Post by john on Feb 1, 2008 0:14:56 GMT 1
My wife Jackie and I enjoy Holidays, however we are not beach people, city breaks or culture based holidays are more our scene.
We had not been to Berlin so when I got the chance of 2 tickets for the BPO concert in Berlin for 23rd January I jumped at it.
We also booked online for a trip to the State Opera the following evening, we do this in as many cities as possible, Milan, London, Salzburg, Prague, Rome are just a few, there are of course lots more still to visit in the future.
We arrived in Berlin on 22nd and visited a large music store, there were manys areas promoting Karajan cds and dvds etc.
There was also various displays promoting Eliete Von Karajan's book 'My Life at his side' she was to be at the store that evening to sign copies, however we did not come back for that.
The concert at the Phiharmonie was as you would expect a very grand occasion, the BPO played brilliantly and Ozawa conducted the Tschaikowsky 6th symphony with great sensitivity and at the end he and the orchestra were motionless for a very long time, the audience remained quiet until some idiot in the front row clapped loudly, I would have preffered no applause at all and for Ozawa to just leave the podium.
The Beethoven Violin Concerto with Mutter was a much happier affair, needless to say she was perfect and very exciting and looking very elegant, infact the audience love her so much she was forced to return to the stage to take a slo bow even after thee orchestra had left for the interval, a photo I took is shown below.
All in all it was well worth going, however on the way out we were approached by a Television crew and asked for an interview on our thoughts of the concert, the fact that we were english and dressed for the occasion (unlike many of the audience) made it more interesting for them, whether we appeared on German TV we will probably never know.
The 2nd part of the concert was also televised or at least filmed.
On the 24th we went to the opera to see Verdi's Un Ballo In Maschera, it was,nt until the overture started that I realised by sheer coincidence that this was the Opera that Karajan was in rehearsal for in Salzburg when he died in 1989.
We had not been to Berlin so when I got the chance of 2 tickets for the BPO concert in Berlin for 23rd January I jumped at it.
We also booked online for a trip to the State Opera the following evening, we do this in as many cities as possible, Milan, London, Salzburg, Prague, Rome are just a few, there are of course lots more still to visit in the future.
We arrived in Berlin on 22nd and visited a large music store, there were manys areas promoting Karajan cds and dvds etc.
There was also various displays promoting Eliete Von Karajan's book 'My Life at his side' she was to be at the store that evening to sign copies, however we did not come back for that.
The concert at the Phiharmonie was as you would expect a very grand occasion, the BPO played brilliantly and Ozawa conducted the Tschaikowsky 6th symphony with great sensitivity and at the end he and the orchestra were motionless for a very long time, the audience remained quiet until some idiot in the front row clapped loudly, I would have preffered no applause at all and for Ozawa to just leave the podium.
The Beethoven Violin Concerto with Mutter was a much happier affair, needless to say she was perfect and very exciting and looking very elegant, infact the audience love her so much she was forced to return to the stage to take a slo bow even after thee orchestra had left for the interval, a photo I took is shown below.
All in all it was well worth going, however on the way out we were approached by a Television crew and asked for an interview on our thoughts of the concert, the fact that we were english and dressed for the occasion (unlike many of the audience) made it more interesting for them, whether we appeared on German TV we will probably never know.
The 2nd part of the concert was also televised or at least filmed.
On the 24th we went to the opera to see Verdi's Un Ballo In Maschera, it was,nt until the overture started that I realised by sheer coincidence that this was the Opera that Karajan was in rehearsal for in Salzburg when he died in 1989.
