The Music of the Youth Orchestra of Early Music as Education
at the chapel of the Turner Nursing Home, Liverpool
Whilst these last few months have brought with them undeniable positives
- a slower, more reflective pace; cleaner air and louder birdsong; endless baking and breakfasts -
there have, I am sure for many of us, been difficult days.
As the weeks unfolded the constraints imposed upon contact, of course with family but also with friends, neighbours, ‘community’ began to weigh more heavily. Increasingly I found myself thinking back to the days before lockdown.
During those ‘will life ever be the same again’ moments it is our March concert at the Turner Home - a wet and windy night a fortnight before lockdown - which repeatedly shines and affirms.
The Turner Home provides care for those with the most challenging needs. And yet the professionalism and dedication of the staff bestows upon the building a sense less of ‘establishment’ than ‘home’ - a sense reflected in the warmth of the welcome we received as we entered the chapel. Through Corelli, Muffat, Albinoni and Handel the Early Music As Education orchestra offered us a purity of sound that attested to so much more than exemplary musical accomplishment.
As many of you will know the Sanna family, at the end of last year, suffered the appalling loss of their beloved Valentina. Our concert was their first after this tragedy. When I reflect upon that evening it is, of course, the bravery and resilience of Alberto, his family and the orchestra that moves me - and, I know, others.
But beyond this there was, I believe, something in the essence of the music, perhaps as in all art, that powerfully resonates. That music not only survives unspeakable loss but sustains and comforts through it; that it seems especially to belong in a place where ‘care’ - surely a euphemism for ‘love’ - prevails; that its very sound reverberates with the assurance of restoration - these are the feelings that I hold precious from our concert on that blustery night in March.
And, I think, just as precious, are the gifts that all art bestows when there is - as with our infant Art Friends - the opportunity for the companionship that goes hand in hand with collective appreciation.
So - till we meet again.
