On the 1st of September 2009, we carried out the cinematography and lighting of the performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The piece was performed by 101 musicians of the Philharmonia Orchestra solely for the 29 cameras that were spread across the floor to record every section of the orchestra as a separate entity. It took one day and one night to prepare for the arrival of the musicians and give this installation a cinematic feel. The brief was not to make it look like stage lighting. We opted for a very soft pool of light in the centre of the orchestra for the strings and a harder Rembrandt look for the semi-circle surrounding the strings.
re-rite, the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Digital Residency, allows members of the public to conduct, play and step inside the Philharmonia Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen through audio and video projections of musicians performing Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
Opening to the public at the Bargehouse on London’s South Bank on Tuesday 3rd November 2009, the project shows every section of the Orchestra performing Rite of Spring simultaneously ‘as live’ throughout a four-storey warehouse building. The public will able to sit amongst the horn players, perform in the percussion section and take up the baton and control sections of the Orchestra as they play.
Since then the project has toured worldwide.
