Everyone loves a good flashmob video, but trending on YouTube today is a flashmob video with a little more class than we're used to: In the 5-minute, 41-second "Som Sabadell flashmob," a full orchestra gradually emerges from alleyways and storefronts to play the final movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the town square of Sabadell, Spain.
The video begins with a bass player in a formal tuxedo, standing alone in a busy town square. The clock strikes 6 p.m., and on cue, a little girl throws a coin into a hat placed on the ground right in front of him. He begins the familiar strains of the piece alone but is soon joined by a cellist. Then out walks a bassoonist, and then a few string players.
The players keep coming out of nowhere -- a full string section, a conductor, a percussionist rolling out a large drum, and when the wind section comes walking out carrying French horns and trumpets from who knows where, you might find yourself somewhere between laughing and crying.
The video was posted to YouTube in mid-May, but only started getting mass attention in the last few days when it was picked up by Reddit. It has now been viewed more than 860,000 times.
Commenters on the video have rightly noted that it does not appear to be a flashmob in the purist sense of the word. Watching the video a few times over, it does seem that the audience was aware something might be happening that day -- although their surprise and delight does seem genuine, so presumably they were not told exactly what to expect. Also, it is unlikely that the audio track that accompanies the video was recorded at the same time as the video becau se the sound is so good and the players do not appear to be miked.
And then there is the inescapable fact that this flashmob was staged by a Spanish banking consortium called Banco Sabadell in honor of its 130th anniversary, so it is not exactly a coincidence that the orchestra chose to gather in front of the Banc de Sabadell.
Does that ruin it for you? It almost ruined it for us, but not quite. After all, the kids practicing their conducting, and the people in town giddily snapping pictures with their smartphones don't care about any of that. They just got treated to an impromptu magical concert of a beautiful piece of music, and thanks to YouTube, you can enjoy it too.
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