Berlin and Leipzig - Music

German flag atop the Reichstag. Old Prussian Guard House that is now a peace memorial on Unter den Linden Strasse.

I decided to combine the music we heard in Berlin with the Leipzig music.

On Sunday morning at 11:00 we went to the Berlin Concerthouse in the Stadmitte area of town to hear the Carl Emmanuel Bach chamber orchestra. Jack had gotten great tickets, and we were seated on the first row! This concert house is beautiful - smallish but decked out in the beautiful red velvet seats with twinkling lights everywhere. The downstairs was full of people that morning, ready to hear some Bach and Mozart.

The chamber group marched in right at the appointed time and stood for the whole concert. The official name of the group is the Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra, with Hartmut Haenchen as the director. There were two musicians on each part: two first violins, two seconds, two violas, a cello and a bass violin. For some of the pieces there was help from some woodwinds.

The first piece they played was a modern take on Bach: ArvoPart Collage on B-A-C-H. It was fun and weird, but then they got down to business with a J.S. Bach (1685-1750) cantata, a W.F. Bach (1710-1784) symphony in dminor, a J.C. Bach (1735-1782) symphony in gminor. What a treat and they all enjoyed what they were doing so much.

Then the featured soloist came out: Karl Leister, clarinettist. They played a Mozart clarinett concerto, with the famous adagio movement. I am sure everyone would recognize the beautiful piece, even if they didn't know the name of it. I recalled that in the movie "Out of Africa" this adagio was heard on the little phonograph that Dennis gave Karen.

Because of the structure of the concerto, we could not clap for this movement - we have to sit there and only clap at the end of the whole piece. I noticed that German audiences do not jump to their feet so much at the end of the piece as the Dallas audiences do, but they continue to clap and clap and give several calls for the musicians. That is what happened at the end of this concerto. So the group gave us an encore. And the encore was this adagio movement of the Mozart - it was even more beautiful than the first time. This time we clapped up a storm. I thought what a wonderful thing this director did by playing this movement again and giving us an opportunity to clap especially for it. Maybe they do that all of the time, but I had never witnessed that before.

The next concert we went to was at the Berlin philharmonic, near Potsdammer Platz. We ate an early dinner at the arcade, then walked over to the concert hall with everyone else. I mentioned before that the hall was really a strange one - very modern but the orchestra is almost in the round. Our seats were perfect - almost like box seats - up a little high and to the right and not behind anyone. We could see the director's face as he turned to the cellos, so we were not exactly behind him. The acoustics were very good.

We heard two pieces that night. The first was from an opera: "Juliette" by Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959). The Mezzo soprano was Juliette and most of the singing. The Tenor was also a featured singer. It was a beautiful set of pieces, quite modern, so all of the orchestra was put to work.

The second piece was Antonin Dvorak's Symphony nr. 7 in dminor. This piece was fantastic, and the entire orchestra worked hard on it. It had everything - so much to watch besides listening to the music. When it was over, the audience again clapped and clapped, not standing but great appreciation for the musicians. Even when it looked like the evening was over and the musicians were gathering their stuff and heading out, as we were, some people kept clapping until the director came out again, for another call. The audience certainly knew what they were doing.

During the intermission, we went downstairs and had a glass of wine. We noticed that most of the audience was made up of older people, but there were some young people mixed in also. We wondered if young people had given up on classical music, but not in this town.

When we got to Leipzig, the first thing we did was to get some tickets to concerts. The first one we picked was the Gewandhaus orchestra, with director Herbert Blomstedt. They were playing Paul Hindemith's Symphony " Mathis der Maler". This piece was a musical tribute to one of Grunewald's paintings on the Crucifixon. If you know the artist, you know that his paintings are usually very stark and bloody. And this piece was very descriptive. There was every conceivable kind of instrument playing, including all kinds of percussion.

The second piece was a Bruckner. Mind you, we probably would have preferred some Bach or Mozart, but we were only in Leipzig about ten days, so our choices were numbered. Anyway, this Brukner, one of his romantic symphonies, was a beauty. And again, every musician in the orchestra was playing almost all of the time. It was quite a treat.

Another concert we went to in Leipzig was to hear the Leipziger Stringquartet. Just four guys, one on a part. This concert was in a smaller chamber, and we had great seats again, in the front row. We could see how they communicated with each other and who the leader was, and how much they enjoyed what they were playing. They played all Beethoven that morning, and they worked hard on every movement of every piece. They were wonderful.

We also went to an organ concert at the great hall in Leipzig. They have a Schuke organ at the Gewandhaus. The organist was Michael Schonheit. He played Bach, of course, and Mendelssohn. The Bach was my favorite. The organist was very good, and we really enjoyed the concert.

I have tried to give a picture of Berlin by describing topics instead of a chronolgy. I hope I have given a flavor of the city. We never could figure out whether we liked the city or not. It is so huge and has so many neigborhoods that are different from each other, it is hard to describe Berlin as one city. It has gone through a century of defining history and it is still trying to get its bearings as a unified city once again. I would recommend anyone to visit there, but have at least a couple of weeks there to really get a feel for the city. Seeing all of the sights is one thing, just letting the city's atmosphere sink in is another.