How to turn musical non-Berliners green with envy
Aug 15th, 2007 by Paul Moor
[Of late such dreary priorities as livelihood-earning have forced me to neglect this rumpus-room, but I'll use the following, just sent to the editor of www.musicalamerica.com, to get things here going again - until I can finally get around to writing about my two (brief and superficial but still highly memorable) personal encounters with Marlene Dietrich, who prior to her first trip to Hollywood in 1932 lived just around the corner from where I live now. Meanwhile, chew on this reason (only one of several) why I've long since come to regard this wonderful city as my true home:]
This <http://tinyurl.com/2nj3hm> alone makes September something special, even for Berlin – plus three new opera productions (one a world premiere) and one ballet premiere. Please, please, PLEASE respond to this a.s.a.p., for to this “MUSIKFEST BERLIN 2007″ press people from all over the world will swarm to Berlin, swiftly exhausting in advance the ticket contingent available to them for each event – and after that, late requests simply go unfulfilled.
In detail:
1.) Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam) / Bernard Haitink (et al.) – WAGNER: “Parsifal” Prelude and Good Friday Spell; “Tristan” Prelude and Liebestod; DEBUSSY: Nocturnes; Six Epigraphes antiques (orchestrated by Escher).
1. also) Konzerthausorchester / Lothar Zagrosek – SCHREKER: “Prelude to a Drama”; KORNGOLD: Violin Concerto (V. Hagner); MENDLESSOHN: 3d (“Scottish”) Symphony.
2.) Bavarian Radio Symphony / Mariss Janssons – DEBUSSY: “La Mer”; SHOSTAKOVICH 5th; MUSORGSKY-SHOSTAKOVICH: “Songs and Dances of Death” (Sergei Leiferkus).
2. also) Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester (RSO) Berlin / Marek Janowski – BEETHOVEN: Triple concerto; BRUCKNER 1st.
3.) Boston Symphony / James Levine – IVES: “Three Places in New England”; CARTER: “Three Illusions for Orchestra”; RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G (P.-L. Aimard); BARTOK: Concerto for Orchestra.
4.) Konzerthausorchester / Zagrosek (et al.) – IVES: “Holidays” Symphony; DVORAK: “New World” Symphony.
5.) San Francisco Symphony / Thomas – IVES: 3d Symphony; MAHLER 7th.
6.) Staatsoper – HENZE: “Phaedra” (world premiere); Michael Boder, conductor; Peter Mussbach, director.
6. also) Berlin Philharmonic (BPO) / Rattle – BUSONI: Sarabande (from “Two Studies to ‘Doktor Faustus’”; DVORAK: Piano Concerto (Schiff); VARESE: “Ionisation”; BARTOK: “The Miraculous Mandarin”.
7.) Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester (DSO) / Ingo Metzmacher – SHOSTAKOVICH: “Festive Overture”; BARTOK: “Dance Suite”; RAVEL: “La Valse”; GERSHWIN: “An American in Paris”.
8.) Two-part marathon concert (8 + 10.30 p.m.) by the “Ensemble musikFabrik NRW” from IRCAM (Paris) / Peter Rundel – VARESE: “Intégrales”; NUNES: “Lichtung I & II for ensembles plus live Elektronik”; RIHM: “Form/Zwei Forms for 20 instrumentalists”; VARESE:”Déserts”; NUNES: “Lichtung III” plus entire cycle “Lichtung I-III”.
9.) DSO / Metzmacher – STRAUSS: “Ein Heldenleben”; VARESE: “Amériques”.
11.) RSO / Janowski – DEBUSSY: “Khamma”; BUSONI: Violin Concerto (F. P. Zimmermann); SIBELIUS 4th.
12.) Philharmonia (London) / Charles Dutoit – CHAUSSON: “Poème de l’amour et de la mer” (Véronique Gens); DEBUSSY: “Images” + “Jeux”.
13.) Staatskapelle Dresden / Fabio Luisi – VARESE: “Arcana”; BEETHOVEN: 4th Piano Concerto (Hélène Grimaud); STRAUSS: “Eine Alpensinfonie”.
14.) BPO / Rattle (et al.) – DEBUSSY: “Le Martyre de St. Sébastien”; STRAVINSKY: “Le Roi des étoiles”.
16.) Staatsoper – “Medea”, ballet by Pascal Dusapin; Sasha Waltz, choreographer; Marcus Creed, conductor.
16. also) Staatskapelle Berlin / Gustavo Dudamel – BARTOK: 1st Piano Concerto (Daniel Barenboim); IVES: “Robert Browning Overture”; BEETHOVEN 7th.
17.) DSO / Metzmacher (et al.) – OEHRING: “Das Blaumeer” from “Einkehrtag”; MAHLER 4th.
18.) Young German Philharmonia / Manfred Honeck – WIDMANN: Violin Concerto (Christian Tetzlaff); BRUCKNER 9th.
19.) IN HONOR OF KURT SANDERLING’S 95TH BIRTHDAY, Konzerthausorchester Berlin / Zagrosek (plus three Sanderling progeny) – MOZART: Overture to “The Abduction from the Seraglio”; BRAHMS: 1st Cello-Piano Sonata and SCHUBERT “Trout” Quintet.
19. also) BPO members / Rattle – JANACEK: Left-Hand Capriccio for piano & winds and Piano Concertino (Schiff); DVORAK: Slavonic Dances (selection); “Bagatelles” for two violins, cello, & harmonium.
20.) Orchestre Nationale de France / Kurt Masur – BEETHOVEN: 2d Piano Concerto (David Fray); BRUCKNER 7th.
20. also) BPO / Rattle (et al.) – STRAVINSKY: Symphonies for Wind Instruments; Symphony in Three Movements; Symphony in C; Symphony of Psalms.
21.) Konzerthausorchester / Zagrosek (et al.) – PENDERECKI: “Threnody” for strings; NONO: “Canti di vita e d’amore”; BRUCKNER: Mass in E Minor.
23.) Komische Oper – J. STRAUSS: “The Bat” (a.k.a. “Die Fledermaus”); Markus Poschner, conductor; Andreas Homoki, director.
23. also) DSO / Metzmacher – BRAHMS: Haydn Variations; 2d Piano Concerto (Peter Serkin); LUTOSLAWSKI: Concerto for Orchestra.
26.) Gewandhausorchester Leipzig / Herbert Blomstedt – BEETHOVEN “Eroica”; SIBELIUS: “Tapiola”; Violin Concerto (Julian Rachlin).
27.) BPO / Neeme Järvi – ROTT: Symphony in E; BARTOK: 3d Piano Concerto (Grimaud).
29.) Staatsoper – TELEMANN: “Patient Socrates”; René Jacobs, conductor; Nigel Lowery & Amir Hosseinpour, directors.
29. also) Konzerthausorchester / Zagrosek (et al.) – MOZART: “Abduction” Overture; SZYMANOWSKI: “Songs of the Lovesick Muezzin” (A. Zamojska & F. Say); SANCHEZ-VERDU: “Maqbara”, Epitaph for voice & orchestra; STRAUSS: Dance from “Salome”.
30.) DSO / Metzmacher – BERNSTEIN: 2d Symphony “The Age of Anxiety” (G. Cascioli, piano); Divertimento.
Henze being my favorite living composer, not being able to attend the premiere of s Phaedra does make me green with envy. Having lived in Berlin for fifteen years, I still miss the diversity of musical offerings, even though I live in New York City now. I am willing to bribe anyone willing to record the broadcast of Phaedra…;-)
A German-Born New Yorker