VAN Beethoven orchestra VR screenshot, courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic
Many people recognize the opening four notes to the first movement of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5," usually from a movie, the radio, or the internet. Certainly not many have heard the beginning notes of Beethoven's 67th opus performed live by an orchestra like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, whose star conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his frenetically bouncing head of curls have become as much part of an LA Phil show as the music itself.For anyone living outside LA and for most people living in it, getting to either of the LA Phil's seasonal homes of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (an artwork in itself) or the Hollywood Bowl is a haul. So the orchestra decided that if distance, traffic, cost and/or laziness were going to prevent people from going to hear live concert music, they would bring the concert to the people with a mobile virtual reality theater experience called VAN Beethoven.
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