Charlotte Symphony’s MERGE A New, Energizing Classical Party
May 14, 2024
By Lawrence Toppman
I’m told certain parts of Mecklenburg County saw the Aurora Borealis last weekend, due to freak solar flares. But you might have found an equally compelling light show indoors at Blackbox Theater, this one accompanied by the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO).
Or perhaps the light show accompanied the CSO. These elements were so carefully integrated that “MERGE: Symphonic x Electronic” blurred the lines between senses. The people who danced meditatively, perhaps in a trance, in the pit between the screen and the string players had the right idea.
The CSO website billed the concert this way: “Immerse yourself in a multisensory experience at the nexus of symphonic and electronic music at Blackbox Theater. Push/Pull Sound, Tenorless and the Charlotte Symphony take you on an exploration of the edges of musical possibility with live visual artistry. Pieces by Philip Glass and Steve Reich merge with ambient downtempo soundscapes to cutting-edge electronic music freed of physical limitations.”
That translated to resident conductor Christopher James Lees keeping a gentle rein on the reduced CSO, visual designer Tenorless crafting ever-shifting images projected on multiple screens, and Push/Pull laying down beats that sometimes complemented what the symphony played and sometimes changed the mood between pieces. When the classical musicians went home about 10:30, after 80 minutes of music they’re not likely to perform elsewhere, Push/Pull dropped heavier, faster and louder beats for the crowd that stayed behind.
This kind of innovation has roots in the short-lived AltSounds series, contemporary programming at Knight Theater whose highlight was a 2017 concert that intertwined Brahms’ First Symphony and Radiohead’s album “OK Computer.”
Yet the Knight remained a concert hall, whatever sounds bounced off its walls. Blackbox, which people with 40-year memories will recall as the long-defunct Tryon Mall Cinemas, is a nightclub. The ambience made quite a difference Saturday night.
Lees and Push/Pull designed a program that built in intensity and volume over time, starting with John Luther Adams’ murmurous “Dream in White on White” through a movement from Daniel Bernard Roumain’s “Rosa Parks” string quartet – a clap-along opportunity half the patrons seemed willing to take – to Wojciech Kilar’s luminous “Orawa.” You could loosely have classed these works under the banner of minimalism, a term Glass dislikes, but they varied in mood and dynamics.
Blumenthal Performing Arts had lent the venue extra projectors, and you could immerse yourself in the shifting visuals: coruscating pillars of light, Escher-like interlocking figures or geometric patterns, skyscrapers that rose and fell like pistons. A face appeared once in a while, like as not on the trunk of a tree, but most images remained abstract and even kaleidoscopic.
Looking on with pride from the back of the hall were CSO president and CEO David Fisk and new music director Kwamé Ryan. I’d been told to expect Ryan, whose appearance showed unusual commitment to his new orchestra: He’d made his debut with the New York Philharmonic the night before in Manhattan, leading a concert in its cutting-edge “Sound On” series.
They know the CSO has to keep thinking in new ways. At the turn of the millennium, orchestras asked, “How can we get non-classical fans to care about our classical series, our main raison d’etre?” The question for this generation is more pragmatic: “How do we reach the largest number of people, whether they cross over or not?” The orchestra doesn’t expect ticket-buyers for Merge to show up at this weekend’s performance of Holst’s “The Planets,” though it would be lovely if they did.
I didn’t see many familiar faces from the Belk and Knight Theaters Saturday, nor did I see half a dozen folks my age (nearly 70). What I saw were people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who stood respectfully and took in the subtleties of excerpts from Philip Glass’ string quartets. They wandered quietly around the big room, seldom speaking, and taking advantage of the fact that you could stand so close to the musicians: If you crept up behind the double-basses, you could read their scores over their shoulders.
These MERGErs may not be the future of classical music as we’ve known it. But they are a future of it, and I’m glad the CSO is going after them.
Pictured: MERGE: Symphonic x Electronic concert at Blackbox Theater in Charlotte, NC; by Genesis Photography.