Page 38 - FINAL_Aurora Orchestra_Inside Beethoven Coverage Book
P. 38
10 November 2021
D&B SOUNDSCAPE’S VIRTUAL ACOUSTIC SHELL:
A MOBILE HOME FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC
Chris Jones
Tomorrow night (11 November), a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 by Aurora
Orchestra puts the technology's considerable power to the test in London's Printworks.
The appreciation of classical music and the need for specific reverberant spaces has been the reason
behind the beautiful architecture of some of the world’s most impressive buildings, both modern
and historic.
The acoustics inside concert halls such as the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House or the Boston
Symphony Hall are optimised for non-amplified performances, preserving clarity while naturally
enhancing the power of the voices and the rich detail of the orchestra, However, this is not the case
for the Printworks in London. Once the largest printing press in Western Europe, the venue has
since been repurposed into a destination venue for electronic music and so far, classical music has
not yet formed part of its repertoire.
This impressive but challenging space has nevertheless been chosen by the award-winning Aurora
Orchestra to stage one of their most ambitious projects to date – immersing the audience in a
memorised performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Not only will the orchestra perform
