Just in: Birmingham gets live music back
mainThe good news is that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is resuming concerts next Friday for a real live audience.
The less good news is that the concerts are by a handful of musicians for a maximum of 52 distanced people in the CBSO Centre.
In the first two concerts, ‘Octets of the 20s’, Michael Seal will conduct music by Shostakovich and Varèse, together with a new commission by Grace Evangeline Mason. Tickets £15 from the website.
The hope is that the orchestra can return to Symphony Hall with a larger audience next month.
It’s a start…
Yes, a start but a miserable one given the enormous rise of the virus in the North and in the Midlands of England, everything might start going pear-shaped as per Scotland and the other parts of the United Kingdom.
A larger ensemble (packed together more tightly onstage) and a larger audience (packed together more tightly in the hall) might make the rise of the virus even worse.
“The hope is that the orchestra can return to Symphony Hall with a larger audience next month, safety permitting.”
There. FTFY.