Saturday, February 22, 2025
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Marin Alsop made her Philharmoniker debut this week with this unhackneyed programme…
Outi Tarkiainen Day Night Day (Berliner Philharmoniker & Boston SO co-commission: premiere)
Brett Dean Fire Music (German premiere)
Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring
Heitor Villa-Lobos Chôros No. 10 “Rasga o coração”
… and this webcast was its third outing. The short, slow-moving Tarkiainen shimmered into life, exquisitely scored, somewhat ominous at times, night presumably when reactions can be heightened, paving the way for Fire Music, a thirty-five-minute magnum opus from Brett Dean, not only a large orchestra (including piano, electric guitar and MIDI keyboard) but three offstage groups, with much that is also ominous and exquisite, and much more that is musically thrilling if redolent of the destructive force of fire, here with a barren aftermath yet the sense of regrowth, until the flames return (all too familiar recently in Los Angeles). Stunning performance. Appalachian Spring (Suite), an American classic, is capable of wonderful, sometimes profound, transportation, yet for all the dedicated Philharmoniker response it came across as less than identified with, plus a beauty of sound somewhat foreign to the music, add to which some foursquare rhythms; no real quibbles with Alsop’s approach, although a certain carefulness was evident and she played along with the luxuriant response. The Villa-Lobos travelled much better, somewhat ‘cut and paste’ in terms of structuring ideas if with much scenic variety, cinematic in its colourful imagery, as in the above photo, Members of Rundfunkchor Berlin had fun as Amazon natives, and the percussion section made hay with exotic rhythms, helping to build something intoxicating. Ecstatic ovation.
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“Nature, its beauty and endangerment are the themes of this concert, which takes us all around the world. It begins with a new work by Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen, who was inspired by her native Lapland. Brett Dean’s Fire Music draws on a devastating bushfire in Australia in 2009, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring takes us to North America, while Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Chôros No. 10 echoes the birdsong of the Amazon.”