Why orchestras are sounding better than ever under social-distancing

Our college choirmaster had a trick that he liked to deploy when he sensed that we were phoning it in. He ordered us out of the choirstalls and positioned us at random all over the chapel. It was sadistic but effective. With nowhere to hide, there could be no quiet fudging of that awkward leap in ‘O Thou the Central Orb’, and no waiting until after a more confident neighbour had begun their note before scooping hastily (and hopefully unnoticeably) upwards to match their pitch. Every singer became a reluctant soloist. The result was usually either mutiny, or an immediate and dramatic improvement in tone, tuning and ensemble.

Apply that principle to the socially distanced orchestras in the current Proms season, and it’s no surprise that so many listeners seem to be finding these performances so affecting. One accusation that was frequently (and often baselessly) levelled at professional orchestras in normal times was that their playing was ‘routine’. Careful what you wish for: with wind players spaced yards apart, and strings separated from their usual desk-partners, orchestras have had the foundation of their familiar collective sound torn from under them. If we’re hearing orchestras playing as if every member is a soloist it’s because, for the duration of the crisis, that’s effectively what they are.

Which made Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen a particularly apposite choice for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Prom at Glasgow City Halls. Strauss’s scoring for 23 solo strings is no arbitrary decision but a precise gauging of means to ends by a master-orchestrator at the end of a spectacular career. Every part matters, and each performer has to project their (often obsessively intricate) musical line as if they’re playing, if not a concerto, then at the very least a great string quartet.