3 more artists quit BBC Proms
NewsCovid is wreaking havoc with even limited travel plans.
The Dane Thomas Dausgaard, chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony, will miss Saturday’s Prom ‘owing to scheduling issues arising from the pandemic’. Ilan Volkov steps in.
François Leleux and Eric Le Sage have quit Monday’s chamber recitals at Cadogan Hall. Ther subs are Olivier Stankiewicz (oboe) and Huw Watkins (piano).
I think this oft-used excuse means: “I have another booking before/after the Prom which I do not wish to jeopardise…”
Let us then assume that you have access to these artists’ diaries.
They’re nearly all fine British artists anyhow, and very grateful to be there.
Get your shots, folks !
The pandemic is a great excuse.
It works for all occasions.
And it is politically neutral.
We assume you too have undergone two weeks’ quarantine in squalid state accommodation in some far-flung corner of the world, with barely edible food brought to your cramped hotel room three times a day and secret police making sure you do not leave.
No, I just continued business as usual but told everyone I was unavailable due to the pandemic.
It was like a sabbatical.
Most of my earnimgs went towards health insurance, so I don’t feel guilty.
Quitting is a very harsh word to use under the circumstances. Either they’re coming from places that would require them to quarantine in the UK, or they would be returning after their performances to places that would require them to quarantine because they’d come from the UK, or they simply don’t want to deal with the expense and hassle of multiple tests before, during, and after coming to the UK. How, for example, are you supposed to do a Day Two test if you only wanted to come for one night? Sympathy and understanding should be in order, not cheap sneering.
Business travellers have always been exempt. The problem must lie elsewhere.
Presumably these bookings antedate the pandemic era.
However, it certainly looks as though musicians need to work as close to their home base as possible, for the foreseeable future.
That would seem to be the most prudent course of action, anyway.
These Proms have been a covid compromise from the planning stage onwards. Ask David Pickard: the answer? a necessary DCMS -pushed prelude for Oliver Dowden’s “essential cultural milestone” of the appalling Last Night patriotism.
Has anyone been this year? It’s hardly a stellar roster…
Not surprised about Dausgaard. No sign of him in Seattle during the entire pandemic.