Going back while waiting to go forward

 With the New Year here I plan to start writing in this space again, although at first likely not on a weekly basis as before.  It has been a slow process for me to return to anything resembling normalcy of course, so for now I will content myself with simply contributing some thoughts as they happen, usually on an occasional basis.

A long tradition for New Year's Day evening for Sophie and sometimes for me was to tune in to WNED-PBS to watch the annual New Year's Concert from Vienna.  For years we would watch the late Walter Cronkite host it, later Julie Andrews and now Hugh Bonneville of Downton Abbey fame.

Of course I tuned in this year, for Sophie, and the cats and I snuggled as we watched the music play out as it always does.  I noted social distancing at play in the audience of course, with masks present for audience members as well they should be.  Yes, that gilded hall was not full to capacity again this year but those who attended were bound and determined to get their Viennese fix to start the year.

I noted though the orchestra members were not socially distanced and there were no masks on those that could while still playing their chosen instrument.  It's funny how you notice these things now and although from a safety standpoint the optics were bad, I am sure the powers that be made sure they did what they could to ensure the musicians' safety.

As always the concert was a pleasure to watch.  I know a lot of the music is heard year after year, particularly the last two encore pieces, On The Beautiful Blue Danube by Strauss the younger and the Radedsky March by Strauss the elder.

There were some tantalizing diversions though, such as a collection of the short dances by Beethoven, which prompted me afterwards to dig my copy of the complete set out of my CD collection to listen to the following day.

After that bright and happy start to the New Year, I started searching through the collected shows still on our PVR of earlier concerts and I found two:  the New Year's concert from 2020 as well as an open air summer concert from 2019.  Before I touch on those, though, a bit of a technological diversion here.

We acquired our PVR in 2018 as part of the package of phone/television/internet services provided by our chosen supplier, currently Bell.  It took awhile for Sophie to get used to the channel changes and such but she got up to speed far quicker than I did, as she did with the PVR operation as well.  I sometimes simply gave up and handed the remote to her to figure out.

Thankfully I am more or less up to speed now that I am on my own.  With no opposable thumbs the two cats are no help at all...

But it wasn't always that way around here.  Sophie was what you might call a slow adopter of new technology.  We for years simply made do with rabbit ears for television reception until digital signals rendered that practice obsolete.  We started years ago with basic analogue cable which upped our channel selection from about 10 to something like 34.  Sophie was like a kid in the candy store going through the remote and saying repeatedly "Oh! We get that!"

The next big advance, albeit a difficult one, was acquiring our first DVD player.  Sophie never saw the need for anything other than her trusty old VCR player that weighed a ton.  Then one January I took the $50 gift card for Canadian Tire I got at the company Christmas party to buy a snazzy new DVD player on sale in the Canadian Tire flyer.  It was $49.95.

Well.  Sophie was not amused.  "What do we need that for?" she queried.  I tried to sell her on the benefits of the then-new technology to no avail.  But then a wondrous thing happened.  About a week later at dinner Sophie admitted I had made a wise purchase and thanked me for it!  She listed all the things she could do with DVDs that were simply not doable on a VCR recorder or much more difficult.  And oh my, all that bonus material you got on the DVD too!  

She was one happy girl.  I licked my finger and marked an imaginary "one" in the air.  Score one for me!

I mention this because in hindsight Sophie quickly took to the PVR unlike anything else I had ever seen, to the point she probably would have barricaded the door should I ever try to dispose of it.

So that brings me to the collected shows still stored on the thing.  Many early ones Sophie recorded are still there and I will get to them.  Two of those were the aforementioned Viennese concerts.

The New Year's 2020 concert was quite fascinating insofar as it was mere months before the world changed due to the pandemic.  I sat there looking at that full audience, sitting side by side and never dreaming of wearing a mask, and wondered aloud if they even imagined what they were in for in mere months.  

I also wondered - hoped actually - we might be that carefree again while in a public space.  Time will tell...

I also, and this is me speaking as a man who likes to dress properly while in public, scorned more than a few male orchestra members for not having their shirt collars and ties properly done up for a concert being watched by millions around the world.  But that's just me...

The summer outdoor concert from 2019, conducted on that occasion by the young firebrand conductor Gustavo Dudamel was far more interesting on several levels.  This was my first time watching him conduct rather than just hearing him, and the fact he conducted the entire concert from memory with no score present was quite impressive.  I have often thought other conductors surely could do this on a regular basis as well.

Using a baton for most of the concert, he only deviated from this practice once on that occasion, using his very expressive hand gestures to conduct the Barber Adagio for Strings.  It was a pleasure to watch.

The entire summer concert that year was American music, save for a couple of encore pieces.  The music was universally warmly received each and every time.

But that brings me to the outdoor audience on that summer night in 2019.  I noted they were overwhelmingly younger in age, in stark contrast to what you would normally see in North America where symphony orchestra concerts appear to be largely attended by an older generation of music lovers.  Indeed, this is in Europe I told myself, where musical appreciation is much more ingrained into the national psyche in many countries.

I have written in this space many times the need for many arts organizations, not just orchestras, to find ways to lower the age demographic of their audiences if they are to survive, and this concert highlighted the need even more.

On this night, 85,000 concert goers sat on the surrounding lawns and casually dined while listening intently to the music, appreciating every piece, including that very quiet and string-filled Barber Adagio I mentioned.

Of course all ages were represented at this concert but I noted more of a younger demographic was present and that I found encouraging.  If classical and near-classical music is to survive we have to grow the audience from a young age.

During an encore that deviated from the American theme by presenting a requisite Viennese waltz, I was struck by the number of people in the audience, again many younger couples, who immediately got up, moved to an open area nearby and started waltzing with the music.  Beautifully too!  Would we ever see that here?  Perhaps, but not often I suspect.  

It was noted during the broadcast the government sponsored the event, making it a free event for the 85,000 attendees.  That might be the crux of the problem of course.  State sponsorship of the arts is far higher in Europe than it is here and that is a fact of life in North America.  But what a vivid example of what more state funding of the arts can achieve I thought!

Overall, both flashback episodes from the PVR brought back memories personal and otherwise for me, and I quietly thanked Sophie for having the presence of mind to record them for me to enjoy now.

She always knew what she was doing...

Thanks, love.

January 15th, 2022.