EspañolGoing back to the theaters makes present the chord of existence, where everything is visible, audible, tangible.
We are gradually coming back to the concert halls, and although it has been a slow and extended return, it has been a period of two years awaiting and learning, which for some has been an instant, and for others an eternity. In one way or another it has been both. A period in which all of us who make classical music possible have learned to reinvent our craft. Artists return to perform before their audiences; however, in this progressive reencounter, performers and audience recognize themselves as different. They are different without ceasing to be the same. Their perception has changed; both have glimpsed new values in art, among them, the healing qualities it has for the soul, and the attributes that make art spiritual food that sustains the human being and drives us to go beyond our limits.
Both the audience and the artists could barely remember the vibrant sensation of a live orchestral tutti, or the miracle of a synchronized applause, that harmonious ceremony of hands that recognizes and celebrates the artists. That applause is indeed the music that concludes the concert, and that subtly transforms the audience into the last performer. It is the agreement that makes both sides feel satisfied. No technology can capture the emotion of the face-to-face phenomenon. A record can be made that portrays the experience, as a catalog portrays a work of art, but the map is not the territory. The completeness of classical music can only be appreciated in situ, it was born to be witnessed, a condition that distinguishes it from music originated in recording studios.
The Sinaloa Symphony Orchestra for the Arts (OSSLA), which I have the opportunity to conduct artistically, returns with all formality to its on-site activities next Thursday, March 3rd, in a season of concerts that highlights the symphonies of Beethoven, including also works by Haydn, Liszt, Debussy, Salieri, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joaquín Rodrigo, Respighi, Borodin, Turina, Gutiérrez Heras, Kalinnikov, Grieg, Delius, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Järvleep, Puccini, Bottesini, Donizetti, Rachmaninov and Lutosławski.
A comeback to the normality we knew is fundamentally impossible; today, however, music, like Heraclitus’ river, does not stop, it flows with greater strength and remains. Just as the Black Death of the 14th century hastened the end of the Middle Ages, the recent health crisis leaves behind an era. It shook our daily lives, and marked the dividing line between what we already distinguish as a before and an after.
Going back to the concert halls and theaters makes the chord of existence present, where everything is visible, audible, tangible. The «absential» becomes again «presential» and restores the meaning of artistic life. Art does not return alone or in the same form; it is accompanied by a renewed awareness and a yearning attitude on the part of all of us who participate in it. Those of us who produce it, and those who enjoy it from their seats, are witnesses to the transformation in the making and appreciation of art forms. The world has been transformed, and art is a measure and a gaze of our changes.
