BBC Music Magazine

Home comforts

With concert engagements and recording sessions cancelled, and forced to share their own company at home, classical musicians have had their normal existences brought to a shuddering, unwelcome halt by coronavirus. In many cases, however, this has by no means meant giving up and doing nothing.

Faced with the challenge of enforced lockdown, performers across the globe have been hugely inventive in finding ways of sharing their talents with audiences via the internet. New repertoire has been learned, skills in filming and multitracking have been finely honed and, in some instances, composers have even been commissioned for the occasion. Here, we present some of the best examples, described by the musicians themselves.

Fenella Humphreys violinist

When every email that came through was another concert cancellation, it became clear I was going to have to adapt. I don’t teach, so I had nothing

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from BBC Music Magazine

BBC Music Magazine1 min read
SoundBites
Esa-Pekka Salonen says he will not be continuing as music director of the San Francisco Symphony when his contract expires next year. ‘I do not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the Board of Governors does,’ was the blunt expl
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
TANEYEV Life&Times
LIFE: Sergei Taneyev is born on 25 November in the Russian city of Vladimir. He begins piano lessons at five, and at nine enters the Moscow Conservatory. TIMES: The Treaty of Paris is signed between Russia and France, Britain and the Ottoman Empire,
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
The BBC Music Magazine PRIZE CROSSWORD NO. 398
The first correct solution of our crossword picked at random will win a copy of The Oxford Companion to Music. A runner-up will win Who Knew? Answers to Questions about Classical Music ( seeoup.co.uk). Send answers to: BBC Music Magazine, Crossword 3

Related Books & Audiobooks