In Friday’s (2/17) Houston Chronicle, Colin Eatock writes, “Hollywood producers think every popular movie deserves a sequel—and the Houston Symphony agrees. Following the success of the orchestra’s multimedia performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets in 2010, it has created another film with music. This time, the symphony will be visiting a planet not included in Holst’s suite—Earth. The Houston Symphony launches Orbit – an HD Odyssey on Friday. Against a backdrop of images provided by NASA, projected on a 24-foot screen in Jones Hall, Giancarlo Guerrero will conduct American composer John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. ‘The Adams piece allows me to take everyone into orbit,’ said filmmaker Duncan Copp, who created The Planets and now Orbit. ‘It’s a very forceful, driving music, about four minutes long. What I wanted to do was to create something around a shuttle launch, so we can take our voyage into orbit.’ … Both The Planets and Orbit are part of a slowly growing trend toward audio-visual orchestra concerts, symphony CEO Mark Hanson said. … And with The Planets, the Houston Symphony learned how popular and successful this sort of thing can be. The orchestra has toured the production to Carnegie Hall, Florida and the United Kingdom.”
Posted February 21, 2012
