The French culture minister Franck Riester has made 22 million Euros available in compensation to preserve cultural institutions from virus collapse.

Riester himself tested positive for CV and is in self-isolation.

The breakdown is 10 million for music, 5 million for performing arts, 5 million for books and 2 million for visual arts.

Riester said: ‘We must do everything to ensure their survival. It is the very future of our cultural model that is at stake’.

Our occasional diarist Anthea Kreston reflects on her new life, indoors in Oregon.

So here we all are. Inside. At least for another 6 weeks – that’s what the public schools have said. I don’t believe it for a second. I think we are here, in this crazy swirl of paranoid unknown, until September. Concerts and tours and recordings cancelled. Those of us lucky enough to have university or contracted jobs will feel an uneasy comfort, while the vast majority will be spending our time looking at our bank balances, rethinking our budgets, and becoming more adept at digital communication.

I am lucky that I have enough private students to be comfortable – and it’s been interesting to have weekly contact with students in China, Germany, and now – a small group of new students from NYC who are home-bound. Some are just entering the first stages, some are on lock-down, and some have already passed the most crucial times and are bracing for a second wave.

Kevin, my Chinese student who was in lock-down, is now having online school – and he can finally go outside again – he has a group of friends from his apartment block and they play commando games in the courtyard, big winter coat is replaced now by a lighter fleece. His father has been a great resource – well before anyone in the States was even worried, he sent me lists of supplies to get. He said – “get ready – it’s coming there….” We are one of the few families with hand sanitizer, wipes and masks – our shopping was done before shelves were cleared of toilet paper and cough medicine. He has continued to monitor our well-being as a family, and insisted on sending an express package to us with important health items. It’s a comfort to have that resource – to have advice from someone who has been through it.

And so we are all grudgingly getting used to new feelings and skills – Facebook, that double-edged sword, has been a comfort of sorts, seeing people‘s new home Skype setups, feeling even that small bit of togetherness.

We learn to home-school, set up our pantries, lock our doors, and those long-forgotten bread machines are taken out and dusted. Honey-wheat? You betcha. Did did and done. We were fortunate to be able to borrow a guinea pig named Suzie before everything was shut down – it’s been an amazing distraction.

 

Our parents are in the at-risk group – one set in North Vancouver, one in rural Idaho, and one downtown Chicago. It’s funny to get screen shots of their preparations – one has stocked an outside freezer with ice cream, the other making Coq au vin. They seem somehow unaware – not quite realizing their compromised situations – I wonder where their information and advice is coming from, and I wish there were just blanket rules set down, like in other countries, instead of a patchwork of advice, denials, and suggestions.

But we yearn for each other. Classical music, at its core, is a social occupation. We work alone in order to share, and we go to watch or listen so we can be inspired, lose ourselves, connect on a deeper level than anything else in our lives.

And so – my 10 year old daughter and I go to the end of our driveway and play violin and cello duets every day at 12:00. And I have contacted the local retirement home – we are planning some concerts on their lawn so residents can watch from their balconies or windows. It’s for us as much as them. And I am volunteering for our Mutual Aid Society – baking meals and delivering groceries.

Last night, I woke up at 2 (insomnia has really come in full-force). An idea – what about getting a flat-bed truck, a couple of speakers and a mic, and having a Flat-Bed Concert Series. 5 minute solo concerts on different blocks in the community – violin, cello, guitar, voice, electric piano. Just come to your window or door.

Of course we will get through this. Some of us better than others. At best we will be bruised, at worst we will find the jobs we once relied on are now forever gone. But the core of why we love music, this will remain – changed forever, but as strong or stronger than ever.

The Boston Symphony has prepared a raft of activities during its Corona closure.

Among them:
Six weeks of daily curated audio offerings available each weekday morning at 10 a.m. through www.bso.org/athome, starting Monday, March 23.

