Upbeat

Not fade away

When things get tough, music will find new ways to keep our spirits up...

We can plan all we like, but when something totally unexpected like COVID-19 comes along and puts our daily routines firmly on hold, events of all kinds are suddenly wiped from the calendar. For anyone who loves live music it can be depressing to watch the days slipping by, and with them all the events which have been carefully marked on the calendar since they were first announced. After all, the promise of good times ahead and among friends is something we’ve come to associate with the arrival of summer.

Of course, for musicians the rewards of playing on stage before a live audience aren’t the only things to have been abruptly snatched away. Delivering a well rehearsed performance in this kind of situation is only possible after long hours of hard work for everyone involved. Musicians are social animals and feed off the kind of creative chemistry which requires familiarity and close communication, so being unable to rehearse together and keep everything in the repertoire sounding as it should is hard to take. Not surprisingly then, the enforced period of confinement has inspired resourceful musicians to find new ways of playing together while apart. Using modern video-conferencing software and broadband connections, some of the biggest names in the business (and from diverse musical genres) have not only performed together, albeit in a virtual environment, but have also explored the kind of creative collaborations we thought we’d never see.

It didn’t stop there. Performances televised from grand concert halls are nothing new, but on 28 May violinist Renaud Capuçon and a 23-piece orchestra performed “Metamorphosen” (composer Richard Strauss) from the Grande Salle Pierre Boulez at the Philharmonie de Paris. Nothing strange there, you might think, but for the fact that the 2,400-seat auditorium was empty, save for a handful of technicians – masked, of course, to comply with social distancing requirements. Members of the orchestra, on the other hand, were simply seated 1m or more apart. The concert was transmitted live to viewers of TV channel Arte, and was also recorded – you can enjoy the performance here: live.philharmoniedeparis.fr

While online performances like these succeeded in lifting our collective spirits, we should also spare a thought for the countless people who work behind the scenes in the entertainment sector, and for whom the immediate outlook is pretty bleak. They include the sound and lighting technicians, riggers, scenery and costume designers, cleaners, caterers, security staff and management teams who are all employed in static venues throughout France, not to mention a whole host of their counterparts (along with transport crews) who come together to work on touring productions.

The recent cautious relaxations announced by the government were obviously intended to allow most of us to get back to something approaching normality in our everyday lives, but are unlikely to provide much comfort for those whose livelihoods depend on concert and theatre productions. If and when a vaccine becomes available we’ll all be able to party as before, but until then social distancing looks like being the new normality, and we’ll just have to learn to find ways to live with it. So where exactly does that leave live music? Both organisers and artists are just waiting for the green light, so keep a watchful eye on their websites and social media pages for news.