Life in Photos - Planetarium at BAM

 



The husband and I went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music last week to see Planetarium, a collaboration between Sufjan Stevens, Brice Dessner and Nico Muhly. The concert included an opening string quartet featuring compositions by each artist. After a brief intermission we were plunged into a sensory delight of sound, light and many, many lasers. The journey included a stop at each planet (including Pluto, out of pity according to the program), our moon and the sun.

Although a little too loud for me at times, I enjoyed the swelling, electronic cacaphony of Planetarium. The combination of twinkling chimes, an oft-autotuned Stevens and the swell of no less than seven trombones made for an engaging journey through the solar system. The perfomance was accompanied, and at times overshadowed, by a sphere that hung over the stage in a mass of swirling, ever-changing color. It glowed a fiery red and orange when featuring the sun, and sported a swirling gaseous surface when Stevens sung of Jupiter, "the loneliest planet."

I confess I'm a little bit of a Greek and Roman mythology nerd, so I was a little disappointed that more reference wasn't made to the classical myths associated with the planets in our solar system. The program did advise that the music drew on Greco-Roman and Japanese mythology, but between the auto-tuning and Stevens' ethereal voice I couldn't catch any of it. Regardless, this was an entertaining way to spend an evening.

Planetarium at BAM