Berliner Philharmonie 6 September 2020 - Nicolas Altstaedt plays J.S. Bach II | GoComGo.com

Nicolas Altstaedt plays J.S. Bach II

Berliner Philharmonie, Main Hall (DOUBLE), Berlin, Germany
All photos (3)
Select date and time
3 PM
Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 15:00

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Festival

Musikfest Berlin 2020

33 performances, nine world premieres

Musikfest Berlin 2020 will approach the beginning of the concert season with caution. Its new programme will follow the rules that protective measures from the COVID-19 pandemic have placed on public concerts. Many of the projects that have been prepared across Germany to mark this Beethoven year have fallen victim to the coronavirus crisis and have been postponed until next year.

Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello suite no. 4 in E flat major, BWV1010
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello suite no. 5 in C minor, BWV1011
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello suite no. 6 in D major, BWV1012
Overview

Suits for cello solo IV - VI

Far into the 20th century, Johann Sebastian Bach’s six cello suites have remained the measure of all things when it comes to composition and the skills they demand of the musicians who play them. They transported the musical and technical development of the cello into new spheres. In this concert, Franco-German cellist Nicolas Altstaedt will venture into the abundance of Bach’s music.

At Musikfest 2014 Isabelle Faust performed all six sonatas and partitas that Johann Sebastian Bach composed for solo violin. This year Nicolas Altstaedt continues that series with its equivalent: the performance of the six suites for solo cello. With these Bach created an exemplary compendium for the deepest stringed instrument that is in no way inferior to the sonatas and partitas for violin or the “Wohltemperierte Klavier”. In addition to what remains to this day a commonplace instrument, for the fifth suite he requires a so-called scordatura: the uppermost string is tuned down a note from A to G, thus making the underlying sound more muted. Bach accordingly chooses the key of C minor, the darkest of the entire group. The sixth suite in the celebratory key of D major was written for a violoncello piccolo, a five-stringed instrument with an E string above the A string with which it can control higher registers that Bach also prefers. Each suite begins with a “preludio”; the musical range extending from a fantasy-like virtuoso piece close to improvisation to French type of overture with integrated fugue. In the following dance movements Bach chose the standard sequence of (relatively fast) allemande, (quick) courante, (slow) sarabande and (mostly very fast) gigue. Each of the suites stylizes its respective type in a special way. In all of them he includes an additional movement before the final gigue: a minuet, a bourrée or a gavotte. Both in terms of their composition and the demands they made on their performers, these works remained the measure of all things until deep into the 20th century: the very centre of the cello universe.

Venue Info

Berliner Philharmonie - Berlin
Location   Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1

The Berliner Philharmonie is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, named for the orchestra's longest-serving principal conductor. The building forms part of the Kulturforum complex of cultural institutions close to Potsdamer Platz.

The Philharmonie consists of two venues, the Grand Hall (Großer Saal) with 2,440 seats and the Chamber Music Hall (Kammermusiksaal) with 1,180 seats. Though conceived together, the smaller hall was opened in the 1980s, some twenty years after the main building.

Hans Scharoun designed the building, which was constructed over the years 1960–1963. It opened on 15 October 1963 with Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was built to replace the old Philharmonie, destroyed by British bombers on 30 January 1944, the eleventh anniversary of Hitler becoming Chancellor. The hall is a singular building, asymmetrical and tentlike, with the main concert hall in the shape of a pentagon. The height of the rows of seats increases irregularly with distance from the stage. The stage is at the centre of the hall, surrounded by seating on all sides. The so-called vineyard-style seating arrangement (with terraces rising around a central orchestral platform) was pioneered by this building, and became a model for other concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House (1973), Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall (1978), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1981), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and the Philharmonie de Paris (2014).

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet recorded three live performances at the hall; Dave Brubeck in Berlin (1964), Live at the Berlin Philharmonie (1970), and We're All Together Again for the First Time (1973). Miles Davis's 1969 live performance at the hall has also been released on DVD.

On 20 May 2008 a fire broke out at the hall. A quarter of the roof suffered considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior sustained water damage but was otherwise "generally unharmed". Firefighters limited damage using foam. The cause of the fire was attributed to welding work, and no serious damage was caused either to the structure or interior of the building. Performances resumed, as scheduled, on 1 June 2008 with a concert by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The main organ was built by Karl Schuke, Berlin, in 1965, and renovated in 1992, 2012 and 2016. It has four manuals and 91 stops. The pipes of the choir organs and the Tuba 16' and Tuba 8' stops are not assigned to any group and can be played from all four manuals and the pedals.

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 15:00
Top of page