Volume 26 Issue 5 - February 2021

Classical and Beyond
Regulatory
Whiplash
on the
Livestream Scene
PAUL ENNIS
On January 14, the Herculean efforts of The Royal Conservatory
to save as much of their extensive 2020/21 concert season
as possible suddenly turned Sisyphean when the Ontario
government extended and tightened restrictions for everyone in the
province. It was a cruel act of whiplash, after the RCM had managed
to slow-walk a schedule that included four remarkable mid-December
concerts (which I had the good fortune to attend virtually) celebrating
Beethoven’s 250th birthday.
In a subsequent press release detailing the postponement and
rescheduling of all concerts and livestreams until February 11, RCM
added that because of the restrictions they were no longer able to have
artists or production staff create livestreams. “This is a profoundly
disappointing blow to all of us at The Royal Conservatory and to our
artists who were so looking forward to performing.”
I contacted Mervon Mehta, RCM’s executive director, performing
arts, to share his perspective with WholeNote readers. He confirmed
that everything had changed since January 14. “We cancelled 18 days
of concert livestreams, rehearsals and recordings from January 14 to
February 11… Our entire 21C Festival has been postponed.” Is the RCM
lobbying the government, I wanted to know. “Yes,” he said. “Us along
with many others.”
Contextualizing the situation, he said that RCM is acutely aware
of the crisis, not only as a venue that has lost its ability to present
concerts but also as a school. “Obviously,” he said, “the safety of our
students and audience is our highest priority. We have spent months
pivoting, spent thousands on PPE and plexiglass shields, cancelling
[and/or] postponing foreign artists and, since mid-October, presenting
concerts of our own and hosting others – such as the TSO, Against
the Grain’s Messiah/Complex, Opera Atelier’s fall opera and our own
Beethoven Festival of eight full concerts.” Importantly, he points out, a
huge amount of work was generated for exclusively Canadian artists.
When government regulations last October required that the RCM’s
doors be closed to audiences, the Conservatory lobbied to allow
rehearsals and livestreams and were granted that privilege. “We have
had health inspections and musician union reps drop by,” Mehta said,
“and all were very impressed with our protocols and preparedness.
“Hundreds of artists and crew – not to mention students – have
been in the building” he said, “and we have not had a single COVID
case. In fact, concert halls across Ontario have not had a single case
as far as I have heard. Why are we now singled out and had our only
means of revenue taken away (from us, artists, crews etc)?”
He does not downplay the seriousness of COVID. “We all understand,
and we want to do all we can to help Ontario get back to business.
But where is the science that led to this recent decision?” In the
meantime, the RCM is not just waiting to see what happens when
the current restrictions run out;
they are advocating and hoping
for a reversal to the pre-January 14
regulations.
“It must be a world-class juggling
act to keep up with the new
protocol,” I said. “Yes, it is,” Mehta
replied. “Now multiply that by ten
to get artist schedules, Glenn Gould
School schedules, quarantine rules
etc all to align.”
The four December Beethoven
concerts mentioned earlier illustrated
all that was good about the
RCM Koerner Hall experience in
Mervon Mehta
these restrictive times. Despite the
lack of an audience, there was a
feeling of intimacy and the frisson of live performance – I treated each
of the concerts as a destination event, watching them being performed
for the first time in three consecutive evenings (December 10 to 12)
followed by a Sunday matinee (December 13). The changes in repertoire
and performers due to travel restrictions ended up – fortunately –
enhancing the experience. Violinist James Ehnes led a top-notch coterie
of string players in a rare foray into Beethoven’s under-performed
Quintet for strings, Op.29. With its breathtakingly beautiful opening
notes, the second movement’s lovely, innocent, aspirational main tune
and the jaunty lightness of the brief third movement, by the finale,
you could feel the music – its intense building of thematic fragments –
vaulting into a new century, even as it glanced back to the 18th.
Pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin joined Ehnes and the strings for
the welcome opportunity to hear Chausson’s Concerto for Violin,
Piano and String Quartet, which Ehnes called “a totally unique
unicorn of a piece.” Richard-Hamelin carried off the demanding
piano part with aplomb while Ehnes’ beautiful phrasing showcased
the work’s melodious content.
The pandemic prevented Ehnes’ regular pianist, Andrew Armstrong,
from participating in the three-day chronological traversal of
Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas, setting up Stewart Goodyear as his
stellar replacement. Goodyear had less than four weeks to prepare
for works he had never played and four days of rehearsal with Ehnes,
with whom he had played only once before. It reminded Mervon
Mehta – who spoke briefly with Ehnes and Goodyear before each
concert – of Goodyear’s time studying at the Curtis Institute when
Leon Fleisher, his teacher, asked him to learn one of Beethoven’s 32
piano sonatas each week over 33 weeks – he was given two weeks for
NICOLA BETTS
10 | February 2021 thewholenote.com