Esa-Pekka cancels London with Covid
OrchestrasMessage from the Philharmonia Orchestra about Sunday’s bleeding chunks concert with Bryn Terfel:
Esa-Pekka Salonen has tested positive for Covid, and regrets that he is unable to conduct this performance.
We are grateful to Alexander Soddy for stepping in at short notice. Soddy has conducted at opera houses around Europe, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and in Tokyo. He made his Royal Opera House debut in 2022 in acclaimed productions of Salome and Tannhäuser. Read more about him here.
The programme remains unchanged.
Who still gets Covid, let alone gets tested ? So 2022 …
People still get Covid, some are barely sick, some more so, some die, some get long Covid-that’s fun if you know anybody who has it
Who still gets tested? Old geezers, like me, with an immunosuppressive condition for more than half my life. Every Monday, I participate in Austria’s „Alles Gurgelt“ programme and will continue till it ends in June. And I still have two boxes of antigen test kits.
You see, I voraciously adhered to all the restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic, even getting PCR tests on the days of performances so I could attend a concert or opera or ballet that night when proof at the door was a requisite.
On Christmas night, I attended a performance of „La fille du regiment“ at Staatsoper and wore my FFP2 mask during the show. Afterwards, I went with a colleague to the Hotel Bristol and sat in the lobby (the bar was overrun with British tourists) and had three Manhattans … with my mask off. Two days later I tested positive and was knocked-out for all of January.
I hate to take the bate on this comment but… A lot of people are getting Covid because we are still in a pandemic.
In the U.S. alone, there are some 150,000 recorded cases a week, though that number is a dramatic undercount due to home testing. Hundreds more are dying of Covid every day. If you don’t test when you’re feeling sick or suspect exposure, you’re acting selfishly and recklessly toward your fellow humans.
This is why I won’t attended concerts, even with an N95 mask. It’s not worth the risk given that there are people with this sort of attitude.
Springsteen had to cancel a lot of dates
He and some of the band have covid
Salonen is some 65 years old, I’d imagine that he’s a prime candidate for the worst of covid side effects. You cannot go about your daily activities in proper form with those kinds of symptoms, let the man rest!
Did we need to know its Covid? Why do people feel a need to share the details of everything across social and MSM?
Alex Soddy is a great replacement……He is very similar to his one time boss Kiril Petrenko. His absolute dedication to forensic clarity and detail ,combined with fantastic grasp of the architecture of a piece reminds me very often of Kiril P. I have never experienced anything less than a thought provoking, richly rewarding performance under his baton,both in the pit and on stage…He is certainly in for a huge career.
My question, however, is why he ADDED three horns (total of seven) and one trumpet (total of four) to Bruckner 6? (Or was this a Salonen decision?) There is enough Angst over Bruckner versions (which no.6 is usually free of) without reorchestrating them on the fly.
Bruckner symphonies are often done with four trumpets,same as Tchaikovsky´s….The principal trumpet often gets an assistant to cover for him in a few spots,so he can concentrate on the most demanding stuff.And sometimes also add a bit of force in the climaxes.
I recall an extra trombone as well.