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Thursday, August 2, 2007 – 8:30 pm at
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts

In collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Symphony Orchestra and Wolf Trap present a celebration of Earth, sea, and sky with Fantastic Planet: A Symphonic Video Spectacular. A breathtaking live film and symphonic journey, the evening’s program features exclusive, large-screen digital footage from NASA of planet Earth’s underwater volcanoes, the Grand Canyon, the frozen mountains of Antarctica, and more! Eco-inspired masterworks from Beethoven, Debussy, Vaughan Williams, and Stravinsky, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Emil de Cou, accompany the video presentation.

To further enhance this multimedia program, Wolf Trap and the National Symphony Orchestra have issued a 2-part podcast intended to be transferred to an iPod or other portable mp3 player and played, in its entirety, during the live performance.  Several pauses will need to be made by individual users throughout the program to keep the podcast in synchronization with likely pauses in the live performance. Instructions on when to pause and restart the podcast will be presented at the beginning of the audio program and from Wolf Trap’s stage, at the start of the live show. Maestro Emil de Cou will serve as the audience’s musical tour guide (in one ear only), providing insight into the music and the on-stage films provided by NASA. Commentary is kept to a minimum and primarily inserted during quiet passages in the program.

The podcast(s) are available for download through iTunes here:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=160375669

Both part 1 and part 2 should be downloaded and brought to the live performance on August 2 at Wolf Trap.

Of this innovative melding of music and technology, Maestro de Cou comments, "I am thrilled to be a part of an important first with the National Symphony Orchestra and Wolf Trap. In having spoken commentary during our collaborative concert with NASA for our Fantastic Planet concert, we are adding yet another way to become more deeply engaged with this amazingly eclectic music and NASA’s mind-blowing images. To date, I am not aware of anyone else having produced a podcast specifically to be listened to during a live symphony concert. So our high-tech hybrid symphonic journey in and around the Earth, into space and back, is the perfect event to try something new and something that will have a particular appeal to younger audience members."

The musical program will begin with Stravinsky’s  The Rite of Spring, set to the background of violent volcanoes and the emergence of life during our planet’s inception. Originally a ballet score, The Rite of Spring was altered for inclusion in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia, serving as the musical backdrop for the film’s groundbreaking imagery. Fantastic Planet goes on to feature images of the wild west and the Grand Canyon set to The Cowboys Overture composition by John Williams. The icy world of Antarctica is matched with Sinfonia Antarctica by Ralph Vaughan Williams, only to ease into Debussy’s aquatic musical portrait, La Mer.

The remainder of the program includes such notable works as the Scherzo of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, and Ligeti’s Atmospheres to accompany a video journey to Antarctica, the moon, and the outer reaches of our solar system and back again from the perspective of the International Space Station. All images are provided courtesy of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the U. S. Geological Survey; and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.