Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Never mind Colin’s Column, this is more Colin’s calamity: having nodded off, this Berlin Phil concert started without me. Fair enough, I know my place. The Onegin selections aside, I joined this relay in time for a moment from Fauré’s Pelléas music treated like a delicate flower by Kirill Petrenko. Contrast that with the desert-island music that is Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, dramatic, dynamic, every bit the storybook thriller here … but there’s an extraordinary concert performance conducted by Celibidache (below) that is utterly compelling; nothing to do with the extra minutes per se, but rather what is revealed musically within them. I have long connected to ‘Celi’, and other great musicians … it just happens, and when it does, it’s special, for a lifetime of musical friendship.
Back to Berlin … for exquisite Massenet, both instrumentally and, from tenor Benjamin Bernheim (photoed), vocally, continued into the ‘Flower Song’ via a dashing ‘Farandole’. España (one of numerous gems by Chabrier) was exuberant, if a little slick, and if Ansermet didn’t have the greatest orchestra, his players knew what they were doing; those SRO recordings got me through my discovering-music years, and continue to do so, as below, while remembering my fellow Ansermet enthusiast, the late Paul Westcott (one-time Chandos press officer), as below.
Finally, Cuban Overture, with its percussion backdrop, very well done, of high spirits and languorous remembrances, the latter with wonderful clarinet contributions from Wenzel Fuchs. (I got to know this Gershwin from Boult – yes! – and, responding to my youthful indulgence, I have a handwritten letter from him, as do many; I think Sir Adrian liked penning correspondence. Great that Warner has issued Boult mono and stereo boxes very recently: one-hundred-or-so CDs. Will give me a task!). Back to Berlin for encores, Bernheim in a celebrated number from Tosca, Act III, sung before what is supposed to be Cavaradossi’s mock execution, and KP ended the concert with a farcically fast Prelude to Carmen, which, however well-played, sounded hectic and blurred. Bernstein, at half KP’s speed, at least, has a rhythmic clarity and bounce that is spot-on.
May I take this opportunity of wishing you all, especially dear friends, all the best for 2026. Looking ahead, I wonder what Yannick will do in Vienna in the morning…