Berliner Philharmonie 5 September 2019 - BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Sakari Oramo | GoComGo.com

BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Sakari Oramo

Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany
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8 PM
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Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 20:00
Duration:

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Programme
Louis Andriessen
Modest Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain (Version by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)
Olga Neuwirth: … miramondo multiplo … for Trumpet and Orchestra
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, op. 82
Overview

Three orchestras from London will perform at the 2019 Musikfest Berlin. Each of them represents a different aspect of orchestra culture: the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (31 August) stands for historical performance practice, the London Symphony Orchestra (16 September) for the large-scale classical-romantic ensemble and the BBC Symphony Orchestra comes from a tradition of radio orchestras distinguished by their nuancing skills and familiarity with more contemporary music.

Sakario Oramo, who has been the latter’s chief conductor since 2012, organises his programme in leaps over centuries. The mythical seethes in the works of Modest Mussorgsky and Jean Sibelius. Mussorgsky found darkly romantic tones for the legend of the witches’ dance on Midsummer’s Night – the church bell that dispels the haunting and promises a beautiful morning is in fact an ingredient provided by Rimsky-Korsakov. The flight of the swans, stuff of countless sagas and fairy-tales, gave Jean Sibelius the suggestive breadth for the main theme of his fifth symphony and set its measure and tone.

Flanked by these mythical outposts, there are works by contemporary composers. Louis Andriessen, a century younger than Mussorgsky, took inspiration for his lied cycle The Only One from two discoveries he made: the writings of Belgian poet Delphine Decompte and the singer Nora Fischer, who is just as versed in the area of jazz and pop as in classical music. “The piece flirts a little with pop songs and light music. It begins with a beautiful lied, but there is not much left of it in the end.” (Andriessen)

Olga Neuwirth’s trumpet concerto …miramondo multiplo… is a “beautiful, frothy virtuoso poem”, says Wolfgang Schreiber. “In five short movements, which all play on the concept of ‘aria’ (melody, air), she unfolds a sequence of sound images, opportunities for dialogue – a brilliant contest of the elements, the trumpet’s gleaming virtuosity, a precisely arranged blaze of orchestral colours.”

The Only One for Voice and Orchestra on Poems by Delphine Lecompte, commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo Dudamel, NTR ZaterdagMatinee and BBC Radio 3 European Première

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: 20:00
Duration:
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