Berliner Philharmonie 31 August 2019 - “Critics` Quartet” | GoComGo.com

“Critics` Quartet”

Berliner Philharmonie, Chamber Music Hall, Berlin, Germany
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5 PM
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Important Info
Type: Discussion
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 17:00
Duration:

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Festival

Musikfest Berlin 2019

From 30 August to 19 September 2019, the concert season in Berlin will be launched by Musikfest Berlin, hosted by Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker. Over 21 days, 26 events at the Philharmonie, its Chamber Music Hall and at Konzerthaus Berlin will present 65 works by around 25 composers, featuring 22 instrumental and vocal ensembles and more than 50 soloists from the international music scene.

Overview

In the run-up to the opening concert of this year’s Musikfest Berlin, music journalists Susanne Benda, Eleonore Büning, Volker Hagedorn and Michael Stegemann will discuss Hector Berlioz’ opera “Benvenuto Cellini”.

Critics and artists are by no means natural enemies, even if the popular caricature would have us believe otherwise. After all, there were times when, like Hanslick and Brahms, they played the piano together four-handed. There is no reason at all to assume that these good old days are over, even if, in truth, the old days may not have been as good as we have been told. That is why it is all the more important that all those who care deeply about art and see themselves as its champions have to act in concert – together for art and indeed with a critical eye. In today’s music criticism, the business of public relations (portraits, home-stories, interviews) has largely prevailed over a critical discourse on musical works and their interpretations (reviews). In print media, layout and advertisement have replaced arguments, while on the internet, there is a great deal of argument by a great many participants, but a lot of empty talk as well. Which makes a critical institution like the Ranking of the Best, published quarterly by German Record Critics’ Award (“Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik”, PdSK) more important today than ever before.

In 1963, a small group of music critics joined together to initiate this award. Their aim was to install a reliable authority for quality control in a record market overlaid by advertisements, to give substantiated recommendations and thus promote the art of interpretation. Today, the association consists of 160 music critics from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They work in 32 expert juries on a voluntary basis. Apart from the Rankings of the Best, they elect Annual and Honorary Awards each autumn. And occasionally, four of them get together to form a “Critics’ Quartet”, to publicly discuss a musical work and to compare recordings of it.

Eleonore Büning

 

Participants

Susanne Benda music journalist, Stuttgarter Nachrichten
Eleonore Büning freelance music journalist
Volker Hagedorn journalist and author of the book “Der Klang von Paris”
Michael Stegemann Professor for Musicology, music journalist
N.N. Infos

discussing the opera Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz

Olaf Wilhelmer host, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Venue Info

Berliner Philharmonie - Berlin
Location   Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1

The Berliner Philharmonie is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, named for the orchestra's longest-serving principal conductor. The building forms part of the Kulturforum complex of cultural institutions close to Potsdamer Platz.

The Philharmonie consists of two venues, the Grand Hall (Großer Saal) with 2,440 seats and the Chamber Music Hall (Kammermusiksaal) with 1,180 seats. Though conceived together, the smaller hall was opened in the 1980s, some twenty years after the main building.

Hans Scharoun designed the building, which was constructed over the years 1960–1963. It opened on 15 October 1963 with Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was built to replace the old Philharmonie, destroyed by British bombers on 30 January 1944, the eleventh anniversary of Hitler becoming Chancellor. The hall is a singular building, asymmetrical and tentlike, with the main concert hall in the shape of a pentagon. The height of the rows of seats increases irregularly with distance from the stage. The stage is at the centre of the hall, surrounded by seating on all sides. The so-called vineyard-style seating arrangement (with terraces rising around a central orchestral platform) was pioneered by this building, and became a model for other concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House (1973), Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall (1978), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1981), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and the Philharmonie de Paris (2014).

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet recorded three live performances at the hall; Dave Brubeck in Berlin (1964), Live at the Berlin Philharmonie (1970), and We're All Together Again for the First Time (1973). Miles Davis's 1969 live performance at the hall has also been released on DVD.

On 20 May 2008 a fire broke out at the hall. A quarter of the roof suffered considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior sustained water damage but was otherwise "generally unharmed". Firefighters limited damage using foam. The cause of the fire was attributed to welding work, and no serious damage was caused either to the structure or interior of the building. Performances resumed, as scheduled, on 1 June 2008 with a concert by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The main organ was built by Karl Schuke, Berlin, in 1965, and renovated in 1992, 2012 and 2016. It has four manuals and 91 stops. The pipes of the choir organs and the Tuba 16' and Tuba 8' stops are not assigned to any group and can be played from all four manuals and the pedals.

Important Info
Type: Discussion
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 17:00
Duration:
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