Playing with Fire<\/a>, is essentially a concert recording embellished by virtual reality (VR) headsets, and is the latest in the rapidly expanding world of immersive experiences.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s space for both virtual reality and real life,\u201d said Pierre-Alain Giraud, the experience\u2019s director. \u201cIn a real concert, it\u2019s never repeated and you have unpredictability. Here, you\u2019re put into places you could never be. You can also never be that close to Yuja to see her technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sliding on the weighty VR headset, it takes a few minutes to become accustomed to the slightly nauseating visuals that crowd in. Wang, dressed in a dizzying black-and-white striped gown, takes her place on the piano stool and launches into a tender rendition of Jeux d\u2019Eau while artist Gabriela Fri\u00f0riksd\u00f3ttir\u2019s cartoonish neon jellyfish sway in rhythm.<\/p>\n
Then the sea recedes and we\u2019re back on sunkissed land for the pentatonic melodies of Debussy\u2019s Bruy\u00e8res. Flaming phoenixes accompany the melodrama of Stravinsky\u2019s Infernal Dance from The Firebird, before a cavernous gothic cathedral frames Bach\u2019s meditative Chorale Prelude and bomb-dropping drones punctuate Prokofiev\u2019s histrionic Piano Sonata No 7, the second of his \u201cwar trilogy\u201d.<\/p>\n
You could see this sensory stimulation as a symptom of our attention-addled society. Yet the hybrid experience is surprisingly moving. As I get my VR legs and move around, I notice other visitors as reflective avatars of the surrounding animation \u2013 glowing blue or gold, textured in feathers or stone \u2013 and I can walk right up to the piano and observe each of Wang\u2019s keystrokes. Even though she isn\u2019t there, the warm sound of the \u00a3300,000 Steinway with its pre-recorded movements is convincing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing example of technological advancement but at its heart is human creativity,\u201d said Samantha King, head of programme at Vive Arts, one of the concert\u2019s tech partners. \u201cWe recorded [Wang] playing the repertoire in London but her fingers were like hummingbirds and we couldn\u2019t capture them, so she then had to be filmed by 70 cameras in France, playing on a green keyboard, to map both sound and visuals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wang\u2019s playing style is often described as \u201cfiery\u201d and the concert moves through different iterations of this element, from life-giving hearths to all-consuming terror. It\u2019s purposely vague and ultimately inessential to understand. It\u2019s a \u00a326 a ticket for a 45-minute experience, but the real value of this show comes from its potential to break down the often elitist feel of a concert hall.<\/p>\n
During her final number, Chopin\u2019s Waltz in C sharp minor, we are invited to take our headsets off and witness the ghost of Wang\u2019s hand play through one of the first pieces she learned as a child. \u201cWhen this ran at the Paris Philharmonie last year, it was wonderful seeing children dance,\u201d said Giraud. \u201cYou could see them engaging with something totally new.\u201d While no one dances in my group of two dozen adults, there\u2019s an awed silence when the piece ends, the feeling of having witnessed something magical together \u2013 even if it never really happened.<\/p>\n
Illustration by Oscar Ingham for The Observer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuja Wang is one of the world\u2019s most celebrated classical pianists. A prize-winning featured soloist with top orchestras,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[86844,5343,201599,128,86,56,54,55,4297,4298,4299],"class_list":["post-784972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-classical-music","tag-culture","tag-in-real-life","tag-music","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}