Berlin, City Life

Yesterday, I went to listen to a rendition of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. I had seen the announcement for this event on a billboard only a few hours earlier just when I was getting mad at my bank, because it had closed its doors for the weekend at 1pm.

The artists were the Berliner Singakademie together with the Berliner Symphonie Orchester (not the Berliner Philarmoniker) and Achim Zimmermann, the conductor. I forgot the names of the four singers. I don't really know why they performed the Missa in November, I thought this is more of an Easter thing, but I have to admit that my knowledge of religious masses is limited. According to this Missa Solemnis website, Beethoven never cared. A quick call ensured me there would be enough tickets at the box office that night, so I happily spent the afternoon in anticipation of a great event.

I arrived 5min before the actual show at the Konzerthaus and was facing a long line of people in front of the box office. Worried, I joined the line. Seconds later a well-dressed man asked me whether I wanted to buy two tickets: They were a group of six but two people had bailed out. I told him that I would use my student pass to get cheaper tickets at the box office, upon which he dropped the price to €10. Reacting quickly, I asked a good looking apparently single woman in front of me whether she would join me for the concert while getting a good deal for the ticket as well. Good fortune, she said yes.

My nose had led me the right way. The tickets we got were top spots, row 5 in the Parkett, for a third of their usual price. Moreover, my fortuitous companion for the night, Ronja, turned out to be a pleasant and well informed Berliner, who told me a lot about the ins and outs of classical music concerts in Berlin.

The performance itself turned out to be somewhat flat. It had been a while since I'd last seen and heard the Missa being performed. At that time, I had still been living in Switzerland, and I had traveled from Zürich to Montreux just to listen to Nicolaus Harnoncourt conduct the Missa Solemnis at Montreux's Stravinski Auditorium. Compared with that experience, this Missa performance was rather subdued, and so was the audience's response. Or, maybe, I should have removed that wax from my ears.

It is good to be back in good old Europe. Even if we had paid full price, it would only have been €27, for a performance where the Boston or San Francisco symphonic orchestras would have charged you an arm and a leg. The benefits of public purpose. Ah, Berlin, city life.