ConcertPulse
Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Michael Sanderling
Konzerthaus Berlin, Großer Saal (Berlin)
For the third and final time, artist in residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason will be a guest soloist with the Konzerthausorchester. With his cello, he lends his voice to King Solomon, as Ernest Bloch's ‘Schelomo’, first performed in New York in 1917, is a dialogue between the biblical ruler and his people. This in turn speaks from the orchestra. In terms of its musical structure, the short 20-minute, late-romatic neoclassical rhapsody could easily pass for film music: It illustrates the world view and character of the king, who, like other people, knows happy and darker phases of life. The composer's desire to create vital Jewish music is expressed in numerous sound quotations. Conductor Michael Sanderling's biography is linked to both pieces of this evening: The son of conductor Kurt Sanderling, a friend of Dmitri Shostakovich, was himself a cellist before deciding to pursue a career as a conductor. Shostakovich uses folk and workers' songs in many passages of his 11th Symphony “The Year 1905”. The charged atmosphere of an icy January day on which the Tsar's soldiers fired on a peaceful demonstration march of striking workers on their way to the Winter Palace, the massacre, the grief and the hope for a better future can be heard impressively in the four movements.