The commission came from a joint venture between the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and 14-18 Now. In a unique synthesis of music and visual design, a twenty minute animated piece was projected onto the external and internal façades of the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by Meredith’s new work for orchestra and chorus, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, under Sakari Oramo.
An intricate video projection mapped onto the face of the Usher Hall which mapped every contour of the building, turning it into a towering special effect. Before our eyes, it exploded with bright colours, melted away into darkness and threatened to burst off its axis as the drum-like building spun with racing streams of digital code, smoke jets on the roof lending realism to the sense of frantic kinetic motion.
The fruit of their research into communications during the First World War, from the gung-ho rhetoric of the media, to the censorship of postcards back from the front and then the pace of the message of the declaration of peace were themselves communicated with a clarity that surpassed the spectacles of previous years.
A bold and imaginative musical expression of the end of WWI … As for the visuals, they were so beautifully decorative that one sometimes forgot their sinister implication. Nonetheless this was a spectacular and brilliantly conceived start to the season
Music
Anna Meredith
Performed by
Sakari Oramo
BBC Symphony Orchestra
National Youth Choir of Great Britain
Proms Youth Ensemble
Commissioned by
BBC Proms
Edinburgh International Festival
14-18NOW
Director
Richard Slaney
Technical Manager
James Roxburgh
Assistant Designer
Matthew Taylor
Animator
Jarek Radecki
Technical Assistant
Iain Syme
Video Programmer
Sam Jeffs
Lighting Designer
Leo Woolcock
Movement Director
Nathan Clarke
Lead Designer
Nicol Scott
Technical Associate
Maximilien Spielbichler
Animator
Aaron Brady
Animator
Sean Kothe
Video Programmer
Jack Jewel
Video Programmer
Leo Flint
Sound Designer
Gareth Fry
Producer
Rebecca Collis
Producer (Interior Proms)
Ollie Hester
Animator
Emily Howells
Animator
Tom Munday
Video Programmer
David Callanan
Data Wrangler
Raphael Pimlott
Show Caller
Emily Thompson