Last Saturday, the day before my triathlon, Hilary and I went to the Philharmonie to see Hilary Hahn perform wit the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester. I was very excited to finally be going to the Philharmonie, and thankful that we'd bought tickets ahead of time because this was one of the very last concerts in the Philharmonie before I leave.
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| Outside the Philharmonie |
Hilary Hahn is a young violin soloist, a protégé who has played all over the world, including in Carnegie Hall. The first half of the performance featured Hilary Hahn playing Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A-major and a small subsection of the orchestra. She gave a beautiful performance, and the Philharmonie has terrific acoustics. The second half of the performance was the full orchestra, and they performed Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C-Major. I might have liked the symphony better than Hilary Hahn, just because with the entire group it was so full and energetic. They had a great sound, and killer dynamics. The conductor was a sprightly 83 year old who would pick his way through the rows during the applause to shake the hands of some of the soloists.
Sunday night, after the triathlon, I went with Maria to see Tosca in the Deutsche Oper. It was a traditional performance, and I thought it was very good. I liked the set, and the singers and musicians were very talented. I was glad to see a traditional opera performance because most of the shows in Berlin are very modern.
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| A shot (not mine) from the third act of Tosca |
On Wednesday Hilary and I hit up La Bohème at the Komische Oper--my second Puccini of the week! This was another modern Inszenierung, but I also liked this show. It didn't hurt that we had awesome seats. We showed up an hour early to get our student tickets and ended up sitting in the very middle of the third row. The Komische Oper is smaller than the Deutsche Oper, so the third row is not too close but instead quite nice.
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| Hilary in the Komische Oper |
And then yesterday was a jazz concert! I had discovered in May that the Botanischer Garten hosts an outdoor concert every Friday evening in the summer. I pegged yesterday's concert immediately as a must-see, because it was big band swing, one of my favorite kinds of music. So Hilary, Maria and I went to check it out. We were at first disappointed that the concert wasn't taking place in the open air but in a greenhouse, because it rained on Thursday so it was wet where they were supposed to set up. Then as the evening continued and we realized how chilly it was we were quite happy to be out of the wind!
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| The Big Band Kameleon performing at Botanischer Garten |
The Big Band Kameleon put on a great show, in my opinion. They played numbers by many well-known artists such as Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, and a few I didn't know. There were quite a few songs featuring their vocalist. The female vocalist had a great voice but all the songs she sang were in English, and sometimes she wasn't that clear. The director also sang one song, and then performed a few duets with the female vocalist. The band had a solid instrumentation and excellent balance, in my opinion. They weren't as loud as big bands often are, but considering the space limits that was probably a good thing. It was a fun show!
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| Walking through the Garten |
Asides from all the concerts I've been spending my time just enjoying Berlin. I checked out the Technikmuseum last Saturday, which was really cool. Planes, trains, ships, computers and more! Emma's birthday was last Tuesday so we celebrated with a brunch on Tuesday, an hour in a Biergarten that evening, and also a party at a friend's apartment on Thursday. I'm just continuing to enjoy every day that I have here. I leave this month but I am trying not to wish these last weeks away!
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| On the roof of the Technikmuseum |
You're so cultured, Mo! And it's exciting that you were able to experience jazz in Berlin!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think I want to become best friends with that conductor from the first part. He sounds wonderful! :-)