Innovation and collaboration have defined The Philadelphia Orchestra during Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s tenure as music director. It comes as no surprise that these values extend to the now-commonplace production of digital concerts. The orchestra’s latest program, entitled Sight/Sound/Symphony, marries visual artistry to straightforward music-making. The concert selections themselves walk the line from beloved repertory staples to exciting new work. If one event could encapsulate what I think of as the current Philadelphia Orchestra mandate, this is it.
That doesn’t mean that every aspect is a perfect success. Nézet-Séguin partnered the Istanbul-born, Los Angeles–based new media artist Refik Anadol to create a collage-like digital work that would accompany the Allegretto from Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 in A major. Anadol works with artificial intelligence; in a pre-recorded interview that accompanied the concert, he said the inspiration for the installation was to show whether a machine can dream. Some of the random pops of color were certainly dreamlike, while others resembled a cross between Rorschach test and computer screensaver. But the images mostly complemented the accompanying music, and when the program generated classical architecture, it became the visual manifestation of Beethoven’s cathedral of sound.
The Coronavirus shutdown interrupted the orchestra last season just as they were about to undertake a complete survey of the Beethoven symphonies. Playing only one movement here seemed like a tease. So too did Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers, a 5-minute tone poem inspired by the Allegretto. Simon, 34, is a young composer of major talent; my sole complaint is that I wanted more, as there was obvious room for development, given how creatively he moved Beethoven’s theme toward something undeniably contemporary and exciting. Nézet-Séguin led a performance of vigorous energy that spoke to this stately orchestra’s affinity for new music.