Attending the Berliner Philharmoniker’s 1997 virtual concert of Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couper

by Christina Jones

Field Notes: 03/17/2020 at 1:04 p.m.

There are only three members of the orchestra who appear to be non-male presenting. One is the harpist, and the other two are second violinists.

It is noteworthy that they are second violinists; they are assigned seated roles in the orchestra which are inherently subordinate.

Very colorful, patterned ties are worn by the players and the conductor alike → these ties would likely not be permissible nowadays.

Interesting shots of the conductor (Maestro Daniel Barenboim) are shown from the perspective of the player → shows that this video is curated; we do not get a conventional audience member’s perspective

Faceless hyper zoom shots on the fingers of individual players add to this sense of not getting the conventional view of an audience member sitting in the concert hall

All the players are white except one Asian player, the ASSISTANT concertmaster. → *It feels important to note this racialization; the assistant concertmaster is the second-best player. Optimistically, I hope that it is purely coincidence that a non-white person is not the concertmaster.

Camera shots from the back of the concert hall are yet another perspective opposite that of one’s view as a conventional audience member

Showing the concert hall (Versailles) filled with people, panning around the hall to display the balconies and tiered seating → feels sort of artificial and manufactured; curated, pre-planned; artistic vision is clear.

I found myself smiling at the sweetness and rich, calming colors of Ravel. I peered at my mobile phone screen (I am watching the concert on my laptop with my significant other on a video call, who is also watching the same concert on his laptop while video calling me), and I smile at him. → virtual dating?

There are orange markers at the bottom of the screen that delineate the beginning and ends of individual movements. → think about the rule of concert etiquette and how these virtual concerts are marked with maps and guides helping audience members to know when it is considered appropriate to clap. → brings us to themes of eliminating elitist concert attendance values, making concerts more universally accessible, as well as more appealing to people who do not frequent classical music concerts; think about ideas of discouragement in the concert hall and how discouragement might be avoided vis-a-vis these orange markers.

Really cool to be able to stop and rewind, and to hear things again. This is a power which live performance in the conventional, non-recorded sense does not possess.