The Houston Symphony isn't scheduled to publicly perform Gustav Holst's The Planets - An HD Odyssey until January. But a select group of supporters got a sneak preview Tuesday night during a dress rehearsal at Jones Hall. It was a dazzling experience as hundreds of high-definition planetary images flashed on a gigantic screen as the symphony performed the haunting score.
Award-winning producer/director Duncan Copp, who has spent nearly two years on the project, flew in from London for a whirlwind 36-hour working visit to check out the technical aspects of the production.
"With this project, you think it would be relatively straightforward to put pictures to the music," Copp said. "But as it went along, we realized it just got bigger and bigger and bigger."
Using the massive HD photos for the first time "really pushed the envelope of our editing techniques," he added.
He looked through thousands of images of Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune from NASA and other sources to find the ones he thought best fit the mood of the music.
"Some of the pictures are more beautiful than Picasso would ever think of painting," said Copp, who has previously produced and directed the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, tracing the lives of the Apollo astronauts.
The concert will debut Jan. 21 in Houston, with two additional performances Jan. 23 and 24, before heading to New York's Carnegie Hall and two Florida locations.
