Musicians are not strangers to PPE: many orchestral players wear hearing protection during rehearsals—and at post-concert after-parties (useful when avoiding drunken fans). However, few instrumentalists and singers, even those involved in hospital concerts and music therapy, are used to wearing masks. When members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra donned black facewear for a recent broadcast from Prague’s Rudolfinum, the effect was striking.
It was also, unintentionally, rather comical. Having a gaping hole to gain access to the mouth —as woodwind and brass players need—presumably negates many of the protective qualities. Besides, any instrument that relies on breath to create sound (including voice) is not ideal to be around during a pandemic. There’s a reason why brass players often bring a towel on stage.
As we continue to navigate a semi-lockdown existence, ensembles such as the Czech Phil are taking an important interim step: the live-streamed concert. Many organisations, including the country-house opera companies, have been sharing archive performances, but now it’s possible for some performances to resume, albeit to empty halls.
This year’s Proms will comprise a mixture of formats, opening with the BBC Grand Virtual Orchestra, where performers contribute from their respective locations, and ending with a Last Night held at the Royal Albert Hall. Whether there will be any flag-waving prommers present remains to be seen.
Denne historien er fra June 17, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra June 17, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
