Well, my concert-going disappointment
didn’t last long. Within twenty-four hours of my tangle with the Slaughtered
Strauss at the Konzerthaus, I was back on top of the musical world with a very
different type of concert at a very different type of venue.
Clärchen’s Ballhaus is a wonderful
time-warped dance-house, within walking distance of my flat. It made me think
of the Blackpool Tower’s ballroom, though alas, in this day and age, the
dancers shuffle and glide to recorded music. And like Blackpool, it has extras.
One extra is a restaurant serving splendid
blutwurst with beetroot and cabbage, after having devoured which we proceeded
to the main feature of our evening: the concert in the Spiegelsaal. Yes, the
hall of mirrors. What a great place for a concert! A deliciously characterful room
looking as if it dated from the C18th, decorated with big old mirrors, holding
chairs for about 150 and equipped with a fine grand piano and a nice little
bar…
The audience lolled with their glasses of
wine, and listened to Bach, Kuhlau, Prokofiev and, good heavens, Eugene
Goossens jr beautifully delivered by a piano-violin-flute trio. The trio is
normally made up of the three young Dan brothers, from Roumania, but tonight
the pianistic brother was ‘off’ and we had a remarkably adept deputy (Naaman
Wagner).
What can I say? The three players played
really splendidly, separately and together, producing lovely warm tones from
their instruments (the flute and fiddle never squeaked and shrieked, they sang,
mezzo-soprano) and their programme was really well arranged: beginning with the
oldest piece and finishing with Goossens and a grand morceau written by Aaron,
the flute brother.
The lively, tuneful Kuhlau piece was a
revelation – I played Kuhlau half a century and more ago, and haven’t heard him
mentioned since! – I didn’t realize that Goossens the third had written such
pretty, filmic stuff and the home-made piece was my treat for the evening.
Lovely! The Prokofiev was written for flute or violin, so Georg, the violin
brother played two movements and Aaron the flute the other two, giving an
intelligent variation to the entertainment.
Because that’s what it was. Pure and
heartwarming entertainment. As music should be. A thoroughly grand evening out,
in a grand place with grand music …
One complaint. The Spiegelsaal only
operates in the ‘season’. This was the first concert of this season. So I – who
leave for the other hemisphere when October arrives -- am not going to be able to
visit as often as I would like. Except for the blutwurst!
But anyone who reads this, and is in Berlin
in the coming months: put ‘dinner and concert at Clärchen’s’ on your Must list. Of course, you can dance too, if you like…
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