Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Bespoke, immersive music-making: JOURNEY LIVE at BAM and Death of Classical’s THE LITTE MATCH GIRL PASSION

• By drediman
• December 9, 2024
• No Comments

This past week, I pursued two live music experience that immersed audiences in compelling and unique ways beyond your typical concert outing. Here are my thoughts on these adventurously bespoke endeavors.

JOURNEY LIVE
Brooklyn Academy of Music at the BAM Harvey Theater
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This past weekend for two performances only, music fans and dedicated gamers alike flocked to the BAM Harvey Theater to catch Journey LIVE (RECOMMENDED), an appropriately out-of-the-box offering at this year’s Next Wave Festival courtesy of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In short, the performance is a fascinating merging of two unlikely bedfellows — classical music and video games. In this case, the game in question is the visually and sonically ravishing indie adventure game Journey, which was originally published in 2012 by Sony Computer Entertainment for the Playstation 3. In addition to the cult following amassed and the longevity enjoyed by the dreamlike game, Austin Wintory’s lush, cello-centric score for the project was also nominated for a Grammy. Although we’ve seen live orchestral accompaniment to film screenings for a number of years now, the idea of doing the same thing for video games — played in real time, mind you (over the course of the opening performance, six gamers took the helm) — is an audacious new concept. That being said, Journey would seem like the ideal place to start. Indeed, the organic, exploratory nature of the game lends itself to the expressivity of a classical music composition, which was skillfully conveyed by the 21-member strong American Composers Orchestra in an impressive logistical feat under the baton of Wintory. You see, the game’s programming dynamically draws from a collection of music to create scoring that’s responsive to the gameplay. This introduces an element of unpredictability not only for the gamers, but also the orchestra and audiences, creating an immersive, unexpectedly emotional experience as we’re transported into the game’s world.

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL PASSION
Death of Classical at the Crypt of The Church of Intercession
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After having been deeply affected by Death of Classical’s presentation of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion last year, I was pleased to hear that DoC is planning to make the concert an annual holiday tradition. I’m happy to report that my recent return visit to the Church of Intercession (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) was just as impactful, well worth the trip up to northwest Harlem. Preceding the hourlong concert was an atmospherically-lit reception complete with food and drink, which immediately lent the evening a bespoke, curated quality. That sense of atmosphere and immersion continued down to the crypt, where the audience — senses heightened — were led to experience Lang’s work. Once again, The Little Match Girl Passion was performed meticulously and with great feeling by a quartet of singers from the excellent vocal group Ekmeles. The crypt at the Church of Intercession affords the performance an intensely personal, acoustically perfect sound, allowing audiences to easily settle into a contemplative state. As for the austerely beautiful Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, I found myself again moved by Lang’s clear-eyed yet transcendently empathetic juxtaposition of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the immensely sad last hours of an impoverished girl’s life. As a smart coda, Lang’s composition was appended with the “Agnus Dei” portion of William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, which provided a glimmer of hope to cut through the bleakness of it all. For a number of years now, Death of Classical has been championing contemporary classical music, steadily making a name for itself for its intimate presentations — largely sold out — in unconventional places. Indeed, DoC also produces work at the Catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery and the Crypt of the Cathedral of St. John The Divine, and has further plans to take its unique programming to other cities.