The ‘prize’ for my favourite concert of last year was a no
contest. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s three-in-one show at Berlin’s
Radialsystem was a walk-away winner. So one of my first bookings, this season,
was for seats to repeat the experience. They say you shouldn’t: it’s never as good
second time around. Was it?
Yes and no.
It was a lovely night, and we could sit by the river,
pre-concert, and drink lethal red wine, from rented goblets (2e if you don’t
take it back!) and nibble (luke-warm) spinach pastry, until a Weberian horn
fanfare announced open slather. For the three-in-one system was on again
(hurrah!) and its first come, first served for places.
The opening choice was between the full orchestra with the
Siegfried Idyll in the main hall, or a Stockhausen piece for trumpet and
tape-recorder upstairs. Well, we’d heard the Wagner plenty of times, so we
hurried up to the fifth floor, where you can perch or lie around the studio,
and installed ourselves. So did a wee sparrow, who must have come for
Stockhausen lessons.
The piece? A succession of notes and noises with no obvious
relationship or relevance to one another. The young player, Matthew Sadler?
Very clever, appealing and technically adept. But his table of mutes resembled
unnervingly a table of sex toys … The tape-recorder? Why? another instrument or
instruments would have served just as well. Anyway, the sparrow stayed almost
to the end, and hopefully is not now practising muted tweeting. My thought? Interesting;
but once will be enough, thanks.
We were going to proceed to the third floor for some DJ
tricks – putting beats into classical
music? -- but we were too slow, so we ended up in the main hall for a Schnittke
trio with the Sasha Waltz dancers.
Disappointment. Last year, the dance element was one of the
show’s highlights: the full company mixing with the orchestra in some seriously
fun choreography. This year, we had only two dancers, performing a pretty but
not very original pas de deux. It was perfectly nice, but not what I’d hoped
for. And – quibble - the string players were placed at the back of the stage,
so the music faded out backstage somewhat.
And from here, it was all up, up, and up!
It was getting a bit late, now. But the last item in the
Hall was the Schumann concert piece for four horns … all the programmed pieces of
the night were of sensible proportions: 20-30 minutes, so I could make one more.
With the aid of one more glass….
Thanks goodness I did. The Schumann was the highlight of the
night. And we netted seats in row three, right in front of the soloists, who
were quite superb to hear and to watch … four horns? so much more original that
a trumpet and a tape-recorded! …. it was a grand, grand experience, and one to
send you singing out into the night.
Or singing down to the riverside, while a mini-orchestra
played tangos, for one more and one too many sips of good French red with our
fellow concert-goers...
Another thoroughly interesting and enjoyable evening. A fun experience. But I expect that now at
Radialsystem. And of the MCO. My goodness, the two together provide a wonderful
night out.
However,,,
I suppose its all part of the exercise and atmosphere, that
you have to line up for each venue and item. And half the queue, for the small studio
or the deck, doesn’t get in. Which seems a pity. So you have to learn to be
quick. But some of us, more or less handicapped, can’t do that … and can’t
really cope with the crushing, shoving and standing in line, either. I sha’n’t
be daunted. I’m taking my walking (and running) stick next time!
And please, management, get rid of the ‘branding’ system of
entrance. It has most unpleasant references for some of us. There must be an
easier way…
And .. see you soon and often in the months to come …!
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