Sunday, March 21, 2021

A Video Treatment of Gounod Chamber Music

Those that have been following this site for some time are probably well aware of how isolation from traditional concert-going experiences has led to an impressive diversity of inventive multimedia approaches to performance. As a 1924 popular song put it, “Everyone Wants to Get into the Act;” and, about half a week ago I learned of a new entrant from Fayetteville, Arkansas. That city is the home of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA), whose Executive Director is now D. Riley Nicholson, previously a familiar face here at the Center for New Music.

First oboist Theresa Delaplain in the “video accompaniment” for Gounod’s chamber music (from the Facebook Online Event page)

As part of its Reimagined Season, SoNA will release a digital performance of chamber music by Charles Gounod. The composition is his “Petite Symphonie,” scored for nine wind players and first performed in 1885. The participating performers will be Kristen Salinas (Flute), Theresa Delaplain (Oboe I), Kristin Weber (Oboe II), Richard Bobo (Bassoon I), Kay Brusca (Bassoon II), Bruce Schultz (Horn I), Jason Hofmeister (Horn II), Orlando Scalia (Clarinet II), and Trevor Stewart (Clarinet I). Their performance was recorded on green screen at the Crisp Recording Studio in Fayetteville, run by videographer and media artist Darren Crisp. Working with visual artist Romain Erkiletlian, Crisp created a real-time visual experience to “accompany” the musical performance. Those visuals will present creative renderings of landscape images of the city of Paris, which was the composer’s beloved home.

This multimedia digital performance will be given its premiere at 4:30 p.m. (Pacific time) on Friday, April 2. As of this writing, there appear to be three different Web platforms from which the performance may be viewed: the Facebook Online Event page, the video added to the YouTube SoNA home page, and the event page on the SoNA Web site. There will be no charge for viewing on any of these platforms.

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