{"id":1656,"date":"2008-12-29T17:34:48","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T01:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:12:09","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:12:09","slug":"early-reaction-to-berlin-video-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/29\/early-reaction-to-berlin-video-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"early reaction to berlin video experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"talvi\"
\nIlkka Talvi<\/em><\/p>\n

Ilkka Talvi, former concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, writes a nice blog (Of Music & Men<\/a>) as well as doing a lot of high level teaching in the Seattle area.\u00c2\u00a0 He recently signed up for the new Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall series of concerts, and here’s what he writes<\/a> about the experience:<\/p>\n

Inspired by the success of the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcasts to movie theaters worldwide, the Berlin Philharmonic recently decided to start broadcasting their concerts live via the Internet, for a fee of course. First such concert will take place in about a week. I decided to give my wife and myself a delayed holiday present and for about $130 get to listen and watch in High Definition the rest of the season, plus all the archived concerts from this fall. So far, we only had time for the First Symphony of Brahms and No. 92, the “Oxford”, by Haydn. The latter was played with a small chamber orchestra, usually a disaster when such attempts are made with players from large symphony orchestras. Not this one: the first and second violins played immaculately together in spite of being seated on opposite sides of the stage. Of course one must remember that the Berlin Philharmonic Hall has its stage close to the middle of the audience, and the lack of corners amplifying percussion and the brass instruments, such as the horns, take away the dangerous echo-chamber effect. These musicians play as if they are enjoying chamber music. Sir Rattle didn’t have to micro-manage his players, in fact much of the time he was just smiling and making motions that didn’t resemble a metronome’s beat but rather an inspiration to the musicians. The Brahms was just as exquisite: it is hard to imagine any other orchestra feeling and performing the piece just right. For that the cello and viola sections traded places. The double basses were behind the second violins, the principals in the middle of the section. The cameras are all remote controlled and completely unobtrusive, even difficult to see.<\/p>\n

Just listening to and watching the principal flautist of the evening Emmanuel Pahud<\/span> would have been worth the entire year’s subscription fee. What an incredible musician he is! In the Haydn the fastest runs were like child’s play. Most of the time Mr. Pahud played with little or no vibrato, with the cleanest sound and intonation, just the way I picture a great flute player doing. Yet in the Brahms in an exposed melody the sweetest vibrato appeared, almost bringing tears to my eyes, and I thought I didn’t even like orchestra music! It was interesting to see rotary-valve trumpets being used. Mr. Yasunaga’s<\/span> violin solo was pristine and the audience gave him a well-deserved applause. What a pleasure to look at violinists who all use the same part of the bow and who don’t make any unnecessary motions, their leader least of them all. None of the ladies acted like exhibitionists or “eye candy”. With some many audience members seeing his face, Mr. Rattle couldn’t give dirty looks but neither was there any need for them. At the of the Brahms, the orchestra just stood up, without feeling the need to face the audience with a forced smile. These were all music loving people, not local Madoff<\/span>-type donors expecting to be bowed down to. What a different experience this was! I can hardly wait to see the orchestra again on my 24-inch hi-def monitor and good sound system. We have the best seats in the house, even when concerts are sold out as they often are, and get to listen to great soloists who don’t want to bother with our Homeland Security’s ridiculous visa rules and thus often remain unknown to us.<\/p>\n

Like our President John F. Kennedy<\/span> did 45 years ago, I want to stand up and proclaim: “Ich bin ein Berliner”<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ilkka Talvi Ilkka Talvi, former concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, writes a nice blog (Of Music & Men) as well as doing a lot of high level teaching in the Seattle area.\u00c2\u00a0 He recently signed up for the new Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall series of concerts, and here’s what he writes about the experience: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,225,115,2,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-bloggers","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","category-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-qI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":982,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/20\/berlin-philharmonie-damaged-by-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":1656,"position":0},"title":"berlin philharmonie damaged by fire","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"(AP Photo\/Herbert Knosowski) This afternoon the Berlin Philharmonie, the renowned (both acoustically and visually) concert home of the Berlin Philharmonic, had its roof catch fire due to (purportedly) a welding mishap.\u00c2\u00a0 The full extent of the damage is not yet known, but according to the Times, the Berlin fire service\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(AP Photo\/Herbert Knosowski)","src":"http:\/\/ap.google.com\/media\/ALeqM5gSCUYBmMyQSexaRIVub4k1IHbm4Q?size=m","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2102,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/09\/dudamel-in-berlin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1656,"position":1},"title":"dudamel in berlin","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Berlin Philharmonic offers a free video trailer of Dudamel's concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic.\u00c2\u00a0 The video clip features a rehearsal segment from near the end of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 Worth watching - requires a broadband connection.\u00c2\u00a0 The entire concert will be available to stream (for a fee) in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dudamel.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/dudamel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":623,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/29\/bizarre-music-news-of-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":1656,"position":2},"title":"bizarre music news of 2007","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Seattle Times' classical music critic Melinda Bargreen reports on the bizarre classical music news that occurred around the world in 2007. Unfortunately (and am I sensing a pattern here?) she neglected to mention a couple items from her own backyard: The Seattle Symphony is being sued by a member\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/02\/27\/milton-katims-1909-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":1656,"position":3},"title":"Milton Katims 1909-2006","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The great violist and conductor Milton Katims has passed away in Seattle. Here are some links which help to illustrate the life of this great artist, who played principal viola in Toscanini's NBC Symphony and was the music director of the Seattle Symphony from 1954 - 1976. Eulogy by friend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/09\/new-principal-viola-for-la\/","url_meta":{"origin":1656,"position":4},"title":"new principal viola for LA","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Carrie Dennis, currently one of the principal violists of the Berlin Philharmonic (you might have seen her on the front desk for Monday's broadcast of the BPO's Mahler 9 with Simon Rattle), has been hired as the new principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Here's the LAPhil's press release:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"laphil.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/laphil.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1590,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/18\/berlins-virtual-concert-hall\/","url_meta":{"origin":1656,"position":5},"title":"berlin’s virtual concert hall","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was dubious of the concept that's been hailed in the press and in the classical blogosphere lately about the Berlin Philharmonic's new Digital Concert Hall project.\u00c2\u00a0 It will offer both live and archived streams in near high-definition video of orchestral and chamber music on demand for a subscription fee\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dighall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/dighall-400x284.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}