Truly, a Variations like no other
Like its sister musical organizations, Tafelmusik, Toronto’s world-class baroque period instrument orchestra, didn’t see COVID-19 coming.
“Three months ago, we were all in shock,” admits Carol Kehoe. Indeed, Tafelmusik’s executive director wasn’t even able to go into her office at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre. The whole building was closed.
So what does an orchestra do when it is rendered silent? In Tafelmusik’s case, it finds other ways to communicate.
“We knew we had to stay in touch with our community,” she says. “We had to learn what this brave new world was teaching us.”
Luckily for Kehoe, Tafelmusik has always been a collegial organization, accustomed to working as a team. Using Zoom, the orchestra and its associated choir began having regular virtual meetings, brainstorming ideas. They soon came up with #TafelmusikTonight, a new digital initiative enabling musicians to share short solo performances and other artistic content on a daily basis from their living rooms, through Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
As part of this ongoing series, the musicians recorded the first and last variations of music director Elisa Citterio’s new orchestral arrangement of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” a work which had been scheduled for its premiere this season before the pandemic struck.
“Since my teenage years,” Citterio explains, “Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’ was music that has been present at all the crucial moments of my life. It has been especially comforting to return to the music during the unprecedented situation that we are all experiencing. The enduring timeless nature of Bach’s music grounds us and reminds us of our shared humanity.
“The musicians of Tafelmusik wanted to come together to offer a little taste of our preparations for the pre-empted Goldberg (Variations) premiere. I hope that our digital performance will bring joy and help people feel a little less isolated.”
Tafelmusik still plans to offer a live performance of the complete work — but that will have to await a return to concert activity.
As to when that will happen, the question remains open. Like many sports events, concerts typically take place before large gatherings of people and it may be several months before government regulations permit regular concert activity to resume.
Meanwhile, Tafelmusik has embraced virtual concerts, inaugurating a new series May 27 titled Tafelmusik at Home. Each of the initial five concerts has been hosted by Tafelmusik musicians from their homes. The concerts last about an hour, feature solos and duos and are followed by a questionand-answer session with one of the featured musicians. Tickets are offered at $5, $10 and $20 on a choose-what-you-pay basis.
Although the players are being paid until the end of this month, the close of the fiscal year, the 2020-21 season is scheduled to begin in September and it is doubtful that it can go on exactly as planned.
“It is scary and yet it is not scary,” says Kehoe. “People who work in the arts have always had to adapt. It has always been stressful. But if we spend time thinking of what the community needs, I think we will find the means.
“Elisa and I talked yesterday and we are both optimistic.” (Although her partner and daughter are with her in Toronto, the rest of Citterios’s family — reportedly all of them well — still live in Italy).
Thanks to Tafelmusik at Home, the public has been able to become better acquainted with individual members of the orchestra, whether listening, for example, to music by Bach, Telemann and Couperin played by violinist Patricia Ahern, violist Brandon Chui and harpsichordist Charlotte Nediger or hearing principal bassoonist Dominic Teresi sharing memories of his late teacher, Michael McCraw, Tafelmusik’s principal bassoonist from 1991 to 2001.
Through a partnership with the gelato shop Death in Venice, listeners have even been able to order the flavours of their choice for home delivery to accompany a virtual concert (the new Rhubarb and Licorice combination is reportedly baroque-inspired).
As the pandemic continues, we can expect the inventive players of Tafelmusik to come up with more ideas to keep themselves active and keep their public musically engaged. All we have to do to learn what is happening is to check out the website at tafelmusik.org and join the social media conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.