In London, a philharmonic orchestra devotes a concert to video games

A philharmonic orchestra gives a concert exclusively devoted to video games, Monday August 1, at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This is a first for the BBC proms, an annual series of prestigious concerts in this legendary hall in West London.

This event, entitled “from 8 bits to infinity”, tells the story of the evolution of video games and therefore of their music. For a little less than an hour and a half, the musicians will go through a rich repertoire, performing the soundtrack of the legend of Zelda, for example.

The composer and conductor Robert Ames, who created this meeting, will be at the baton this evening. Obvious to him: “With a video game, players often create their own stories. The music has to be composed in such a way that it fits. It offers a lot of space, fantasy and variations”.

“Composers accustomed to working for orchestras or films are more and more familiar with video games”, he says. Example with Hildur Guðnadóttir, the creator of this music that of the game “Battlefield 2042”, crowned with an Oscar three years ago for the soundtrack of the film Joker. There is nothing incongruous about this performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Among them, some regularly pose the instrument to take a joystick. But tonight no picture, only sound.