performing bits of chamber music along the way. 

We were lucky with perfect weather, and people alternated wandering between musical performances and sitting with their dinner in the grass between the graves. It was really more of an outdoor concert with a picnic. We had plenty of time to make a couple of loops of the mapped area and make it to all the tasting tables and pick out our food (empanadas and doughnuts, in our case). 

After about an hour, the dance lesson started. A chunk of the attendees headed back to the main entrance to learn a 1700s social dance under Green-Wood’s historic gothic arch. Everyone else was able to continue milling about the cemetery enjoying the food, weather, and music. 

The food and drink portion ended at 9 pm when it was pretty fully dark. The full members of Ruckus came together to set up under the Gothic arch at the main entrance for the hour long performance of George Frideric Handel’s Water Music. While there was some seating available, even with empty chairs many people chose to sit on the lawn and surrounding hillside between the graves. The performance itself was outstanding, with Ruckus giving a moving and energetic performance. The image of people peering out of the dark between the stones made it at least unusual, if not downright ethereal.  

The combination of the venue, the upbeat atmosphere, and party vibe made this a memorable event. Those looking for unique concerts, or ways to convert your less-classically-inclined friends should consider DoC’s calendar of events. I overheard more than one attendee saying that they were going to go home and look up a baroque playlist. If your audience didn’t already like baroque music, that’s a pretty successful performance. 

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Springs, Strings and Tasty Things was a one-night only event that kicked off Death of Classical’s Angel’s Share concert series. The next performance on June 20 to 22 performance will be Beethoven String Quartet Op. 132, the piece that DoC founder Andrew Ousley says made him fall in love with classical music.

Find out more about Death of Classical on their website.

Header photo credit: Mackenzie Horne

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