23.01.2020

                Todays pre-performance adventure took place on Museuminsel (Museum Island) in Berlin. Our class had stumbled upon the hint that the five fay metro passes we had would allow us to enter the five museums located on Museuminsel. My friend and I attempted to use this knowledge to enter the Altes Museum but were turned away. When we tried again in the Nues Museum we were granted access. After having seen the Kunsthistorische in Vienna, I thought the exhibits we saw were semi lacking. Many of the relics contained within the rooms appeared similar to one another despite the change in civilization and time period. The National Galerie was a little better. The painting we saw were well done but did not really depict things I was interested in. I liked the sculptures better. Spurred on by the success we had in gaining entry to two museums, we tried to enter the Pergamon. Alas, we were again turned away.
                 The performance we saw this evening was Gustav Mahler‘s sixth symphony by the Berlin Philharmonie. For the duration of the concert our class sat behind the orchestra, which meant directly behind the percussion section. I found that this allowed me to hear each strike a percussionist made much more clearly then I had at any previous performance our class had seen. Our seating also provided a great view of the conductor who could have been a show all by himself. It was amusing to watch the range of emotions his face could go through and how his movement could swap from large and airy to small and robotic in the space of a measure.
                The music itself was absolutely wonderful and played really well. The emotion in this piece was prominent enough that even I could identify it. Out of the four movements I enjoyed the first the best. It was almost like a synopsis of the rest of the symphony, containing the marching drone, the airy lightness, and the powerful waves of sound. The only issue I could possibly find was the Mahler hammer. Before the concert the hammer had been hyped up as this instrument of deafening sound meant to symbolize the hammer strokes of fate. In reality, if I had not watched the percussionist actually wield the hammer I would have never know it was used. From where I was sitting it merely sounded like a strike of the base drum that was easily overpowered by either the gong or the closer of the two timpani sets. Except for that small blip the concert this evening was truly amazing.