Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Perhaps Klaus Obermaier's digitised presentation of Stravinsky's ballet seemed more innovative in 2007 than it does now that 3D movies have become commonplace. Obermaier's concept dispenses with the original scenario altogether, placing a single dancer, Julia Mach, in a "black box" to the side of the orchestra. From there, manipulated 3D images of her are projected in real time on to a giant screen hanging above the players, where they are juxtaposed with the abstract effects that Obermaier generates around her.
For the first quarter of an hour or so, it's compelling – the novelty of the 3D images is strong if transient, and there is at least a semblance of connection between what one sees through the stereoscopic glasses spinning in space around the orchestra – Mach menaced by a circle of arcane symbols and shapes in brilliant scarlet – and the strong narrative impulse of the score. But in the second half of the work, Obermaier's treatment becomes more diffuse and pretentious. The images of the writhing Mach are fragmented into autonomous body parts and pixels, and all connections with the music are broken. Jettisoning the ballet's original scenario may be one thing, but replacing it with just a series of grids and patterns for the climactic sacrificial dance utterly fails to match some of the most physically powerful music ever written.
It is the account of the music, though, that proves to be the show's saving grace. It is quite superbly played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov, and their hour-long programme begins – thankfully without glasses or choreography – with two more 20th-century classics. Varèse's Tuning Up is a riff on the ritual of orchestral tuning, into which he insinuates a melee of references to most of his own works, as well as snatches of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Yankee Doodle Dandy. Volkov conducts it with the same care and detailed precision he lavishes on the ravishingly svelte surfaces of Ligeti's Lontano. In both works, as well as in The Rite, it was the CBSO's vivid playing that really grabbed the attention.