Berlin Philharmonic

On the 23rd day of our trip our class had the pleasure of attending the Berlin Philharmonic’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s 6th symphony. This was undoubtably my favorite concert on the trip. As someone who has studied music for awhile, I was really able to appreciate the high level of musicianship exerted by the orchestra members. 

My biggest takeaway from the performance was the life that the musicians put into their approach. I find this to be a recurring trait amongst the best musicians that I’ve heard. Whether the genre be classical, jazz, folk, etc., I’ve found that the best players put an incredible amount of human emotion into their approach. This makes the music flow in a manner that just feels utterly human. My next big takeaway was observing the concert hall. The hall itself is architecturally very interesting. One almost gets the feeling that they are in a cave due the protruding nature of certain sections. I also had the opportunity to be seated directly behind the orchestra where I could almost touch the percussionists if I so chose too. 

Another big takeaway for me was observing the technical proficiency of the musicians. This is of course a given with the caliper of the ensemble, but it was still very cool to observe. It is like going to a Nascar race. You know that the cars are going to be racing very fast, but when you actually see them do so, it adds more depth and excitement to your experience. Another interesting note that I’ll end with is the amount of young people that I observed in the ensemble. From my observation there was about 10 to 15 people in the ensemble that looked like they are in their early twenties. The amount of rigorous study that these individuals must have engaged in throughout their youth was likely very intensive.