Berlin Philharmonic to go ‘live’ in city

KOLKATa: The Max Mueller Bhavan auditorium will turn into a concert hall on Saturday with none other than the Berlin Philharmonic performing. The famous orchestra, which has been reaching out through its Digital Concert Hall programme over the last six years, is all set to ‘premier’ in this city.
“We are proud to present this exceptional experience; exceptional because the initiative is the first of its kind in Kolkata and because the ‘Berliner Philharmoniker’ is a world-class philharmonic orchestra,” said Friso Maecker, the director of Goethe-Institut Kolkata.The initiative will be partnered by The Calcutta School of Music.
While bringing over such a big orchestra to the country can be no more than a distant dream, technology has paved the way for the next best thing.
“We will be able to savour a performance that is taking place at exactly the same time some 7000 km away, and without loss in quality because the telecasting will be in HD and the original sound will be retained by some of world’s best systems that we have in our auditorium,” Maecker reminded, adding: “It’ll be just like sitting right there, in the Berlin Philharmonic’s concert hall. ”
A short introduction will precede the three-piece concert, which will begin at 10pm (IST). Captioned ‘Andris Nelsons and Emanuel Ax interpret Mozart and Strauss’, it will begin with Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E flat major K. 499. With Richard Strauss’ Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra following, it does make for “an unusual combination”, according to many. But, then, pianist Ax already has given a guest performance with the Berlin Philharmonic with this combo when, in June 2001, he played the two works with Bernard Haitink as conductor. That he came in for much praise then will have whetted interest in Saturday’s performances, which will be conducted by Andris Nelson.
Richard Strauss, whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated this year, had composed Burleske as a 21-year-old. The piece is considered a challenge for any pianist. His orchestral piece Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus spoke Zarathustra), a tone poem inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel of the same name, came ten years later in 1896. A part of it was used in the 1968 movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Having begun in May 1882 under a name that would roughly translate to ‘Former Bilse’s Ensemble’, the Berlin Philharmonic has been voted as being among the top three orchestras of the world in recent times. Mumbai-born Zubin Mehta, one of the leading conductors of the world, has partnered the orchestra several times since September 1961 and last conducted it in January this year.
“We’ve taken all the precautions to ensure brilliant transmission over the entire concert time – let’s hope that the line holds,” said Maecker.