Thursday (12/6) on the Telegraph online (London), Shane Richmond writes, “Since the release of the first iPad, Touch Press has been publishing apps that set the standard for deep, intelligent tablet applications. The Orchestra is no exception and, in fact, is probably the best app that Touch Press has made. Produced in collaboration with the Philharmonia, the London-based orchestra, and The Music Sales Group, The Orchestra is an exploration of orchestral music. The Philharmonia plays eight pieces, or excerpts from them, covering 250 years of music. … The camera trained on Esa-Pekka Salonen provides a seldom-seen view of the conductor at work. Alternatively you can watch the ‘beat map’, which represents each musician in the orchestra with a dot that flashes when they are playing. … The score for the piece scrolls across the screen while the video plays and there are a number of ways to watch it. The curated score prioritises the instruments that Salonen thinks are most important, for example, while the simplified score removes the musical notation and offers a graphical representation of what is being played. Added to that, each piece comes with commentary from Salonen and his musicians … The rest is an encyclopedia-like guide to each instrument in the orchestra, featuring video of Philharmonia musicians explaining each instrument, a history and samples of the musical range it can cover.”
Posted December 7, 2012
