TV cameras at Verizon

TV cameras at Verizon: Pros and cons

DAN ROTTENBERG

The Philadelphia Orchestra unveiled something new at its gala opening concert on September 29: Two large screens hovering over the stage, providing close-up views of the performers, much like the similar screens unveiled this past summer at the Mann— and of course, much like the instant replay screens at Eagles and Phillies games.

The newly installed system will enable the Orchestra to beam its concerts to schools, closed-circuit systems, cable subscribers or, God willing, broadcast stations. It will make a tremendous difference in reaching and enticing the young and technically restless audience that the Orchestra desperately needs to survive. But will TV screens actually enhance the orchestral concertgoing experience?

On balance I would say yes, especially if the screens don’t go kerflooey at unpredictable moments, like my Comcast connection at home. The opening night tryout struck me as a good start. But a few potential problems need to be addressed. Here’s my scorecard on the pros and cons, based on a single night’s viewing of the Orchestra’s all-Brahms concert with Christoph Eschenbach at the podium and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter as guest soloist.

The pros:

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• No longer must the audience choose between watching the back of the conductor’s head or sitting in the Conductor’s Circle in order to see his face. Now everyone can see his face on screen, or individual musicians in close-up, just the way we do with those Public TV broadcasts.
  

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• By spotlighting individual musicians, the cameras may heighten their performances. No longer can the musicians hide within the group; they can never quite know when the camera will hone in on them. They may well wind up perceiving of themselves differently, and performing differently. In this respect the screens are the orchestral equivalent of supertitles in opera, which enhance the performance of singers who now realize that the audience understands the words coming out of their mouths.
  

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• I may not need to bring my binoculars to the Orchestra any more. That’s one less thing to worry about misplacing at intermission.
  

The cons:

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• Both screens show the identical image— which is as it should be: Conflicting images could distract annoyingly from the music at hand. Considering the ubiquity of split-screen images these days— on everything from sports events to CNN to Bloomberg— this is a temptation much to be feared.
  

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• The camera work must reflect a true artistic understanding of the music at hand. At Saturday’s concert, the screen occasionally showed inappropriate close-ups of supporting musicians while Anne-Sophie Mutter was playing her solos. At other moments, the camera honed in on Mutter from the wrong angle, giving us a close-up of her from the side or back rather than her fingers on the strings.
  

These are minor quibbles, sort of like criticizing Henry Ford’s first Model T because it lacked power steering and air conditioning. Like all good new ideas, TV at the Kimmel will need constant vigilance to become an asset rather than a liability.



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