The Charlotte Symphony’s performance of “Become Ocean” surrounded musicians and audience with screens showing oceanic life. Photo by Genesis Photography/Courtesy Charlotte Symphony.
In Tuesday’s (3/3) WDAV (Charlotte, North Carolina), Lawrence Toppman writes, “For 45 minutes Saturday afternoon, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) became one with the sensuous music of John Luther Adams…. This event, the CSO’s first in Blume Studios, proved … [that] Blumenthal Performing Arts’ newest venue can work as a concert space … [where] we were watching images projected on floor-to-ceiling curtains around the hall…. The orchestra continues to break new ground … Adams prefaced his slow-building masterpiece … with this comment: ‘Life on this Earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.’ That’s where we began when the lights went down: In vast waters populated by luminous drifting objects … Slowly, slowly, as golden sunlight came and went and waves roiled above, the sea changed…. This music sounds deceptively simple, even repetitious, because it doesn’t rely on lively effects. Yet Adams uses a large symphony orchestra, anchored by a piano and a celeste who play the entire time, and you can hear variations … Guest conductor Yaniv Dinur’s steady hand steered the orchestra… and the CSO program listed 10 designers, engineers and technicians who made the evening possible.”