Video from previously released BSO productions, including “BSO360” and “Tanglewood Tales,” that take viewers on a behind the scenes adventure of the BSO’s activities in Boston and at Tanglewood, available through the BSO’s YouTube channel or through www.bso.org/athome

Self-produced videos from BSO musicians and conductors featuring anecdotes, personal reflections and insights, and short informal performances, as they stay at home during the coronavirus outbreak, to be released periodically through the BSO’s social media channels.

WCRB 99.5 FM to present “BSO Encores: Nightly@8”, Monday-Saturday, 8-10 p.m., starting Monday, March 23, at 8 p.m., spotlighting favorite Boston Symphony Orchestra live-recorded broadcasts from the past five seasons, including performances under the direction of Andris Nelsons.

It’s David Garrett. Stay where you are.

 

Starting at 5pm UK time, noon US East Coast musicians of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra will play Beethoven violin sonatas op 30 and the late string quartet, op 130.

The musicians are the New Helsinki Quartet (members of FRSO) with Laura Vikman, principal 2nd violin and Kirill Kozlovski piano.

Watch here.

The summer festival has postponed its start until mid-July, a new statement says:

…. In light of the Government’s strong advice to avoid public gatherings in spaces such as theatres, we have taken the difficult decision to delay the start of the Glyndebourne Festival until Tuesday 14 July 2020. All scheduled performances until that date have been cancelled, and we will be producing a revised schedule to be shared shortly. Please check Glyndebourne.com or follow our social media channels for updates.

This has not been an easy decision to make, and we understand that these cancellations will come as hugely disappointing news to our audience and Company members. This will result in the loss of vital livelihood for many artists and seasonal staff. We are offering ticket holders the opportunity to donate the value of their tickets, in full or in part, to help support Glyndebourne and these crucial members of our family. As a financially independent charity that receives no public subsidy for the Festival, we rely on the income it generates and the generosity of individuals and companies to make our work possible.

We understand that it may not be possible to make this donation so are also offering a full refund.

 

He has sent a handwritten message to the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, the youth orchestra that he founded in Ravenna.

And they’ve been posting videos to keep the music alive.

We are informed of the death of Jesus Velez, a popular tenor in the chorus of Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia in Madrid.

It appears other singers have been diagnosed since a performance of St Matthew’s Passion on March 5th.

 

The Shanghai String Quartet, resident ensemble at the Tianjin Juilliard School’s has dismissed  violinist Yi-Wen Jiang over some offensive remarks he made online.

The Quartet has posted: Effective immediately, the Shanghai Quartet has accepted the resignation of violinist Yi-Wen Jiang. We begin the search for his replacement, and we look forward to sharing the next chapter of community and music with you all soon.

Yi-Wen Jiang said: I feel deeply guilty. I will deeply reflect on all the wrong words in the past and express my deepest apologies to the people across the country.

More here (in Chinese).

 

The veteran producer Richard Bradburn, a master-restorer of old EMI tapes for such series as Great Recordings of the Century, has died of a heart attack at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, compounded by Coronavirus.

Richard allied profound knowledge of music to passion, energy and unfailing friendliness.

 

 

 

Deutsche Grammophon has organised a boutique concert.

Deutsche Grammophon would like to share the news that tonight we will live-stream a special concert by Konzerthaus Berlin and rbbKultur for you, on our YouTube and Facebook channels. Our wonderful artists Daniel Hope, Lang Lang – 郎朗, Avi Avital, Max Raabe and others will perform stunning chamber repertoire in an intimate setting with a maximum of 2-3 musicians on stage at a time. The arts have always played a vital role in times of crisis, and tonight our friends – our artists, will also express solidarity with all fellow freelance musicians who are currently unable to perform live for their fans and who may therefore be facing hardship.


Who wants to review it for Slipped Disc?

Vladimir Urin, general director of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, has been taken to hospital with a respiratory virus infection. He is being tested for COVID-19.

The theatre was shut yesterday by government order, along with almost all other cultural institutions in Russia.