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From lost Ring Cycles to postponed Meltdowns and melted icecream, shutting down an 11-acre multi-venue site and negotiating a 60% drop in income has made for a challenging 15 months at London’s Southbank Centre. But, as it reopens, there’s been gains as well as losses
Perhaps not right at the top of the list of the things that most people remember about 2020 is the fact that it was the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. But on the afternoon of Sunday 16 March 2020, I was in my seat in the Royal Festival Hall for a mammoth Beethoven birthday concert. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra were re-enacting Beethoven’s famous 1808 marathon performance. Unlike the 1808 concert, by all accounts a chaotic affair in a freezing cold theatre with an under-rehearsed orchestra, Salonen’s performance was brilliantly polished and the heating was on in the RFH. But the concert was haunted by a sense that the world was about to change. In the words of one critic, it had an end-of-days feel.
Covid-19 was stalking the world and we were hearing of cancelled concerts and festivals in Beijing, in New York, in Helsinki. The Philharmonia’s concert was a sell-out at the box office, but the hall had a gap-toothed appearance – a significant number of people had decided to play it safe and stay at home. Stephen Fry, who was narrating the concert, thanked those who had come for being there and predicted that this could be “the last mass gathering we see for a while”. That turned out to be a major understatement. Afterwards, backstage – usually the site of much professional hugging – I had my first experience of the elbow bump. Continue reading...