Berlin 25-07-2010
Pablo Casals - www.ota-berlin.de
Alban Gerhardt - foto -www. artistsandconcerts.de
Glenn Gould the famous Canadian Bach interpreter famously stated in the 1960’s that the ‘concert-hall’ was dead. His position was well known and much discussed at the time and with hindsight has proved resoundedly to be incorrect.
Gould’s position had more to do with his own personal aversion to the gruelling and often inhuman pressure that professional classical soloists like himself had to endure in order to ‘stay at the top’.
Last night’s wonderful concert of all the 6 Bach Cello Suites – played in one marvellous sitting with a break between the first 4 and last 2 suites – show that live classical music is alive and well in Berlin.
The venue- the largest hall of the ‘Radialsystem V’ location with about 450 seats was absolutely filled – there was a line-up outside running at least half-a-block up Holzmannstrasse at 1945 hrs before the concert.
The good news for those who could not get tickets for the live performance is that they could sit in a very stylish large 2nd hall for free, which had a perfect sound system and carried the concert over a fantastic sound system– this same hall had large open doors which opened on the ‘ufer’ or right onto the Spree river where boats passed and one could view the sunset.
About 400 people made use of this opportunity to sit inside or outside and listen to the concert and enjoy some wine and food at the same time.
Alban Gerhardt introduced each Bach Suite and changed his position in the hall at three different locations – which is as unusal as it is welcome -was a real treat for the listeners and viewers.
Perhaps a bit of this Glenn Gould distaste for the formality of the concert hall has found some following with Mr Gerhardt.
He also invited those of the audience who wished to stay after the concert to do so and a lively one hour discussion over a well deserved ‘Staropramen Pils’ took place.
A moderator and Gerhardt discussed the concert, Bach, cello playing in general and took random questions from any of the about 100 people who remained.
Mr Gerhardt was an enthusiastic and entertaining interlocutor and his humour and generosity with his time was appreciated by the audience.
The audience was made up largely of 30-60 year old group – with some children – and with more advertising would have drawn more teenagers and 20-ish crowd, who don’t know what they are missing.
This evening speaks well for the cultural life of the capital city Berlin -accolades go to;
-The management of RADIALSYSTEM V for having lent the venue to this - perhaps from the outset – a somewhat speculatively profitable undertaking
-Matteo Goffriller – the instrument builder-for producing an absolutely fabulous instrument almost 300 years ago -which still produces ravishing tonal sonorous beauty whose sounds overwhelmed the small auditorium
-Pablo Casals for having brought these epic work solo pieces back in public circulation by presenting them at standard stand-alone concerts at the begining of the last century – this has led to their present popularity [ see OTA-Berlin Constituency Mini-Bio; http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/berlin/2010/04/21/ota-berlin-constituency-blog-mini-composer-bios-%E2%80%93-spanish-composers-%E2%80%93part-6-pablo-casals-%E2%80%93-new-apartment-at-ota-berlin-metzer-strasse-building/]
-For Johann Sebastian Bach -by far the greatest ever German [Konrad Adenauer please move aside] for having left humanity this unique and precious inheritance – still fresh, dynamic and invigorating after circa 300 years!
Most of the accolades must go to Alban Gerhardt for having taken this courageous step and dare to perform the whole cycle in one evening. He did this with gusto, with warmth and the intellectual understanding and love of Bach which you need to perform these works successfully. His melodic phrasing was excellent – these are after all in fact rhymic DANCES which need zest and a certain bravado.
As with all Bach music an interpreter has to maintain a mathematical exact organization, a Teutonic perfection in contrapuntal technique and combine and balance this with its complete opposite – a lighter rhythmic playfulness in form and texture – in this case the very obvious dance form.
Mr Gerhardt did both -his playing was never ‘attention-seeking’ and his style was perfectly married to these wonderful pieces of Bach’s great legacy.
The performances of the 4th and 6th suites stood out for their particular brilliance – Mr Gerhardt is a ‘class-act’ – in fact a world class artist!
Long may we enjoy such noteworthy concerts in the future!
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For Bach Cello Suite Groupies – further reading!
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-cello-suites-by-eric-siblin-1903792.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jan/16/bach-cello-suites-eric-siblin
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=303
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/27/books-the-cello-suites/
http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Reviews/bach_mark.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/arts/music-review-a-cellist-tethered-lightly-to-bach-and-britten-solos.html
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