BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
The pandemic has shifted the Australian arts industry into unrecognisable territory.
It’s been tough, but we’ve learnt a key lesson throughout the months of 2020: our community is a resilient one.
It takes a great deal of courage to face the type of challenge that hits once in a lifetime. It takes even more to perceive that challenge as an opportunity to create.
The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra has become a leading player in our industry’s progression towards the digital, and one of the reasons for its success can be found in its originality. The Brandenburg has continued to offer quality music, but has packaged this in a way that extends beyond its own artform. It’s built a unique online hub filled with music recordings, personal interviews, and visual design collaborations.
Brandenburg Baroque flute/recorder player Melissa Farrow says her team has “seized the opportunity to try new things, and to reach a new audience with the uplifting and powerful music of the Baroque”.
In this instance, “new things” refers to Brandenburg One – the platform through which the organisation has made itself accessible to online audiences during global lockdowns.
From 27-31 October, the Brandenburg will perform a new concert series called Ayres & Graces in the City Recital Hall; from 1 November, the event will premiere through a stream on Brandenburg One.
Co-founder and artistic director Paul Dyer first imagined Brandenburg One when he was playing his harpsichord during a temporary closure of their offices. Melissa describes the digital outcome as a “holistic experience” for Brandenburg audiences, “with fascinating insights into our weird and wonderful instruments, program notes, an historical context to the music we play, podcast episodes, and interviews – all in one place for a full digital experience”.
It’s been well received among audiences – including new and valuable groups of listeners who might not have had access to the live concerts that used to happen in our former, “normal” world of concertgoing.
“It has also been greatly appreciated by those in regional communities who don’t get many opportunities to experience full live orchestral concerts,” Melissa says.
“Excitingly, our most engaged Brandenburg One viewers are young people. It really is great to be able to reach new audiences who may not have seen us in the concert hall before.”
For Melissa, the ability to reach and engage young viewers through Brandenburg One speaks to more than the organisation’s own success: it speaks to hope for the future of our industry.
“It might sound trite, but young people are the future!” Melissa feels.
“When musicians play live to an audience, we pick up on their energy – and when we play particularly to young people, we sense that shift in energy in the room, and it makes us play with more vitality ourselves.”
Physical presence has become a somewhat controversial conversation among those lamenting former experiences of “live” music. Fortunately, the Brandenburg’s Ayres & Graces series will cater to audiences who adopt either preference – live music in the hall itself, or live music through a digital experience.
In fact, those who prefer to be seated in the hall may also take the opportunity to relive their experience on the digital platform, feeling and understanding the value of music as it’s presented in different ways.
“I do believe that digital and live performances are two unique yet complementary forms of communication,” Melissa says. While acknowledging the electricity that can spark between audience and performer in the concert hall, she also reckons there’s “a real case for digital performance”.
“These clips give the audience a rare chance to hear many of us playing individually; an intimate and revealing insight into our personalities when we play.”
On Brandenburg One, this has turned into a digital library of music. It documents this moment in the 31-year history of the Brandenburg, while also making content accessible in a way future audiences may grow to demand.
“Most of the content is accessible and free to the general public. It is a glimpse into our world as performers on historical instruments, which is so often thought of as being such a separate entity to modern instrument classical performance,” Melissa explains.
“This is a platform though which invites everyone in to experience and understand what we do and why we do it, through engagement with the musical clips and the vast choice of podcasts, and information available on Brandenburg One.”
Ayres & Graces will continue their tradition through song (“ayres”) and musical decorations (“graces”) of Paris and London from the 17th-18th centuries. On the program will be “grand music performed for kings in their palaces, alongside folk music collected from outside taverns”.
Viewers who tune in to the digital premiere will also be able to observe “the performers’ engagement with their colleagues, sweaty brows and watch those fingers fly across the instruments”.
The backdrop to Ayres & Graces – visible in the hall and online – will be a series of images created by award-winning designer Silvana Azzi Heras. Melissa explains their collaboration creates a visual response to the pieces, which serves to “accentuate each change” in the music.
Silvana – Baz Luhrmann’s former head of design, who has worked on Bazmark productions including Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby – curates her own collection through her business House of Heras. Her music-inspired styles can also be seen in the Brandenburg One’s Bach Series, with her stunning depictions of flora and fauna adding a burst of colour to the expertly performed music.
The unique multi-artform and multi-platform Ayres & Graces provides evidence of the Brandenburg’s power to adapt to the challenging arts landscape of 2020.
“For me, presenting this concert will truly feel like a celebration of joyous music-making, after months of uncertainty for the arts in Australia,” Melissa shares.
“It’s a timely release, as the music is sometimes sparkling, sometimes heart-wrenchingly beautiful, but above all, very uplifting – and the power of music is what is needed in the world at the moment.”
The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will perform Ayres & Graces with social distancing in the City Recital Hall from 27-31 October.
The digital premiere will take place on 1 November. Tickets can be purchased online.
Have you read our interview with the Brandenburg’s theorbo player?
Images supplied.
