Fabulous music that will move you to tears
We may not be able to see them perform in person, but many stars are carrying on regardless online, says
‘Don’t stop the music” goes a well-known song from the Eighties (by Yarbrough and Peoples), and that seems to be the motto of the musical world right now. Across the globe, live music events have been cancelled, from pub gigs to grand symphony concerts. But musicians are determined to remind their audiences that they exist, by reaching into their living rooms via the internet. The “living room concert” has been around for years, but it feels as if now it’s finally coming into its own – because it’s the only form of music-making we have.
Classical music has kept up with the trend, with many organisations offering free access to their archive as long as the crisis lasts. The Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony, Wigmore Hall, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, Aix-en-provence Festival… the list goes on.
You could binge for weeks on videos of concerts from those far-off days before anyone had even heard the term Covid-19, and they give a comforting feeling of normality. But many orchestras and musicians aren’t content to just recycle existing material. They want to create something new – but how? Is it really feasible for an orchestra to film a concert in an empty concert hall, for broadcast only, with all the players seated two metres apart?
It seems a totally impractical thing to do, but the Berlin Philharmonic managed it, at a time when concert halls were closed but the two-metre rule had not yet kicked in. At their Digital Concert Hall, for which you can get a free pass if you apply before tomorrow (at digitalconcerthall.com), you can see Simon Rattle conduct the orchestra in a fabulous, turbocharged concert of Berio’s Sinfonia and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, recorded in an otherwise empty hall. As Rattle says in his introduction, it’s hard to know what the etiquette is in such circumstances, and the ending, when he shakes the leader’s hand and formally exits just as usual, feels distinctly odd.
Masaaki Suzuki handles the situation better in a terrific filmed performance of Bach’s St John Passion, when he directs the orchestra and chorus he founded, the Collegium Bach Japan, in the empty Cologne Philharmonie (koelner-philharmonie. de). Before starting, he turns and gives the empty theatre and the online audience a deep, enigmatic bow.
Some orchestras have opted for the perhaps more sensible procedure of giving a sense of liveness to their archive concerts by streaming them at a fixed time. The London Symphony Orchestra is streaming its “concerts” at the normal concert times of 7pm on Sunday and 7.30pm on Thursday (at lso.co.uk) and surrounds them with extra material such as interviews with some of the artists involved. Others, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra (bso.org), are simply making the archive available for people to browse at any time.
In theory, chamber concerts are ideal for streaming purposes – they can be filmed in small spaces, and they
On the website, you can see Simon Rattle lead the orchestra in an otherwise empty hall
create the sense of communal musicmaking that is vital at a time when people feel isolated. But creating them is hard, because it means bringing together musicians at a time when we’re all supposed to maintain “social distance”.
In the first of the regular “Quarantine Soirées” which will be streamed every night by the Budapest Festival Orchestra at bfz.hu, the flautist and pianist maintain a safe distance from each other, and the pianist wears a mask. But the playing is spirited, and the visible signs that the players are enduring just the same problems as the rest of us generates a sense of solidarity.
That feeling is even stronger in the first of the chamber concerts from players in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (facebook.com/ shanghai symphony). All four string players wear masks, but they still manage a beautifully dancing and radiant performance of Haydn’s G major string quartet Opus 54.
The orchestra have been enduring a shutdown since mid-february, and over that time have posted a number of newly filmed chamber concerts under the title “Sound for Love Together”. The most charming one shows the daughter of one of the orchestra’s violinists playing Elgar’s Salut d’amour in duet with her father, while her mother plays the piano. If that doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, nothing will.
Easily the most impressive website in terms of newly recorded concerts is the Vienna State Opera’s. Its first concert, which is still available at staatsoper.de/ en/stream, has Christina Landshamer and Christian Gerhaher singing Schumann (without masks, obviously) and Igor Levit playing Beethoven, as well as the State Opera’s percussionists playing Chick Corea. Future concerts will involve singers, dancers and players from the company and invited stars including Jonas Kaufmann.
Impressive though all this is, the heart of the surge in online musicmaking lies in homemade recordings of solo performances, of which there are thousands in all genres swarming across every kind of online platform. With these, “social distancing” isn’t an issue, and a living room and an iphone is all you need.
Some starry players are involved, including French violinist Renaud Capuçon, who is posting regular short performances on his Twitter feed (@ rcapucon). Meanwhile, Igor Levit, the brilliant and outspoken German-jewish pianist, is posting daily concerts at pscp.tv/igorpianist of typically high-serious music: Beethoven and Schubert sonatas, Schumann’s Fantasie.
Mostly, musicians are using their own platforms, typically a Youtube channel. Violinist Fenella Humphreys used hers to post a performance of just one piece, Biber’s immense Passacaglia. “It’s always icky talking about money,” she says in true English fashion, and then reminds us that thousands of musicians have seen their income plummet to zero, and that a donation wouldn’t go amiss.
Some musicians have thought of ingenious moneymaking wheezes. Cellist Gabriella Swallow will send a surprise musical greeting to a loved one for a fee (patreon.com/ gabriella swallow), and fundraising concerts for musicians in need are now springing up. The most ambitious is the week-long “Live from our Living Rooms” jazz festival set up to support New York musicians, with a very starry line-including Chick Corea, Joe Lovano, Christian Mcbride and many others (livefromourlivingrooms.com).
But all these things are just the tip of the iceberg. The musical scene online is vibrant and immense. And it is just waiting to be enjoyed.
The players wear masks, but still manage a radiant performance