Deep Field

Eric Whitacre’s vast score for orchestra and choir is a breathtaking response to the iconic 1995 photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of over 3,000 previously unseen galaxies. Deep Field is, in effect, a movie soundtrack, each movement evoking the incomprehensible scale and beauty of the universe. Opening with the expansive “Deep Field: Cathedral of Reason” and the searching “Deep Field: The Pillars of Creation,” the work builds to the colossal, Straussian “Deep Field: Impossible Magnitude.” “Deep Field: Earth Choir,” however, is Whitacre’s masterstroke here, an homage to Holst’s wordless voices that end his The Planets suite. An accompanying film features extraordinary imagery that, together with Whitacre’s music, will have you on the edge of your seat.