Video: Merkel thanks Gorbachev with Fidelio finale
mainThese were the closing moments of Fidelio in Berlin today, attended by the federal chancellor and the last Soviet leader, conducted by Ivan Fischer. Some 170 players from the leading Berlin orchestras came together for this concert at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
Earlier in the day, on the 25th anniversary of the breaching of the Berlin Wall, Merkel told Gorbachev: ‘You made this possible – you courageously let things happen, and that was much more than we could expect.’
Post by Vladimir Fanshil.
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h/t: Vladimir Fanshil
This reminds me of Leonard Bernstien’s outdoor performance of Beethoven’s Ninth in Berlin with a selected group of musicians from various orchestras shortly after the wall fell.
There is a DVD of the performance still available.
That wasn’t an outdoor concert though, it was in the Schauspielhaus (now Konzerthaus).
No Neil and Putin about ?? must be
entertaining the non invading troops
in the Ukraine .Could have at least sent Valery
No Neil and Putin about ?? must be
entertaining the non invading troops
in the Ukraine .Could have at least sent Valery but I suppose he is leading
the non invading army chorus .
Germany celebrated with Beethoven yesterday… seems to have gone down extremely well, also in the TV discussions… and nobody was complaining that this was very old music. Why did they not take Stockhausen, or Widmann, or Haas, or Rihm, or – since it was a joyful occasion – Lachenmann?
Any time before Schoenberg such occasion would have required a contemporary work to be written, but in those times the musical language still had capacities of expression and joy. Yesterday demonstrated again, how music has itself written-out of the broader culture altogether: appropriate symbolism even for such a contemporary event like the fall of the Berlin wall can only be found in the past. Or, to put it differently: it appears that 200 years ago composers could write music that remains contemporary for ever.
”It appears that 200 years ago composers could write music that remains contemporary for ever.” Totally agree.
And Beethoven is simply of a quality that is very hard to match .
I recently attended a chamber music concert with works by Stravinsky,Shostakowitch, Schnittke and Ligeti , and the last piece of the concert happened to be Beethovens Grosse Fuge Opus 133.
The interesting phenomenon was ( at least to my ears ) that grumpy Old Ludwig sounded more radical and ‘modern’ than the other gentlemen ,despite his work being written 189 years ago.
It simply had it all: enormous depth, most unusal daring harmonies, relentless ( reckless ) energy and absolutely watertight, perfect proportions.
Quite an eye opener, I did not expect it to be that drastic though ….