Festival of Orchestra review: Blue Planet II Live in Concert

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The sixth and final installment of ASO’s debut “Orchestra Festival” brought smiles to hundreds of faces on Saturday night, but the orchestra and its conductors should be most pleased with the final and what it’s been doing. said of their experience of six concerts.

Under clear skies at the Adelaide Fairgrounds, a bustling crowd, including many children, were treated to the kind of magic that seems transparent but requires enormous technical and artistic expertise.

Blue planet II is a highly award-winning BBC nature documentary series focusing on marine life narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

In the live setup, which has been played for several years in many countries, the live sounds of the orchestra are mixed with the ambient sound from above and below the waves, with a live narrator – in this case, scientist, author and broadcaster Dr Karl Kruszelnicki – introducing a series of scenes from the series.

As the light faded over the hills, the concert began with a rotating blue globe projected with extraordinary definition onto a screen floating above the orchestra.

Under the baton of Vanessa Scammell, who directed Blue planet II previously the sounds of the seagulls and the lapping of the water merged into a sort of ‘opening’ – a solitary voice of the Adelaide Chamber Singers, in a sort of modal chant, was joined by the strings in the charming theme of opening. And then, onscreen, we were hovering over the ocean, with pods of dolphins torpedoing in the blue waters.

Music, by the famous film composer Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea, and David Fleming, is suitably epic in style and scope – the majestic theme of the opening comes up again and again in various forms.

Kruszelnicki, while missing the rich and familiar tones of Sir David, introduced the concept – the idea that our planet is truly marked by its water, not its “Earth”. He presented the first vignette, then returned to present each segment throughout the evening.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki presented each scene of Blue planet II. Photo: Claudio Raschella

The emotional range of the scenes chosen was extraordinary. On the heartwarming side, there were some ingenious clownfish working together to reuse a piece of coconut shell as a home for their youth nursery; spectacularly colored puffins struggling fiercely to escape the sleek pirate birds – arctic skuas – who attempted to steal the fish they had caught for their young.

Some of the vignettes looked like a cinematic thriller, bordering on horror: the light-footed crab’s delicate leaping laughs gave way to gasps as we realized it was being followed by a creeping moray eel and octopus as it left behind. ‘it was making its perilous journey between the rocks, and there was a speechless surprise at the giant trevallies tracking and leaping to swallow young sooty terns whole floating on the surface.

Of course, there was a lot of fear: frantically feeding killer whales and dolphins in the midst of giant swirling schools of small fish; the colorful aliens from the deepest waters; a handsome and lonely Portuguese warrior “sails” serenely on the surface, while below his long poisonous tentacles search for prey.

The skill of these kinds of live soundtrack events is coordination: and it was flawless. As an intelligent tusk fish banged a clam against a hard surface to extract the edible parts inside, the orchestra’s success was perfect; as a pack of highly intelligent sea lions herded huge tunas on the rocky shore (one of the most astonishing behaviors caught in Blue planet II), the swells of the music were perfectly synchronized.

The ASO was in tight form as it walked through the soundtrack, with the chamber singers providing a sacred air with their accompanying oohs and aahs. Zimmer’s huge film bank was evident in the skill of matching themes and motifs with the action. Flashes of familiar works – like very distinctive sound Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack – occasionally resurfaced.

ASO musicians perform the epic soundtrack live. Photo: Claudio Raschella

No serious celebration of the oceans could happen without the recognition of environmental threats (and one of the most poignant segments was a walrus mother and her child in the warming arctic trying to find ice on which to take shelter and rest). A recorded message from Sir David about our collective ability to effect change was supported by Dr Karl’s remark on the ‘Blue Planet Effect’: a generation of people so inspired by the beauty and wonder of the documentary series, that they are determined to protect the oceans.

Another less global effect of this concert, and the festival that surrounds it, could be that it helps develop the audience of tomorrow for ASO. Considering the laughter and gasps of the crowd, we can hope that everyone present will always remember the wonder of this event and seek more of the wonder that only a live orchestra can provide.

Blue Planet II: Live in Concert was performed at the Adelaide Showgrounds in Wayville on Saturday night as part of the ASO Festival of Orchestra series. See more FOFO reviews here.

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s last concert in 2021 will be Nativity, at City Hall this Thursday and Friday, which features a major new work by composer and conductor Richard Mills.

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