London’s Wigmore Hall to reinstate in-person concerts, with safety guidelines, in Sept.

“Joining the slow march back to live concerts, London’s Wigmore Hall will offer a seven-week series of 80 performances starting September 13 and featuring 150 musicians from Europe and the U.K.,” writes Anthony Brown in Tuesday’s (8/4) Musical America (subscription required). “Each will last 60 to 90 minutes, live streamed in HD on the Hall’s site. Live audiences can attend 60 of the concerts. Indoor COVID-19 guidelines include attendance limited to 56, 10 percent of capacity; paperless tickets and no printed programs; temperature checks; hand sanitizer widely available; and staggered entrance times. … Wigmore Hall Artistic and Executive Director John Gilhooly said he is ‘thrilled to be welcoming audiences through the doors to our beautiful auditorium again…. Should the international crisis escalate again before September, our planned autumn concerts will revert to empty hall broadcasts,’ which the venue pioneered in May. The programs, still being finalized, include a mix of solo recitals and ensembles. Among those confirmed are the Arditti Quartet; Renaud Capuçon (violin); Gerald Finley (bass-baritone); Julia Fischer (violin); Christian Gerhaher (baritone); Malcolm Martineau (piano); Sir András Schiff (piano); and Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin).”