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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > October > 17 > Entry
Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra
Art depends on its context. Music, sculpture, architecture — it’s all influenced by what surrounds it. So if you’re mixing one art form with another, there is a lot to consider, but above all, the question is: Do they combine to make a better experience?
Not enough of these questions were posed before this weekend’s performance of Holst’s “The Planets,” by the Austin Symphony Orchestra and conductor Peter Bay at the Long Center.
It was billed as a multimedia experience, but in fact it was a “Hatch Productions” video from 1996, a dated and underwhelming film, the style you might find in a high school library.
The ASO had success with a similar concept last year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s, “Beyond the Score” documentary production about Dvorak’s writing of his “New World” symphony.
Where that succeeded — live actors, Ken Burnsian photography — the Holst production failed in every measure.
A former astronaut, Colonel Benjamin Alvin Drew Jr., was narrating, but it could have been anyone, reciting facts about the planets and moons. Why not employ his considerable personal experience? The man has flown 10 million miles in space.
And this was in service of low-definition video that moved too quickly, drawing attention away from the music.
Why do this to “The Planets,” one of the great popular orchestral works? Grade school children are captured by its straightforward theme: music about the unique “characters” of our solar system.
If there is a piece that needs no introduction or elaboration to catch the imagination of listeners, this is it. Listeners’ imaginations have already been caught.
One expected more up to date space imagery, like the breathtaking shot of the Horseshoe Nebula on the show’s poster. Surely audiences are not so literal as to require images of only the specific planets.
A single shot of each planet, or at the most, a few images, with very slow, subtle edits, would have improved on the video.
Instead, the churning, jagged animations of a planet’s surface removed all sense of discovery, and showed listeners what to envision.
All this was a shame because the orchestra played a beautiful “Nocturnes” by Debussy, with fine solos, alongside heavenly work by Conspirare’s Symphonic Women’s Chorus, no video required.
And musically, “The Planets” had moments of brilliance. Douglas Harvey’s sublime cello solo in “Venus,” moments of strength from the brass and horns (aside from an occasional squawk), and wonderful textures from the organ and harps.
Let’s hope the ASO weights its next choice of visuals much more carefully.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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