Despite today's snow, I know that spring is coming, because I've seen its surest sign: the brightly-blooming Macy's Flower Show in downtown Minneapolis. It's not just a sight to behold and a scent to whiff, though: it's suffused with classical music as well.
The annual show, a local collaboration between Bachman's and Macy's for over half a century, features a wide variety of plants both familiar and exotic (check out the Monkey Puzzle Tree), arranged in the spirit of a designated theme on Macy's eighth floor auditorium. This year, the theme is Art in Bloom: different gardens in the show pay tribute to artistic genres including Cubism, Impressionism, and Art Nouveau.
As you stroll among flowers such as Picasso's Red Cordyline and Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Lipstick Vine, you'll hear classical music wafting from the speakers above, intermingled with bird calls and other effects emanating from all directions.
Though the flower show happens at five Macy's across the United States, the Minneapolis store is unique because of its large auditorium, said Mike Gansmoe, a producer of the event for Macy's. "The auditorium, which opened in 1963, enables us to create an environment that completely envelops people. When you walk into the room, you really feel like you're somewhere else. You don't feel like you're in a department store."
Gansmoe and his team curate the show's soundtrack, which is created in Minnesota and used for all five locations. "We're following the timeline of the show," he explained. "From the Renaissance to pop art and everywhere in between, we'll take composers from those areas." I heard Barber's 1936 Adagio, for example, wafting over the Surrealist garden.
"For the Impressionist garden," Gansmoe noted, "we put in Claude Debussy to make that connection musically and scenically. We knew Claire de Lune had to be playing — there's this emotional connection"
It takes a lot of listening to select the compositions to be heard on each year's soundtrack, said Gansmoe. "We go through the composers and consider the cinematic quality of the event. When you look at nature it can be very robust but also very delicate — and music can be the same thing. We want to find the right music to go with the gardens, to get the feel of what designers are creating."
Gansmoe said he likes to select classical music for the show, but each show gets its own unique treatment. For "Music in the Garden," original music was composed by Todd Machover with the MIT Media Lab. "I enjoyed 'Flora Nova,'" remembered Gansmoe. "We used a lot of interesting Latin music for that one. 'Brazil' was fun: we used Sergio Mendes and a lot of contemporary musicians."
This year, though, the art is blooming to the strains of some of your favorite classical composers. Try to identify the pieces — and, for bonus bragging rights, match them to the eras of art history.
The Macy's 2015 Flower Show is now open and free for public viewing through April 4.
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