Author: Mike Rush

“Almost anyone who has thrilled to the exclamation marks of the triangle in a Brahms symphony or fairy-dust accents of the small metallic instrument in a Liszt piano concerto knows the work of Alan Abel,” writes Peter Dobrin in Monday’s (4/27) Philadelphia Inquirer. “He wasn’t only a longtime percussionist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, but a builder of instruments. His particular take on the orchestral triangle was so successful that it became used in orchestras all over. Mr. Abel, 91, also taught widely … and performed as a substitute player with the Philadelphia Orchestra long after his 1997 retirement from the group. He died Saturday, April 25 … from complications of coronavirus. [At the Philadelphia Orchestra] he began as third percussionist in 1959 … and became associate principal in 1988…. More than a third of notable American orchestras have a percussionist who studied with Mr. Abel or with one of his students, said Philadelphia Orchestra timpanist Don S. Liuzzi. He had been slated to lead a class via Zoom on April 21 but was hospitalized the day before, said Mr. Abel’s daughter, Marianne. ‘He was the type of teacher who could make anybody better,” said Peter Wilson, a freelance percussionist based in Phoenix who studied with Mr. Abel at Temple and privately.”

“The legendary orchestra and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko will perform Arvo Pärt and Mahler in the resumption of music at the Berlin Philharmonie,” writes Kyle Macdonald in Monday’s (4/27) Classic FM (U.K.). “Across the world, measures to slow the spread of coronavirus have meant an abrupt halt to live music performances and in-person gatherings of musicians.… As part of Europe has flattened the curve of COVID-19 cases, some governments have eased social distancing guidelines…. Public performances by the Berlin Philharmonic were suspended from 11 March as the German capital entered lockdown. But now it has been announced that Friday 1 May will make a significant moment, as members will … play as an orchestra for the first time in weeks. Friday’s concert will strictly adhere to current social distancing guidelines in Germany, with players forming a chamber orchestra, spaced apart from one another on stage. The program includes Arvo Pärt‘s Fratres, music by Ligeti, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and a chamber version of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with soprano Christiane Karg. There will be no audience present in the Philharmonie, but the performances will be live-streamed for free via the orchestra’s Digital Concert Hall.”

“In the old normal, 13,000 picnic-basket-toting patrons would pack [Tanglewood’s] green space to see James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma or Mahler’s Ninth,” write Geoff Edgers and Peggy McGlone in Tuesday’s (4/28) Washington Post. “Earlier this month … the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s emergency task force [mapped] out a seating chart that incorporated social-distancing guidelines … and knocked capacity below 4,000…. At the Kennedy Center, with a June opening of ‘Hamilton’ in the 2,300-seat Opera House seeming unlikelier with each COVID-19 spike, there has been a renewed focus on offering other programming at the organization’s more intimate annex, the Reach… The launching of this new normal is a sensitive one…. That’s why the Boston Symphony’s president, Mark Volpe, politely declined to release the socially distanced map of Tanglewood … one of several [scenarios] being considered for 2020…. ‘We don’t want to create false hope,’ says Volpe…. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who also serves as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, says, … ‘Even though all the evidence says flying is safe, I have a fear that will make me drive 40 hours to a gig.’ … He pictures himself back onstage in July, ‘As soon as it’s not endangering people to be onstage,’ he says.’ ”

When Deborah Borda became the New York Philharmonic’s president and CEO in 2017, “little could Borda have known that, while having made remarkable strides in less than three New York seasons, her role would suddenly be to save the New York Philharmonic, and possibly by her example help to save other American orchestras” during a pandemic when live concerts are not possible, writes Mark Swed in Wednesday’s (4/29) Los Angeles Times. “ ‘We don’t have the information we need to make the right kinds of decisions to look at the way forward. But we’re putting it together. We’ve got to do the best we can to help people out.’… She also knows that it is imperative to be honest about the situation. ‘The next couple of months,’ she confessed, ‘are very unknown. But times of this kind of catastrophe are times for really reimagining what you can do and bringing people along … ‘… Borda does not see a way for programs to be given anywhere this summer… ‘I say to the orchestra … just imagine the day when … you start to play, and then we have a concert.… I think about it all the time and how I’ll cry and get all choked up. It will happen. It will happen.’ ”

“The San Francisco Symphony plans to cancel all the remaining concerts of its 2019-20 season, as well as the entire summer lineup through the end of August,” writes Joshua Kosman in Wednesday’s (4/29) San Francisco Chronicle. “The announcement, made on Wednesday, April 29, reflects a long-anticipated acknowledgment that the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social-distancing guidelines it has made necessary, are likely to be with us for the foreseeable future…. The cancellations of 64 concerts, dating back to … March 9, will create a net loss of $5.4 million…. To close the gap, the orchestra’s musicians, stagehands and staff will take salary cuts averaging 25% for the period of April 19 through Sept. 5. Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas will not receive any compensation for the missed performances. CEO Mark C. Hanson said he anticipated that the salary cuts and other cost-cutting measures would be enough to keep the organization financially stable through the end of the fiscal year, Aug. 31.… Hanson said the orchestra is planning to increase its online offerings…. ‘We are hoping to be able to engage in normal concert activity in September,’ Hanson said. “But we are also scenario-planning in multiple directions.’ ”

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 100th-anniversary concert last fall will be telecast nationally on PBS’s Great Performances on Friday, May 8; the program will also be streamed at the PBS website and PBS video app. The October 24, 2019 concert took place at Walt Disney Concert Hall exactly 100 years after the orchestra’s first performance in 1919 and featured all three of the orchestra’s living music directors—current Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor Emeritus Zubin Mehta, and Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen. The program features Lutosławski’s  Symphony No. 4 (conducted by Salonen); Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Ravel’s La Valse (conducted by Mehta); and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (conducted by Dudamel). The three conductors led the orchestra in Daníel Bjarnason’s From Space I Saw Earth, featuring the orchestra plus fifteen Youth Orchestra Los Angeles students and five teaching artists positioned throughout the concert hall. Check local listings, pbs.org/gperf, and the PBS Video app for details.

“English National Opera has announced plans for what are thought to be the world’s first drive-in opera performances,” writes Mark Brown in Friday’s (4/24) Guardian (U.K.). “Planned for the first three weeks of September, the idea is to stage live performances in the grounds of Alexandra Palace, north London, with musicians and singers spaced out to conform with physical distancing guidelines. If successful, ENO hopes to roll out the ‘Drive & Live’ concept to other parts of the UK. Stuart Murphy, ENO’s chief executive … said the company had been thinking about the concept before the coronavirus outbreak, but had accelerated the plans…. The audience would be in 300 cars…. People on motorbikes and pedal cycles would also be allowed…. The first 12 performances will be a shortened 90-minute version of Puccini’s La Bohème and a one-hour family-friendly version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The first show will be free for NHS and frontline workers.… Some countries have allowed drive-in cinemas to remain open during the lockdown…. Essen and Cologne [theaters] both have sold out for every screening since Germany’s lockdown was declared. Makeshift drive-ins are also popping up around the country.”