“At 5 p.m. Saturday evening, something extraordinary happened: a group of people gathered to hear another group of people play classical music on their instruments,” writes Charles T. Towney in Sunday’s (6/21) Washington Classical Review (Washington, D.C.). “What a difference in perspective just three months can offer during a pandemic…. The venue was the garden behind the Rectory, the historic Alexandria house that now serves as residence of Classical Movements—a company that in normal times arranges tours for musical ensembles. With all of its touring cancelled, the organization put together a one-day series of one-hour outdoor concerts, featuring musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra, Barclay Brass Quintet, and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.… A woodwind quintet from the National Symphony Orchestra contributed … Umoja, a placid work of gently rocking rhythms by Valerie Coleman, the flutist from Imani Winds…. A string quintet from the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra offered two movements from Mozart’s Divertimento No. 1…. It was possible at moments during this concert to imagine a time when listening to live music would again be common and something normal…. This type of concert … offered a temporary respite on the way to that goal.”
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