Tom Stephenson, not working with his bassoon, in studio.
In an uncertain present, musicians who preserve the past are harder to find.
Like everyone, bassoonist Tom Stephenson has seen his performing opportunities vanish. The longtime Boston-area freelancer, who has had a special relationship with Emmanuel Music for decades, is fortunate in some ways to have multiple career paths for options.
Stephenson is equally well-known as a sound engineer, working in recording booths with Emmanuel Music, the Gardner Museum, Rockport Music, and many other presenters. In addition, as a scientist and inventor he has another life in the business world, with past stints at the MIT Media Lab and other major companies.
Now at home in Melrose, Stephenson is close enough to retirement to have already contemplated what that might be like. Several of his “I’ll get to that” projects have suddenly become possible, now that performing isn’t. One of those involves the vast Emmanuel Music catalog.
Stephenson joined the Emmanuel Orchestra decades ago, one of a cohort of musicians who began performing under the late Craig Smith. The ensemble not only presented entire cycles of the Bach cantatas every Sunday at the Back Bay church—something that continues today—but operas, especially Handel, and chamber music.
Stephenson has played the entire cycle of cantatas—it takes about six years worth of Sundays—some of them multiple times. That catalog has been recorded, but never edited or released.
“I had always dreamed I would revisit the Emmanuel recordings from the Craig Smith period,” he says. “I started transferring all the Handel operas, and I also have all the WGBH tapes, when Robert Lurtsema went through the entire cycle on the air.
Emmanuel Music, with its late director Craig Smith, from another era. “For most of us, the cantatas were new.”
“I started playing with Emmanuel in ’72 or ’73,” he says. “It was unbelievable, for anybody who was part of it. For most us, the cantatas were new. To play one after another, every Sunday—you realized how much great music there is. Craig always said that Bach had way too many ideas for one person.”
What might happen to any edited recordings is equally uncertain—getting permissions from an entire orchestra is daunting, and Stephenson suggests that an academic library might be interested. But in a time without artistic outlets for musicians, the project is a welcome one. One of the possibilities.
“For musicians can’t get together, there’s no corollary,” he says. “Everything has gone away in live events. All you can do is practice. And I think we’ve realized that this dry period may go on for a long time.”
Stephenson mentions a previous artistic endeavor that grew out of a pandemic, Stravinsky’s “Histoire du soldat,” written just after the flu epidemic a century ago. Designed as a stripped-down performance piece that could travel easily, using just a handful of musicians, “Histoire du soldat” has remained in the repertory.
“Everything was devastated,” he says about that period. “Nothing was happening culturally. The piece was created to be thrown in the back of a truck, with like ten people, just so it could be performed. That piece was born of necessity.”
Similar creative ventures would likely now involve technology.
“Some groups have been doing it for a while,” he says. “Nick Kitchen (violinist, founder of the Borromeo String Quartet) has always been tech savvy, and Borromeo has recorded virtually every concert they’ve ever done.”
But streaming recorded performances, or streaming live online, are different animals—not just technically.
“There are performance standards,” he says. “Every performer knows they can’t just wing it. It doesn’t have to be concert hall attire. But this is the time to think, ‘What can I do with what I’ve got?’ At least, for the near future, musicians have a captive audience.
“I wonder if it’s time to invent something new,” he speculates. “It could be like virtual reality, or augmented reality. Can you do chamber music that way? With the right audio and video technology, is it possible to make someone feel like they’re right there, but in a virtual space?
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Opera News and Leonore Overture. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.