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Published: March 17th 2010
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The last two times I visited Europe were in the month of August, and I was very disappointed to find little to no offerings for music concerts. The guide books I read explained that August is the big holiday month for most European countries. So, all the musicians are somewhere else.
This time it was different. Our first night in Berlin, I booked the five of us to go see the Junge Deutchie Philharmonie - an orchestra of 80 of Germany's young and brightest players - where we heard a Bartok violin concerto and Brahm's Symphony No. 3.
That's the easy part, telling you what we heard; the hard part is explaining the experience we had.
Our seats were above and to the right of the orchestra in an absolutely stunning theatre. We had a bird's eye view of the conductor and a close up of the players. When the music started the energy from the players immediately captivated me and I sat on the edge of my seat the whole concert watching these great young musicians pour themselves into their music making. What made the experience for me even better was watching Tim, Sarah, Alison, and Carol enjoying it just
as much as I was. When the concert was over and the audience's applause went on and on, the orchestra returned and launched into a Wagner Overture with magnificent horn lines that brought tears to my eyes. I was overwhelmed. At the time I didn't think music could get any better than that.
The next night I went by myself to the Berlin Philharmonic's presentation of Verdi's Requiem. It was a another amazing concert, but I must admit I was a little bit tired that night, and being by myself wasn't the same. I do however get to say that I have listened to the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin.
Two nights later we were in Cologne, and again, all five of us went to hear the Birmingham City Orchestra who were on tour. Our seats again were very good - there is something about being above an orchestra and looking down on the players that lends a certain excitement to the music.
They started their program with Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner (how good is that?) followed by a brilliant trumpet soloist (from I think, Sweden) playing a beautiful rendition of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto. Carol and
I knew every note of this work as we had often played this as a couple years ago. This was followed by a 2008 composition called From the Wreckage that blew our minds! The composer was influenced by Miles Davis and the music was both lyrical and rhythmically complex at the same time. The percussion were set up stage left, stage right, in the middle, and at the back of the orchestra and the spacial effect of rim shots, clicks, bass drum, chimes, and cymbals was very cool. When the orchestra left for intermission, I looked down the row and saw this look of amazement and delight on Tim's face, like he had just heard something that he had never expected to hear before. And when I told him that that was just intermission and we had another half to go, the look of delight on his face - that there was more to come - was heartwarming. The more to come was Stravinski's Firebird Suite. A piece written in 1910, it is again, a piece, very rhythmical and melodic, but so different from the 2008 composition.
I can't say this was better than our first concert, but it
certainly was just as good.
Then for something completely different, Alison and I trained a half hour South to Bonn the next night and listened to a concert of Alison's favorite German group, 'The Wise Guys'. They are five a cappella singers who for the last ten years have grown more and more popular here in Germany with their great storytelling and wonderful harmonies. What was unique about the concert was that there were both 5 and 60 year-olds, all clapping along and singing with the Wise Guys. These Germans sure do love their music. .
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Heather
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Great posting!
I'm really enjoying reading about your travels! What amazing experiences you're having! I'm also really into music, so I especially enjoyed this post! Thanks for sharing, and keep up the great writing! dirty-hippies.blogspot.com