Wise Music Group, Classical Apps, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Philharmonia Orchestra have today announced the release of The Orchestra for iPhone. The critically acclaimed and award-winning iPad app was originally launched in 2012, and the new launch will bring The Orchestra to a wider audience by making it compatible with iPhone as well as iPad. The app presents eight specially filmed performances which allow users a unique and different perspective on the players, the pieces, and the surrounding context.
The eight performances on the app collectively span 300 years of classical music from the viewpoint of different sections of the orchestra, including a dedicated view of the conductor. It includes detailed explorations of each instrument with demonstrations by Philharmonia musicians, playable samples, and rotational photography alongside historical and musical background on each of the orchestral pieces and instruments, written by Mark Swed. There are optional audio and/or subtitle commentaries on each piece from Salonen and Philharmonia players as well as video interviews in which Salonen shares his conducting approach and thoughts on the featured pieces.
Performances are synchronised with three different score-view options – full score, concise score curated by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and simplified score presented as a piano-roll. Alongside this an interactive Orchestral BeatMap highlights the active instrumental sections note-by-note, where users can hold their fingers down in order to hear different sections of the orchestra in isolation.
The specially filmed performances are:
• Haydn: Symphony No. 6 (first movement)
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (excerpt from fourth movement)
• Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique ("March to the Scaffold")
• Debussy: Prélude à l'après midi d'un faune
• Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (exposition from first movement)
• Stravinsky: The Firebird (excerpt)
• Lutosławski: Concerto for Orchestra (second movement)
• Salonen: Violin Concerto, soloist Leila Josefowicz (second and third movements)
The app is designed for iOS 14.7 and later, and use with headphones is recommended.
The Orchestra app will be available worldwide at $7.99 for the first month after release, and thereafter at
$9.99 from the App Store or at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-orchestra/id560078788?ls=1&mt=8.
