In October, the New York City-based Orpheus Chamber Orchestra headed to a bandshell in Hillsdale, New Jersey to perform the streamed world premiere of a new English translation of Franz Grillparzer’s narrative text for Beethoven’s Incidental Music from Egmont. The outdoor, socially distanced performance, featuring soprano Karen Slack and actor Liev Schreiber as narrator, was the first time the orchestra performed together since January 2020. Beethoven’s work is based on Goethe’s historical drama about a hero defying foreign occupiers; Orpheus commissioned the new translation of Grillparzer’s text from playwright Philip Boehm to address today’s social and political issues. In addition, smaller groups of Orpheus musicians traveled to Bronxville, New York and Morristown, New Jersey to perform in a parking lot at the Morris Museum overlooking fall foliage, as part of the museum’s “Lot of Strings Music Festival.” Audiences sat on lawn chairs in assigned parking spaces marked by chalk, with many bringing picnic spreads and blankets. Repertoire included Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, Franz Hasenoehrl’s deconstruction of Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel, and works by Brahms, Beethoven, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky.
