The virtual concert hall

The NZSO Shed Series: coherence and variety while keeping the Shed focus on contemporary music, New Zealand composers and a sense of fun.

Years ago there was a campaign called “I love a live performance” - I had the bumper sticker.  As the weeks roll over and it’s now two months since I’ve been part of a live audience, and there’s no immediate prospect of this changing, I’m thinking about what I miss most. Perhaps the shared communal experience in the concert hall? The opportunity to chat informally at interval about the performance and repertoire?  The invisible but often palpable electricity between the musicians on the stage?

It’s all of these. Resourceful and inventive musicians and music organisations in New Zealand and elsewhere have meanwhile made concerts available online and some weeks during lockdown it was hard to keep up with it all. I’ve also had to work out how to stream them most successfully to my ears and eyes – from iPhone through headphones, on laptop, or – the one I’m now happiest with – on YouTube on a smart TV.

And there are advantages, of course. No commute to the concert hall, no car-parking, flexibility of timing since almost all concerts remain available online. Clever technology, like the collaborative Acapella app, means musicians can play duets  - or even trios  - with themselves. Social media streaming at the initial broadcast offers a chance to see who else is at the virtual concert and to chat in the comments. Audiences have often been larger than most venues could accommodate and soloists from the other side of the world have joined in.  And the big question - will this kind of concert experience continue once live events resume?

The NZSO began with “Playing our part” – locked down musicians sharing favourite pieces from their living rooms. We heard lovely playing, had intriguing glimpses of the lives behind the music and some remarkable ensemble work from different locations. It was appealing but the random collection of repertoire was not always satisfying as a “concert”. Next came more successful themed offerings, Sunday Beethoven, the Sei Solo Bach series, and the three-concert Shed Series. The latter were perhaps best suited to the virtual concert hall, where audiences need to be relaxed  - and forgiving of occasional presentation lapses.

The informality of live concerts in Wellington’s waterfront Shed 6 in the pre-COVID past attracted a diverse multi-generational audience and these online ‘Shed Streams’ maintained that approach. Timed for early evening, they fitted well with a glass of wine and a wander to the kitchen for a snack. Expertly curated by Hamish McKeich, the NZSO’s Principal Conductor in Residence, the three programmes – “Heritage”, “Speed” and “Voice”  - managed both coherence and variety while keeping the Shed focus on contemporary music, New Zealand composers and a sense of fun. 

For me the most memorable moments of the series were the outstanding musicianship of the NZSO players and some rarely heard repertoire – flutist Bridget Douglas and harpist Carolyn Mills with Jack Body’s magical Rainforest, four droll percussionists playing furniture and newspapers in John Cage’s Living Room Music, two very successful world premieres from Rosie Langabeer and David Long (in which the composer’s son innocently bombed the occasion by wandering into the home studio) and mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew singing Berio’s Folk Songs with verve and drama from her home in Frankfurt.

I missed the live connection between musicians and audience most in two moving performances - cellist Sally Isaac’s beautiful cantabile playing of Australian Peter Schulthorpe’s Threnody, a lament for the premature death of his conductor colleague Stuart Challender and Ariana Tikao’s final sorrowful waiata Ka taka te mōtoi.  As we move post-COVID-19 into a new normal, musicians may soon be able to play together for concerts they can stream to us at home. But I’m most looking forward to a return to the real Shed and other concert halls where the musical sparks can fly for us all.  

Right now, you can enjoy the vitality of two of these online concerts from the virtual concert hall on the NZSO’s YouTube channel – just click here for Heritage and Speed.