ConcertPulse
Guest performance
Philharmonie Berlin, Chamber Music Hall (Berlin)
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Simon Rattle fell in love with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at a young age – and now he makes his debut as its Chief Conductor and successor to Mariss Jansons at Musikfest Berlin. With a programme that treats Bach like jazz with Paul Hindemith, performs the Black poets of the “Harlem Renaissance” along with Alexander von Zemlinsky and ends in a virtuoso march towards tragedy with Gustav Mahler.
How do we maintain our composure and sense of humour in the face of imminent catastrophes? The question is aimed at a survival strategy not only for mankind, but for nature as a whole. It is always topical, and it seems to be especially so today. It was no less topical in 1939. One of the man-made disasters, the Second World War, was imminent. Four compositional heavyweights from the first half of the 20th century make their mark in today’s concert, two of them directly from 1939. Two others “play” with listeners’ expectations in the 1920s – and again in the 2020s. The “roaring twenties” were the birth of radio in Germany and thus also of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. The orchestra celebrated its centenary in the 2023/2024 season. Today’s chamber concert with works by Zemlinsky, Milhaud, Weill and Hindemith, among others, summarises four composers who are directly connected to the history of the orchestra – at the time as interpreters of their own works. In addition, the concert once again provides food for thought for the future of radio and concert music in the anniversary season: analogue music, literally created by living breath, meets digitally synthesised music created with the help of computer technology and electricity, brought in by RSB cooperation partner Catalyst – Institute for Creative Arts and Technology. Are the two worlds able to interact with each other? What role do creative people play in this? You are welcome to find out!
In “VerFührung”, the last performance in the “Mensch, Musik!” series, the work by Thomas Kessler/Saul Williams “‘said the shotgun to the head” for recitation, rap choir and orchestra is the centre of attention.Life is constantly about questions of leadership and seduction, starting with the fact that I have to lead my own life and deal with the various seductions that present themselves to me. But seduction has never been as ubiquitous as it is today. Technological progress makes it possible more than ever to reach every individual at any time and in any place with targeted images and sounds. We are constantly exposed to the whispers of the various political, economic and erotic pick-up artists that populate the global public sphere.How do I deal with this as an individual? Which guidance and which seduction do I seek? Which do I succumb to, which do I resist? Who do I allow to lead me? By whom will I be led astray? In other words: How do I find my own ground and how do I stand on it?„Leading (Astray)” takes up these questions and expands them to include the consideration of how people can be seduced into doing good by aesthetic means.The AI-based short film installation “/Sleep” by Ossagrosse can be experienced in the foyer of the Haus des Rundfunks before and after the performance in the auditorium. The short stories are set in supermarkets, busy streets and other everyday environments, told sometimes distantly, sometimes intimately by the narrator’s voice and the almost human figures that populate these worlds. The result of this work in space is a series of images and sounds that come together to create a stream of consciousness, a living environment that speaks.The concert will be broadcast on 31 May 2024 at 8.03 pm on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
23-year-old Aurel Dawidiuk is a genuine multi-talent: an organist, a pianist and a conductor. He’s been awarded a variety of musical prizes and in 2022 won the German Music Competition in the organ category. For his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie he has invited musical friends from the Karajan Academy. The highlight of their programme will be a performance of Paul Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 7, whose festive radiance and grandiose finale make it one of the composer’s most brilliant works.