Just in: Bavarian Radio cancels 3 weeks of concerts

Just in: Bavarian Radio cancels 3 weeks of concerts

News

norman lebrecht

January 25, 2022

Message received:

In view of the rapidly increasing omicron infection rate, the Bavarian Radio has decided to suspend the concerts of the symphony orchestra, choir and Munich Radio Orchestra up to and including Wednesday, February 16th.

The musica viva concert with Johannes Kalitzke (28 January), the concerts of the symphony orchestra with Constantinos Carydis (3/4 February) and Franz Welser-Möst (10/11/12 February), the Mahler project of the BR Choir with the Musicbanda Franui (February 12), already planned for the past season, as well as the Sunday concert “The miserly knight” (January 30) and the education concerts “Amazing classical music”. Due to the cancellation, the planned live broadcasts on BR-KLASSIK, both on radio and video stream, are also cancelled….

Bayerischer Rundfunk asks for your understanding for this decision, which was not easy for those involved. In all considerations, the priority for BR is to protect the health of its ensemble members, as well as the technical staff who are involved in concert productions and broadcasts, but also play an essential role in BR’s current reporting. This decision is primarily about ensuring BR’s ability to broadcast.

 

UPDATE: Bavarian State Opera will increase capacity to 50% from this weekend.

Comments

  • Peter says:

    Funny, whilst some countries open up totally and scrap corona passports (UK, Ireland, Denmark), others freeze in total hysteria, close partially down, and force vaccines on their population.

    How can it be so different?

    • Alan says:

      I live in Dublin. Omicron had no impact. More than 20,000 cases a day for three weeks yet hospital numbers barely budged. Other countries should probably take something from that. Same in other countries, including South Africa. It is time to move on I think. And let the unvaccinated play Russian Roulette.

      • La plus belle voix says:

        Good point. We just have to careful, the median age of the population in South Africa is 27, in the UK it is 40. Also, expressed as percentages, the two populations are not only different in terms of numbers infected and recovered to date, but also of various vaccine status.

      • Monsoon says:

        The problem is that the unvaccinated playing Russian roulette take up hospital beds when they get sick; as a result, people with non-COVID illness are then unable to receive medical care because there’s no room for them in hospitals. And when doctors and nurses are surrounded by people who have COVID, they eventually get it, which forces them to quarantine for a week or two, leaving hospitals short staff.

        And this is why hospitals in many western countries are running at capacity and rationing care.

        • Amos says:

          The problem with allowing the unvaccinated to simply suffer the consequences is that it unnecessarily increases the amount of virus circulating throughout society which makes it more likely that the vaccinated experience breakthrough infections and perpetuates the development of new mutations. The failure to get vaccinated against a communicable disease is antithetical to living in an open society.

        • Maria says:

          It is the unvaccinated taking up intensive care beds, and then giving the staff the virus causing them to be off work to isolate, when they and the beds should be there for other emergencies.

      • Maria says:

        Ireland is a tiny country with under 5m people, and 20,000 is a lot. It was totally out of control over there at one stage as all my family are there.

    • Couperin says:

      No one is being forced to take a vaccine. But maybe you should be.

      • Una says:

        Mercifully we don’t do by force in Britain. There is a well-educated and informed choice to be made, not misinformed by the internet and particularly social media going wild wih their fake experts fearmongering. If you choose not to get vaccinated, then expect your freedoms to be curtailed. Every choice in life bears consequences, both good and bad.

    • La plus belle voix says:

      More simple than funny: it depends on the public level of acceptance of excess mortality.

      The UK population is pretty blasé about the high numbers of corona deaths to date.

      Germany’s is less so, and more cautious than hysterical it would seem.

      As for Austria, mandatory vaccination for adults will be introduced soon, with fines but not coercive detention as measures. This must be seen as ultima ratio of state power and may be the only way out of the cycle lockdown — relaxation of measures — lockdown.

      • Peter says:

        Well, 100% vaccinated Gibraltar had a long lockdown even after reaching 100%, and does still have restrictions. The vaccine is not the way out of this.

        But of course, politicians have shut down societies for two years pending vaccines; it would be an limitless and catastrophical admission of mistake to admit that their golden card didn’t provide success. (Easier to blame the unvaccinated.)

        • La plus belle voix says:

          The way out of this is complex. No one measure on its own will help.

          It will surely be a mix of vaccination, medication (both prophylactic and during infection whether asymptomatic or symptomatic), new breathalyser test technology like the “Canary”, and, if we are fortunate, a highly transmissible virus but one with low lethality.

          Woe betide us if Delta and Omicron become buddies and produce a recombinant virus. (The recent scare story in Cyprus was exactly that.)

        • Amos says:

          When they reached the theoretical 100% vaccination rate did they ensure that everyone visiting was fully vaccinated? I doubt they reached 100% internally or demanded that everyone visiting was fully vaccinated. Airborne and highly infectious viruses require everyone to act responsibly.

      • Maria says:

        Again Austria a very small country albeit larger than both Irelands put together bit not much. Austria not even as big as the population of multi-cultural and multi-faith London!!!

    • Maria says:

      We in the UK have a very high uptake of x 3 vaccinations for the vulnerable and elderly, and the appropriate number for other age groups. Still, infections are high and still many deaths, but not as many deaths as this time last year. Our government is far from perfect, but England has been the freest country with its 56m people not 5m, out of all the UK countries and Ireland, and the EU. But it’s not over yet.

  • Thankful to live in England where the virus seems to be subsiding at last, but in advance of many countries.

  • Lausitzer says:

    The update should give an idea why more and more people here in Germany consider the handling of the situation utterly arbitrary and run out of patience. Are we really expected to comprehend such glaring contradictions?

  • Guido says:

    Not only the state opera will increase the audience from 25 to 50%, also some other orchestras in Bayern. Munich Philharmonic will continue to play everything as planned with aprox 1000 listeners in the hall.

  • Karl says:

    In my area many concerts have been cancelled. Boston is holding them, but smaller regional orchestras like Hartford and Nashua and all KAPUT.

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