![\"TSO-Drive-in\"](\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/TSO-Drive-in-feature.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is to perform Kings of Ragtime<\/em> Oct. 7<\/a><\/span> at the CityView Drive-In, 20 Polson St. in Toronto. This savvy musical expedient during the COVID-19 pandemic offers the sort of isolation and social distancing difficult to maintain in concert halls.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also part of a direction in orchestra management over the past 50 years or so in attracting new listeners by going to where they are. Classical concerts are popping up in rock club and discos. Groups of Toronto Symphony players spent the last week in September performing in neighbourhoods around town. Some take part in the Art Gallery of Ontario\u2019s outdoor series.<\/p>\n But a drive-In? CityView is designed mainly as a concert\/event venue, not an al fresco cinematic experience. It does have enormous LED screens showing performers in action. And, a vintage vibe hovers over everything as CityView channels drive-in era nostalgia. Glass Tiger, the \u201880s Big Hair band is there Oct. 8. The Edge, the \u201870s alt rock station as CFNY-FM is producing an Oct. 9 concert. CityView\u2019s retro-sensibility flows from its \u201850s-ish logo, suggestive of the classical drive-ins, the few rickety wooden originals now just hulks in empty fields near small towns (My poor wrecked favourite is just west of Elmvale, north of Toronto.).<\/p>\n The pandemic has brought new life to the modern drive-in though. So why shouldn\u2019t CityView go whole-hog drive-in-movie-wise \u2014 Porky\u2019s<\/em> is a perfect drive-in flick by the way \u2014 and bring the Toronto Symphony along for the ride in months ahead?<\/p>\n Back to Porky\u2019s<\/em>. In director Rob Clark\u2019s 1981 Canadian gross-out \u2014 and who said Canucks don\u2019t have bad taste? \u2014 there are vast panoramas of primal landscapes oozing murky meaning, seductive temptresses, villainous leaders who are pure evil and lots of virginity getting lost. Can\u2019t you just imagine Wagner\u2019s swelling cellos, his thrusting trombones? Parts of Parsifal<\/em> could be played before and after the screening, and during a scheduled break allowing for the buying of pulled-pork sandwiches.<\/p>\n The drive-In is a special sexual space marrying car culture \u2014 deeply sensual as it is on its own \u2014 to romance to guilt and lots of loud noises. This pretty much describes classical music too, only without the cars. Why not pair Debussy\u2019s La Mer<\/em> with an Aquaman<\/em> revival at the drive-in during Spring when it\u2019s really wet ? Or the Perfect Storm<\/em>? I mean, isn\u2019t some form of coarse romantic activity in back seats built in to the very idea of going to the drive-in? Wouldn\u2019t a little sex appeal sell a few string quartets?<\/p>\n \u201cI told ya, keep your hands off of my Puccini.\u201d You can hear it now.<\/p>\n TSO chief Matthew Loden has crafted a musical balancing act going from the Baroque with Vivaldi\u2019s Four Seasons<\/em> (Oct.16<\/a><\/span>) to the blues First Ladies of Soul<\/em> (Oct.17<\/a><\/span>). The Vivaldi is already sold out.<\/p>\n A seasoned TSO patron might wonder where in J.S. is Bach and the rest of the serious posse. But Loden sees his series as finding \u201caudiences who would like to explore the orchestral experience for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"CityView](\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/tso_at_the_drive-in_.jpg\")
<\/p>\n#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n