Berliner Philharmonie 13 September 2023 - Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe: Bach's Missa | GoComGo.com

Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe: Bach's Missa

Berliner Philharmonie, Main Auditorium, Berlin, Germany
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8 PM

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 20:00

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Festival

Musikfest Berlin 2023

The 2023 Musikfest Berlin will take place from 26 August to 19 September, hosted by Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker. Once again, this international orchestra festival will launch Berlin’s concert season with guest orchestras, ensembles and soloists from around the world as well as Berlin’s own major orchestras. Guests will include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, who will open the festival, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent and Münchner Philharmoniker. 

Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV232
Overview

It is a summation of his life as a composer – in his Mass in B minor, Johann Sebastian Bach once again amalgamated a multitude of influences into extraordinary music. At Musikfest Berlin 2023 the orchestra and choir of Collegium Vocale Gent will come together with a cast of distinguished soloists to perform this interdenominational work. The conductor is Philippe Herreweghe, whose work with Collegium Vocale Gent was celebrated at Musikfest Berlin this year.

Philippe Herreweghe accomplished first great musical feat in his early twenties. While still a student he founded the ensemble that has been inseparably linked with his own name for over 50 years since: the Collegium Vocale Gent: “Back then my greatest concern was to regain awareness of the correct phrasing, ornamentation and performance technique. Only after ten years of teaching could I treat these stylistic elements as craftsmen’s tools that I could use to help me create the Bach that satisfies me personally.” With his text-centred and rhetorical approach, Herreweghe is regarded as an outstanding interpreter of Bach and his readings of the composer’s works, using historic instruments and a streamlined choral cast have been received enthusiastically all around with world. At Musikfest Berlin the choir and orchestra of Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe will present a guest performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s last great artistic work: the Mass in B minor. Here Bach created an interdenominational work, as a Protestant cantor setting the Latin text of the Catholic liturgical mass. With its wide range of musical forms and styles, contrapuntal density and concert-like ease, contemplative passages and dramatic emotional vocabulary, he once again brought together the entire wealth of his compositional powers. No wonder that the 99-page manuscript of this remarkable work, stored in the Berlin State Library, is included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.

Venue Info

Berliner Philharmonie - Berlin
Location   Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1

The Berliner Philharmonie is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, named for the orchestra's longest-serving principal conductor. The building forms part of the Kulturforum complex of cultural institutions close to Potsdamer Platz.

The Philharmonie consists of two venues, the Grand Hall (Großer Saal) with 2,440 seats and the Chamber Music Hall (Kammermusiksaal) with 1,180 seats. Though conceived together, the smaller hall was opened in the 1980s, some twenty years after the main building.

Hans Scharoun designed the building, which was constructed over the years 1960–1963. It opened on 15 October 1963 with Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was built to replace the old Philharmonie, destroyed by British bombers on 30 January 1944, the eleventh anniversary of Hitler becoming Chancellor. The hall is a singular building, asymmetrical and tentlike, with the main concert hall in the shape of a pentagon. The height of the rows of seats increases irregularly with distance from the stage. The stage is at the centre of the hall, surrounded by seating on all sides. The so-called vineyard-style seating arrangement (with terraces rising around a central orchestral platform) was pioneered by this building, and became a model for other concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House (1973), Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall (1978), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1981), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and the Philharmonie de Paris (2014).

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet recorded three live performances at the hall; Dave Brubeck in Berlin (1964), Live at the Berlin Philharmonie (1970), and We're All Together Again for the First Time (1973). Miles Davis's 1969 live performance at the hall has also been released on DVD.

On 20 May 2008 a fire broke out at the hall. A quarter of the roof suffered considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior sustained water damage but was otherwise "generally unharmed". Firefighters limited damage using foam. The cause of the fire was attributed to welding work, and no serious damage was caused either to the structure or interior of the building. Performances resumed, as scheduled, on 1 June 2008 with a concert by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The main organ was built by Karl Schuke, Berlin, in 1965, and renovated in 1992, 2012 and 2016. It has four manuals and 91 stops. The pipes of the choir organs and the Tuba 16' and Tuba 8' stops are not assigned to any group and can be played from all four manuals and the pedals.

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 20:00
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