Those of us London-centric folks easily forget there are great concert halls in other parts of the world. I remember as a young kid buying DG LPs with von Karajan on the front cover conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. So as my first visit to the city, a visit to the Philharmonie to listen to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was a must.
Ivan Fisher started the evening's concert with Haydn Symphony 88. A light and delightful work. As I'd expected, the acoustic of the hall was amazing - probably a good 2.5 second of reverberation - and much more generous than the Royal Festival Hall in London. The strings sounded sweet and the timpani came through clearly with definition. The audience was then treated to Béla Bartók's Seven Pieces for Choir and Chamber Orchestra: the Berlin Phil reduced in size occupying only half of the stage while the Netherlands Youth Choir took the other half. These young performers (all female) sang in Hungarian from memory - not easy at all - and really delivered rich colours and tone.
The second half of the concert began with a weird presentation of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 1. The solo instrument was the Cimbalom (sounded very much like a metallic glass harmonica). Oszkar Okros, a Cimbalom guru I presume, fluttered and hovered above this strange instrument accompanied by the orchestra. It sounded odd at places but made musical sense in other. The audience loved it - I think the showmanship rather than the work. Two Hungarian Dances by Brahms later, we arrived at Kodaly's Dance from Galánta which the orchestra played beautifully and full of contrast.
So that was my first evening listening in the Philharmonie. I was very envious of a city that has a concert hall with such good acoustics, audience facilities and above all an enthusiastic supporting crowd. Need to go back to hear Sir Simon conducting the band.
Ivan Fisher started the evening's concert with Haydn Symphony 88. A light and delightful work. As I'd expected, the acoustic of the hall was amazing - probably a good 2.5 second of reverberation - and much more generous than the Royal Festival Hall in London. The strings sounded sweet and the timpani came through clearly with definition. The audience was then treated to Béla Bartók's Seven Pieces for Choir and Chamber Orchestra: the Berlin Phil reduced in size occupying only half of the stage while the Netherlands Youth Choir took the other half. These young performers (all female) sang in Hungarian from memory - not easy at all - and really delivered rich colours and tone.
The second half of the concert began with a weird presentation of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 1. The solo instrument was the Cimbalom (sounded very much like a metallic glass harmonica). Oszkar Okros, a Cimbalom guru I presume, fluttered and hovered above this strange instrument accompanied by the orchestra. It sounded odd at places but made musical sense in other. The audience loved it - I think the showmanship rather than the work. Two Hungarian Dances by Brahms later, we arrived at Kodaly's Dance from Galánta which the orchestra played beautifully and full of contrast.
So that was my first evening listening in the Philharmonie. I was very envious of a city that has a concert hall with such good acoustics, audience facilities and above all an enthusiastic supporting crowd. Need to go back to hear Sir Simon conducting the band.
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