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The Komische Oper Berlin Orchester, Dagmar Manzel, Guenter Papendell, Das Lindenquintett, Tobias Mann, and Markus Poschner at the Golden Twenties New Year's Day concert. Photo: Leonard Turnevicius
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The RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin, Yorck Felix Speer, Max Schmitt, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, and Christina Landshamer in Berlin's Philharmonie. Photo: Leonard Turnevicius
(Berlin, Germany) The Komische Oper rang in the New Year with a blast from the past, an afternoon of hits from 'Golden Twenties' Berlin.
Markus Poschner led the Komische Oper Orchester in Eduard Kuenneke's Ouverture to the Taenzerische Suite, a piece that proved too long for the quality of its material.
Tobias Mann acted as host, introducing each piece on the program. He also crooned his way through a couple of items such as Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome from Cabaret which needed a bit more Joel Grey in the delivery.
The Lindenquintett, a male voice ensemble, provided some diversion with an arrangement of the Barcarolle from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann (OK, so maybe this piece wasn't composed in the 1920s, but it's popularity has never sagged).
Baritone Guenter Papendell detoured into serious music in the second half with Mein Sehnen, mein Waehnen from Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City).
East Berlin born actress Dagmar Manzel was the requisite soprano for this New Year's concert. Among her first half numbers was Oscar Strauss's Warum soll eine Frau kein Verhaeltnis haben? (Why shouldn't a Woman have an Affair?) from Eine Frau, die weiss, was sie will (A Woman Knows What She Wants)--(and what she wants is a single man with lots of dough to blow on her), as well as a Hanns Eisler-Bertolt Brecht tune from The Roundheads and The Pointyheads which was right up her 'Ost Allee' so to speak.
Poschner concluded the afternoon with a reading of Ravel's La Valse which ran the gamut from ruminative to raucous.
And raucous applause was the packed audience's response. So, for their encore, the entire cast re-did Theo Mackeben's Komm, lass uns einen kleinen Rumba tanzen (Come, Let's Dance a Little Rhumba), with Papendell as stiff as a board (you call that dancing?), and Manzel jiggling away--the way they used to do it in Berlin in the '20s.
There was an encore presentation at 8 p.m., but it was off to the Philharmonie for the RIAS Chamber Choir's New Year's concert of Mendelssohn's oratorio, Paulus (St. Paul).
Hans-Christoph Rademann led his RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin in what was a highly stirring account.
Yes, that's right, a period instrument ensemble specializing in Baroque music performing a large scale work from the Romantic era. That could have been a noxious combination--and the opening page of the Overture left much to be desired from the group's intonation. However, from that point on, things began to gel under Rademann, who, it must be said, doesn't have the most elegant baton technique.
Rademann's RIAS Kammerchor (24 females, 20 males) was simply outstanding. They sang with crystal clear diction (the German text was used), a uniformity of tone, as well as a wide variety of dynamics and vocal shading.
Soprano Christina Landshamer displayed a splendid voice, one that's silvery in colour. Mezzo Wiebke Lehmkuhl was the exact opposite, a dark chocolatey type of voice might be the best way to describe it. Tenor Maximilian Schmitt sang in clear and commanding tones. Bass Yorck Felix Speer had vocal difficulty all night (he sounded as though on the verge of a sore throat), and the audience's indulgence was begged after intermission. Speer soldiered on, though his troubles may have weighed on his mind when he entered early in the Duettino, So sind wir nun Botschafter.
The choir, soloists, instrumentalists and conductor were showered with applause and happily made a number of "curtain" calls (there is no curtain in the Philharmonie)--(and this time Landshamer made sure that she didn't trip on her long dress while walking on stage like she did at the end of the first half.)
And with that, it's Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin!
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