Review | ‘Painfully unimpressive’: Hong Kong Philharmonic’s ‘Metaverse Symphony’ digital visuals get slammed, but the music wowed
- A classical music ‘rookie’ and an expert watched the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra perform ‘Metaverse Symphony’, with digital visuals by Henry Chu
- Both praised the orchestra players for their moving performances, but found the visuals distracting at best
Although NFTs and the metaverse are no longer dominating the headlines after the cryptocurrency market collapse in 2022, interest in “arts tech” remains strong.
Keen to shed its image as a stalwart of traditional culture, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra recently performed a series of concerts called “Metaverse Symphony” that featured two new works by Elliot Leung Ho-yat: Through the Fog, Into the Darkness and Symphony No. 1, The Metaverse, the latter of which “celebrates and captures the experience of progressive milestones regarding the advancements of the internet”.
During the concerts, digital artist Henry Chu Lik-hang fed live data from the orchestra into his computer to generate real-time digital art shown on big screens on stage.
So how was it for the audience? We asked one classical music newbie and one seasoned critic to rate the concert on different nights. Their conclusion? Some digital experiments are best kept in the lab and not performed for public consumption.
Ashyn Chak – ‘I don’t do classical music’ Gen Y
My knowledge of music runs mostly towards grunge, post-punk and other industrial sounds – although I do allow some soft indie sounds.
