Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra: Tangible Depth In A Virtual World

I mentioned before about the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing in Second Life, and... having just left the event... as someone who normally listens to music all day, I must say that I am in a strange condition.

You see, I'm sated.

Good music does this - where you can listen to a stunning performance and you walk away and listen to the silence because to listen to something else would be sacrilege. That is perhaps the highest compliment one can pay the RLPO for their performance inworld. There were some of the Second Life oddities - including a woman stripping in front of the orchestra (it was THAT good! She was new, it was laggy, you know...), but those oddities are easily overlooked. In fact, in an odd way it added to the performance in a charming sort of way.

The music? Well, I shall list it but it will not help you experience it... I will do my best to describe my own experience.

[w:Kenneth Hesketh]'s A Rhyme For The Season was marvelous, and one could feel the subtle contours of the composer's fingers plucking rhymes from instruments, a chordal progression that seemed to invert even as the melodies themselves danced in a form of rhyme, a pattern with a slightly sinister tinge at times. It seemed almost a mirrored contrast. A playful yet serious entrance into the performance.

[w:John McCabe (composer)|Professor John McCabe]'s Symphony 'Labyrinth' was cosmopolitan and surreal at the same time - it did seem to appeal to the broad audience it was expected to, perhaps because it moved from a deep place that seemed to resonate within. It easily traversed from the wind to the influence of the bass and washed across in an increasing ebb and flow reminiscent of the beat of wings soaring upward - with other layers of ebb and flow below it, giving character to what was felt as a struggle upward.

Shéhérazade (ouverture de féerie) by [w:Maurice Ravel] was next, and lead to the break.

After the break, [w:Sergei Rachmaninoff]'s Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 brought everyone's ears back to their seats and kept them there... a wonderful performance.

[w:Vasily Petrenko] served as conductor at this engagement, and coupled with the orchestra and the soprano, [w:Kate Royal], made an audible impression which had everyone at the Second Life event enthused. Ms. Royal was signing CDs during the break at the real event... and I am certain that she did not sign enough.

The rest of the credits are here, snapped from the inworld programme:

The Question and Answer session afterward hopefully sent a strong signal back to RLPO: We want more.