Musikfest 1: A Cautious Return

Few of us could have known back in February how suddenly our concert seasons would come to an end. Even as the first instances of COVID-19 were reported in Europe and governments started bracing themselves for a public health crisis of uncertain scale, there remained a strange optimism among cultural institutions that the whole thing would pass quickly and things would be back to ‘normal’ before too long. A few orchestras and opera houses offered digital broadcasts of concerts in empty auditoriums, and many continued rehearsals for upcoming productions. By early March, however, it was apparent that the pandemic was far more serious than anyone had initially imagined and, within the span of about a week, nearly every cultural organisation announced that the remainder of their season would be cancelled. The musical life of cities around…