The Berlin Philharmonic. Holy shit.* When the performance ended, I walked home with one of my
roommates absolutely speechless because of how good the performance was. We sat
directly behind the orchestra. I’m pretty sure that the first row could have
reached out and touched the percussion equipment, we were that close. The music
was incredible, and one of my favorite parts of the entire performance was when
our entire group got super excited any time one specific percussionist moved.
This performer in particular was in charge of the Mahler Hammer. For those of
you who don’t know what that is, it’s a comically large wooden hammer, and it
was used exactly two times during the 90-minute performance. This percussionist
also played the cymbals, and when he would reach down to pick up the cymbals,
we all leaned forward in anticipation hoping he would be picking up the Mahler
hammer instead.
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| Our view for the Berlin Philharmonic Concert |
Beyond that, the conductor was amazing to watch. He was very
expressive, and there were a couple of moments when his cues were playful and
made a couple of us laugh a little bit. It was a unique experience because normally,
sitting behind a conductor means that you are playing in the ensemble, not
listening to one perform. On top of that, we sat behind the French Horns, and
they were so good. The first horn was on another level of musicianship that I
had no idea was possible. The brass players were all incredible, from trumpet
to tuba, and I can’t honestly say what part I liked more. There was one part in
the piece where a pitch was passed around the high strings, oboe, and piccolo,
and they were all in tune, which is to be expected from a professional ensemble
but still incredible to listen to. Everything was perfect and unlike anything I
have ever heard before, including the other performances from this trip.
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| View for André Chenier |
Speaking of other performances, I saw my first opera in
Berlin! In all honesty, it was not my favorite performance of the trip. The
music was beautiful, and the singers were amazing, but it was really hard for
me to pay attention to what was happening on stage while trying to figure out
what they were singing in the captions that were high above the stage. Jumping
back and forth got a little tiring, and I was glad we got a longer break at
intermission. For the second half, I closed my eyes for a little bit of it, and
while I wasn’t able to understand what they were singing, it allowed me to
appreciate their singing more because I was able to focus on one thing instead
of trying to focus on everything at once. Also, we saw André
Chenier, which was pretty confusing to understand even after reading the
synopsis. I had almost no idea how one event led to the next in the first half,
but the second half was easier to understand.
Among all of the performances we have seen so far, including
those from other cities, I will say that they have one thing in common.
Everyone in the audience claps for about 10 minutes, yet I have not seen a
standing ovation from an entire crowd. Some people have stood for every
performance, but a majority of the people remain in their seats, even while the
clapping has been going on for long enough that the members of the performing
ensemble start shaking hands and hugging on stage, politely telling the
audience to stop clapping as they would like to go home. We are now off to Salzburg,
and I am going to do my best to visit as many of the Sound of Music sights as I
can when I have the time. I couldn’t be more excited!
*I would like to point out that I asked Dr. Powell if it was appropriate to cuss in a blog post and he said that my description of last night’s performance was completely accurate, so it was okay.
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