The Orchestra, Reinvented for iPad
Rite Digital partnered with Touchpress and Music Sales Group to produce The Orchestra, a unique app for iPad that reinvents the way we interact with Classical Music. The app features performances from the Philharmonia Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Esa-Pekka Salonen who developed the app with us.
The app was in production for 18 months, and Rite Digital was responsible for producing all the audio and film content, including a complex multi-camera recording at Henry Wood Hall in London. This session was uniquely challenging as we had to record 8 separate pieces in 9 hours of recording time, in a venue that we needed to convert from rehearsal space into a makeshift TV studio (10 cameras, LOTS of lighting) and back again within 24 hours!
The other unique challenge of filming for the app was needing to maintain 2 independent linear edits of the footage, but without cutting to the conductor cam (as this also needed to be an independent feed). This might sound easy, but as every classical music director knows, the conductor is a ‘safety’ shot when you’re filming and editing – you know the conductor will always be doing something!
Apart from this 1 day recording session we also needed to film with every instrument in the Philharmonia Orchestra, and with Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen for the ‘other part’ of the app – we’ve spent a lot of time over the past year in blacked out studios with fabulous instrumentalists.
The resulting app is something we’re very proud to be a part of, and which we hope will open up the world of The Orchestra to the widest possible audience.
