The Japanese conductor Kazushi Ono has been testing Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo with scientists from Keio University in an attempt to ascertain safe distances between players that are also musically viable.
We reproduce part of his report below but the findings are encouraging – 90cm between string players and 1.3m between winds and strings.
On 11 and 12 June, the players of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and I took part in trials in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall, in cooperation with Keio University and Saint Marianna School of Medicine. Our goal was to find the delicate balance between creating sanitary conditions and making music, and to explore the possibilities of orchestral playing post-Covid, while reassuring the musicians….
European trials have recommended distances of 1.5m and 2m (including studies by Freiburg University in cooperation with Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Berlin’s Charité Medical University with seven Berlin orchestras). We started with 2m between musicians, each with their own stand. This meant that only one person from each section could be at the front, as there wasn’t enough space for two people on the front desk. The number of players in each section was 8–7–6–5–2: a total of 29. With 2m distancing, they were spread far apart and filled the stage, so there was no room for any more – either strings or winds. We also kept 2m between the conductor and front desks, and there was an acrylic board between us.
On the first day we were strings only, with a programme of the Prelude and Air from Grieg’s Holberg Suite and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings (first and fourth movements). I chose the Holberg Suite because the score includes many divisi, so it’s a good test of how divided parts sound and how the musicians can play together when they’re so far apart. They couldn’t hear each other very well and the players on the back desks couldn’t see the conductor properly. It was clear that 2m is difficult to accept from the point of view of musical quality.
Taking account of these results, our medical adviser, Dr Kawase from Saint Marianna School of Medicine, proposed that we take closer positions, under the presumption that non-speaking string musicians wearing masks are not at danger of infection. So, we tried 1.5m, which meant that there was space for more musicians to join us on stage – the formation was 10–9–8–6–4, with a total of 37 players…..
The composer-friendly Sergey Yakovenko has died at 82.
He premiered works by Valentin Silvestrov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, Valery Gavrilin, Nikolai Sidelnikov, Grigory Frid and more.
The competition began this morning and the names have just gone up on the website.
Finnegan Downie Dear (UK)
Killian Farrel (Ireland)
Orr Guy (Israel)
Andreas Hansen (Sweden)
Thomas Jung (Germany)
Piero Lombardi Iglesias (Spain)
Harry Ogg (UK)
Mikhail Shektman (Russia)
Christian Vazquez (Venezuela)
Katharina Wincor (Austria)
Yesterday’s online Israel Philharmonic concert, hosted by Helen Mirren, was disrupted by cyberattackers.
Viewers trying to log in to the Medici.tv platform had their access blocked. After 20 minutes of logjam and disruption, Catherine Lou, chief financial officer for American Friends of the IPO, notified 13,000 pre-registered concertgoers that the concert had been ‘cyber attacked by someone trying to sabotage the event.’
Both IPO and Medici sites crashed. Both have now been restored. You can watch the full concert below.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Helen Mirren, in her closing remarks, said: ‘Stay safe and know that this will pass. But music will be with us forever. Thank God for music.’
Artrix was opened in the English Midlands in 2005. Michael Turner reports for Slipped Disc on its sad demise.
Community and amateur music and culture has always struggled to survive. Often existing purely on ticket income and member subscriptions, many choirs, music clubs, orchestras and similar have found their precarious existence further threatened as a result of Covid-19. Depending on where lockdown struck in their season, many organisations have found their finances undermined through costs incurred for events that had to be cancelled. Inevitably, this lack of activity has had a knock-on effect to other parts of the cultural food-chain, with extra players, soloists, conductors, instrument hirers and venues among the “support services” to suffer.
So it has been at Artrix, a relatively new venue in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, which has recently ceased to operate. Designed by architect Glenn Howells, this acclaimed, multi-arts venue opened in 2005. Its modest size, seating just over 500 across its two spaces, made it an ideal location for community activities, providing a venue for rehearsals, classes, workshops and performances. In musical terms, unusually for the type of building, the acoustics were first-rate, offering a more than respectable alternative to the churches of Worcestershire. An excellent and diverse music programme involved local ensembles (including The Redditch Orchestra, Elgar Chorale, Worcester Youth Jazz Orchestra), along with national and international artists, many of whom appeared as part of the Bromsgrove Festival. Notable musical events included complete cycles of the Beethoven and Shostakovich quartets.
For the populace of Bromsgrove, and nearby Droitwich, Redditch, Stourport-on-Severn and Alvechurch, in addition to music, Artrix offered access to comedy, drama, dance and live streamings, reducing the need to trek into Birmingham or Worcester.
So, Artrix has gone. Struggling for a viable existence since 2018, when funding from Bromsgrove District Council, Heart of Worcestershire College and Worcestershire County Council was withdrawn, due to local government cuts, the Artrix charity found it impossible to meet the venue running-costs during the lockdown, despite having furloughed its small staff. There has been the expected petition raised to see Artrix saved. However, with local government’s commitment to culture having mostly withered away, there is the inevitable question: who can make it work? Comparable venues the country over will be asking similar questions.
With the national focus of the cultural community being on iconic venues and arts organisations surviving Covid-19, where does that leave the amateur and community sector? The societal glue that this sector provides has seemingly never been valued by successive Governments, before Covid-19. I posed a question about the need to sustain community and amateur music and culture to the DCMS, early in the lockdown. I received a reply pointing me to the support to be gained from Arts Council England, whose coffers are already empty. This, however, was targeted at the professional sector. So, while we know that some high-profile arts exponents have had contact with the Government over the post-Covid-19 cultural landscape, we need a strong voice to defend amateur and community cultural provision. Without it, certain communities will undoubtedly start to come unglued.
press release:
This summer the Greek National Opera presents a series of events at archaeological sites all over Greece. In response to the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Sports to make use of the archaeological sites across the country during the summer, the Greek National Opera has spearheaded this exciting initiative All of Greece, One culture with a series of events highlighting its multifaceted artistic mark, curated by Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis.
From 18 July to 15 September 20 different music, opera, operetta, and dance programmes and tributes will visit 70 archaeological sites, for a total of 111 performances. Under the unprecedented conditions we are all facing, the events will mark a return to the relationship between artists and audience, and will be held in compliance with the instructions and official guidelines of the authorities.
On 18 July 2020 the Greek National Opera is back, launching the summer-long national festival from the Ministry of Culture and Sports celebrating arts and culture at archaeological sites around Greece – “All of Greece, One culture”.
The festival launches with a symbolic concert starring one of the most distinguished mezzo-sopranos of our time, Anita Rachvelishvili, at the exceptional archaeological site at the foot of the Acropolis, the Roman Agora. This unique operatic experience will be streamed live around the world.
In these 20 programmes curated by the GNO, emphasis is given to creation of Greek music, from traditional songs to sophisticated music, including selections from opera and classical music that remain staples in the GNO repertory, and in addition a dance repertoire by the members of the GNO Ballet.
