Czech Philharmonic returns to stage
Orchestra tested for COVID-19 before the show
On Wednesday night, something astonishing took place, in the English Garden of a handsome neo-gothic castle tucked away in the northern fringes of the Czech Republic. On an impressive pop-festival-style stage with a roof was one of the world’s great orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic, led by its chief conductor Semyon Bychkov; a whole orchestra, not a handful of players sitting at a distance from each other to avoid that dreaded virus.
In front of them, seated mostly elbow-toelbow, was an audience of about 500 without masks. There was a light drizzle, but that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm. There they sat in their gaily coloured windbreakers, looking like the crowd at an English resort listening to the band on the pier.
How did this small miracle happen? It was partly because the Czech Philharmonic is fortunate enough to have a private sponsor, which coughed up the funds to have every orchestra member tested for the virus. Another reason is that social distancing rules in the Czech Republic were relaxed long ago. Restaurants, bars, gyms and cinemas reopened on May 25. Most important is that the Czechs are immensely proud of their musical tradition, and they wanted to offer a thank you to the medical professionals who have led the battle against COVID-19. The Czech culture minister was on hand to give a few words of praise.
Unlike the Berlin Philharmonic and Bavarian State Opera, which have included interesting rarities in their online concerts, the Czechs opted for surefire masterworks. But they came up beautifully fresh. The Overture from Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the right choice to begin things: its four magical opening chords sounded like the birth of music.
The sound in open-air orchestral concerts can often be disappointingly thin and topheavy, but here it was miraculously good, showing off the pure tuning and soft-edged warmth of the orchestra to perfection.
Finally came Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, in a brilliantly paced performance. The mysterious second movement, with its burst of martial glory in between strange spectral forebodings, has rarely seemed so eloquent. For a moment, it felt as if the sun had broken through. Then came the most moving moment: the applause. Music was truly back again, in all its glory.