Podcast in times of Corona (11) - Asko|Schönberg suffers double blow: 'You can't go to a hall, not to a stage. Online is no substitute for that.' 

'It may sound very double, but somewhere a moment of peace, a moment of contemplation, is something you always long for. That the trigger now is that pandemic is not nice, of course, but still." Fedor Teunissen is artistic director of Asko|Schönberg, the world-class ensemble founded by the world-renowned conductor, composer and pianist Reinbert De Leeuw. The latter passed away on 14 February 2020. Exactly one month later, the ensemble's entire programme was indefinitely halted due to the Corona pandemic outbreak.

'We were actually supposed to play a premiere of Before/After at the Noord Nederlands Toneel. Literally on the evening of the first try-out, that ban came. That was of course a huge blow to the entire cast and to our musicians. They spent five, six weeks in a pressure cooker to get the performance to the quality it needed. All the slugs are covered with salt, and then suddenly you are faced with something much bigger. Then that energy drains away like a deflating balloon. We immediately jumped in the car to support those people.'

Learning

And then he says something I heard for the first time in these hectic times: 'It is also the job of the cultural sector not to immediately want to react to everything, but also to observe quietly for a while and to really make a substantive choice later on about what we can learn from this.'

Taking a little rest. Quite an idea. And then go to this conversation listen.

'I've seen austerity upon austerity in recent years, and then the cultural sector has always flaunted the idea of all going on strike en masse, to make the country feel what it's like when culture isn't there. What I find fascinating is that the moment it really can't be there, we all immediately start making sure art and culture is present.'

But that is no solution, Fedor believes: 'You can't go to a hall, not to a stage. Online is no substitute for that.'