“Oh,” calls the horn player Sarah Willis in the foyer between the test stations, “it’s so wonderful that you are finally all back here”. The Berliner Philharmoniker and its audience come together because 45 medical professionals, including three doctors from the Charité, test almost half of the 1,000 visitors in 90 minutes in the Philharmonie Chamber Music Hall. The other 520 classical music fans got their results in other test stations in the city.
Everything works perfectly. Everyone had the test result on their smartphone after 20 minutes. There was not a single positive Covid-19 test in the Philharmonie. The director Andrea Zietzschmann stepped onto the stage at 7 p.m. punctually, thanks, and she knows that there is a lot at stake: “Today almost the whole world looks at Berlin, from culture and sport, to see how the procedures are. “
While theaters, concert halls and operas are closed almost everywhere in Europe and the USA, Berlin manages to give the particularly battered cultural scene a perspective. Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer (left) gave the cultural institutions the chance to fill half the hall. Under the strictest security measures and in cooperation with Charité scientists: “It is these rooms with well-functioning hygiene measures and ventilation concepts, where should you try this out, if not here?”, Says Lederer.
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“It was a gift from heaven”
When chief conductor Kirill Petrenko lifts the baton, there is an almost holy silence. The hall is filled with happiness at being part of the first concert in such a long time. Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) is just as moved as Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) – and like every listener, like every visitor.
After 75 minutes without a break, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony ends in a frenzy of sound and jubilation. “That was absolutely awesome, it was so brilliant, Kirill Petrenko jumped around on his podium, it was great. A fantastic Tchaikovsky and an incredible Rachmaninov,” enthused one visitor. “It was a godsend. I just hope that we can do it again three times a week,” said art patron Peter Raue.
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This is how the concert of the Berlin Philharmonic went
Hope for a signal to culture
The musician Madeleine Caruzzo, who plays the first violins, stands in front of the Philharmonie after the concert: “It was something very special, after more than a year with a half-filled hall, great. The audience was incredibly quiet, everything was tense, simple nice, that’s how it should be. ”
An absolutely perfectly organized test evening in the Berlin Philharmonie, a wonderful concert, and finally music live again. May this signal from Berlin encourage those who work in culture and those who love culture around the world.
Broadcast: Inforadio, March 21, 2021, 8:11 a.m.
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