Visualisation responding to music. Pictures at an Exhibition accompanied by a unique visual spectacle by Cori O’Lan
PRESS RELEASE Brno, 9. 3. 2020
This Thursday and Friday see exceptional concerts at Filharmonie Brno. Our programme entitled Pictures at an Exhibition will showcase three renowned pieces of music, accompanied by visualisations by Cori O’Lan. These were produced in collaboration with Ars Electronica, an organisation focused on the use of modern technologies in art.
There will be a huge screen behind the orchestra and on both its sides over the entire evening. World-renowned visual artist Cori O’Lan will be personally projecting his visualisations here, produced especially for this project. Maurice Ravel’s vivid and spectacular arrangement of Mussorgsky’s popular Pictures at an Exhibition will be played as the opening piece. “In my interpretation of this section, I found inspiration in Kandinsky’s 1928 sketches incorporating multiple geometric elements and patterns. These will be responding in time to the music through sensors positioned above the musicians. As such, they will be visualising the sounds coming from the orchestra in real time,” says O’Lan of his work.
The subsequent The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca by Bohuslav Martinů will be accompanied by images of the frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy, which O’Lan visited alongside Chief Conductor of the Filharmonie Brno Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies. He took hundreds of pictures there which he stitched together into a high-definition panoramic image used as the basis for his work. These are the exact same frescoes which provided Martinů with inspiration in his composition, in which he captures (in his own words), “the kind of solemn, frozen silence and opaque, coloured atmosphere which contains a strange, peaceful, and moving poetry.”
Davies values the collaboration with Ars Electronica, and he is particularly excited to be able to bring together two renowned cultural institutions from neighbouring countries. Furthermore, he has been collaborating with the organisation and its Art Director, Grefried Stocker, in developing computer technology in which images respond in real time to audio stimuli. “Images have inspired many composers in history. Our programme is evidence of this. So the fact we can complement three great works of music inspired by art with new images is particularly fascinating,” says Davies.
The evening closes with Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler symphony, composed as the basis for the music in his opera of the same name. Against a backdrop of historic events, this opera looks at the dramatic life of the famous painter and creator of the Isenheim Altarpiece, Nithart Gothardt, known as Matthias Grünewald, who was troubled by questions over the meaning of life. This piece is also accompanied by a visualisation by O’Lan.
With this Thursday and Friday concert, Filharmonie Brno Orchestra is returning its subscription evenings to Janáček Theatre. These always begin at 7.00 pm, and alongside May’s Mahler’s Ninth can be purchased as a two-concert subscription at the theatre. This is available from Philharmonic Orchestra advance sales and online, while individual tickets can also be purchased from Dům Pánů z Lipé and at the venue half an hour before the concert begins.
Contact for media Kateřina Konečná, Head of PR and Marketing, Filharmonie Brno Orchestra
+420 775 426 040 katerina.konecna@filharmonie-brno.cz
