Konzerthaus Berlin – Grosser Saal. Chorbalkon Mitte links (Open Seating, 21
Euros).
Program
“Die Hebriden” – Konzertouverture h-Moll op. 26 (1829-30,
revised until 1835) by Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847).
Konzert fur Violine und Orchester d-Moll op. 8
(1881-1882) by Strauss (1864-1949).
Sinfonie Nr. 6 F-Dur op. 68 (“Pastorale”) by Beethoven.
The Konzerthaus is located at the Gendarmenmarkt, flanked by the French and German Cathedrals.
Inside the main hall. Our seats are located below the organ, above the orchestra platform.
Poster for the concert.
Anne and I are on a 4-city concert tour of London and
northern Germany. First stop
Berlin. We got into town earlier this
afternoon.
This concert was nearly sold out by the time I got around
to booking the tickets on 5/12. The only available seats were in the
“Chorbalon” where seats sold for E20 each.
While I could pick the actual seat numbers (if I remember correctly), it
was actually open seating on some benches.
We didn’t get there early enough to get the best choices, but ours at
the edge were okay, especially considering the prices we paid.
After having visited Fingal’s Cave, Mendelssohn’s
overture has been quite enjoyable, and tonight was no exception. My complaint is the sound wasn’t as crisp as
I would expect from my memory of how the cave resonates from the incoming
waves. The dynamic range was very good.
I didn’t know anything about the Strauss violin
concerto. It was written when Strauss
was only a teenager and consists of three movements: Allegro; Lento, ma no
troppo; and Rondo – Presto. I can stop right here: this was the work of someone
who knew a lot about orchestral music and about the violin. It showcases the violin virtuoso’s technical
prowess, the first movement (Allegro) starts with so many fast double stops
that our soloist sometimes muddled through, and it was intense, non-stop
motion. The second movement (Lento, ma
non troppo) had some beautiful melodies, and the last movement (Rondo, Presto)
could be passed off as a Beethoven piece.
Indeed the wikipedia reference states that Strauss was very reverent of
Mozart and Beethoven, although I would be hard pressed to hear much Mozart in
the piece.
Alina Ibragimova is a Russian-British violinist trained
at the Yehudin Menuhin school and the Royal School of Music. The Strauss piece required a lot of violence
on the violin, and she was busy clearing broken hairs on her bow between
movements. One can assume she and
Jurowski got to know each other as the latter is music director of the London
Philharmonic.
Ibragimova acknowledging the orchestra after performing Strauss's violin concerto.
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony can sound down right
delightful when performed well. Tonight’s
performance didn’t quite rise to that level, but was quite good. The horn was either a hit or miss with the
many passages where it figures prominently.
Jurowski acknowledging the woodwind section after performance of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.
The two primary organizations we want to see are the
Berlin Philharmonic and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, this was a late add on (we
booked the tickets on 5/21). While it
may not be inspiring (I run into a few every year), it was certainly worth the
price of admission (and a lot more).
Sitting where we were, we had a good view of how Jurowski
conducted. His hand gestures are quite
precise, and the orchestra responded quite well, although not most of the time.
The Konzerthaus is located along Unten den Linden, and is a short subway ride from our hotel (a change of train is required).
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