The Pierre Boulez Saal Opening Concert. On March 4, 2017 the Pierre Boulez Saal opened with a festive concert of classical and modern music at the Barenboim-Said Akademie building in Berlin. About 600 notable (mostly German) musicians, politicians, and intellectuals attended. Daniel Barenboim conducts the Boulez Ensemble. Features Karim Said (Piano), Michael Barenboim (Violin), Yulia Deyneka (Viola), Kian Soltani (Violoncello), Jörg Widmann (Clarinet), Anna Prohaska (Soprano), and Daniel Barenboim (Piano). Here’s the program:
Boulez Initiale
Schubert Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
Mozart Piano Quartet K493
Alban Berg Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments
Jörg Widmann Fantasie for Clarinet
Boulez sur Incises
Directed for TV by Hennig Kasten. Released 2020, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+
[Please note: this review is 98% finished. We are still trying to name some of the people in the screenshots—help us out!]
The Building
Our first screenshot is the Barenboim-Said Akademie building at the corner of Französische Straße and Oberwallstraße in Berlin. This is about 8 blocks from the Brandenburger Tor between the Unter den Linden State Opera House and the Gendarmenmarkt—the heart of the Berlin fine-arts district. The building originally was a warehouse for the State Opera:
The new Pierre Boulez Saal seats up to about 600 in various configurations:
Next below is an official video about the opening reception that identifies a few of the guests. After you see the video, the rest of this review goes into more detail about the people who attended this event, the musicians who performed, and a bit about the music.
The Guests at the Opening Concert
Let’s do some people spotting. The cameramen focused on certain members of the audience as worthy of special notice. Left below you see (from left to right) Paul Gehry, the famous architect and designer of the project with his wife, Berta Isabel Aguilera (gray hair), and then Yasuhisa Toyota, the world-renown acoustician. Next to Toyota is Sir Simon Rattle with the unmissable curly white hair. (Who is the young man clapping next to Rattle?) Below on the right is Zubin Mehta and his wife, Nancy Kovack.
Third from the right below is, (I think) Joachim Gauck, the President of Germany, with his blond companion, Daniela Schadt. Chancellor Merkel could not attend the concert. (Who are the others in this group of 8?)
Below Barenboim conducts. Just to his left behind his shoulder sits a young lady in a gray jacket with her hair in a bun. I think (not sure) she is the Korean modern composer Unsuk Chin, who is based in Berlin. Who are the lovebirds holding hands you see between Barenboim and the harp?
The contrabassoonist is Robert Dräger. Who has his arms crossed below? And who is the guy with the white shirt and no necktie?
René Pape center. Who are his companions?
See any of your friends in the image below?
Who is the standing gent below and his group?
Who below is the rainbow girl and her escort?
The concert had several intermissions while instruments were set up on stage. People moved around. Here we see again the young man with the blue necktie:
I’m guessing the gent below is Avi Avital, the mandolinist, with his significant other:
Who are these people below?
Three pensive ladies. I think the lady in the center is Miriam Said, widow of Edward Said, co-founder of the Akademie. The woman to the left may be Najla Said, a daughter. If so, then these would be the grandmother and aunt of the pianist Karim Said, who will perform in the concert:
Such a beautiful family below. Who’s the dad? Or is mom the one to ID?
The lady with the pink jacket and earrings catches the eye. Who is she and the others near her?
The lady with the earrings again. Now let’s focus on the lady wearing the magenta shirt and black jacket:
More beautiful people:
The image below overlaps one above:
Another power couple? Sorry these pictures are a bit dark. They were made with lights down during the music:
More wonderful ladies:
My last people shot. Who is the Black gent? There were quite a few other guests featured in the video. If you have the Blu-ray of this and can ID other quests by time-stamp, please let me know! I’ll add them to this review, which is the first time we have tried to publish a “society page” on this website!
The Concert
The music opens with a modern fanfare by Boulez for 7 brass named, appropriately, Initale. The players were divided into two groups on the top balcony facing each other across the open space. Barenboim is in the middle conducting:
Here’s a better shot of the trio—who are they? I have all the names. But connecting them to the pictures is tricky. The french horn player is Stefan Dohr, but I am still unsure about the other two:
Here’s another trio with the same instruments as seen above, plus a tuba. Who are these folks?
This was the only decent shot in the video of Nimrod Ron, the tuba player:
Everything on this program was completely new to me! Next below are screenshots of a Schubert song for soprano with piano, violin, and clarinet called Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepard on the Cliff). Written while he was dying, it’s a sad song about a wretched shepherd high in the mountains longing for his sweetheart in the hidden valley below:
Jörg Widmann:
Michael Barenboim, Daniel’s son, on violin:
Anna Prohaska:
The next number on the program was the Mozart Piano Quartet K 493 with three Barenboims (the piano, the father, and the son):
Yulia Deyneka on viola:
And Kian Soltani:
The next piece was the Alban Berg Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin, and 13 Winds. Henning Kasten never got a decent shot of all the winds on the back row. But I think they are: Jussef Eisa (E♭ clarinet), Kinan Azmeh (clarinet), Hartmut Schuldt (bass clarinet), Mor Biron (bassoon), and Robert Dräger (contrabassoon):
Below is Karim Said on piano. He would be, I think, the grandson of the late Edward Said, a Palestinian-American intellectual and musician who became a co-founder of the Barenboim-Said Academy:
I wonder if Berg included every note on the piano in the score:
Simon Bodoky-Van der Velde (piccolo), Guy Eshed (flute), Gregor Witt (oboe), and Cristina Gómez (English Horn):
H’m? Can you ID these players for me?
Michael Barenboim again:
After the Berg, Jörg Widmann played a short solo piece he wrote for himself showing off his skill on the clarinet. And last came the pièce de résistance—the Boulez sur Incises—a work rumored too hard to be performed. But these guys could do it—below the elaborate set up:
Three pianos. Karim Said again:
Denis Kozhukhin:
Micdael Wendeberg:
Three harps. Here Aline Khouri:
Susanne Kabalan:
Stephen Fitzpatrick:
And three percussionists. Here Lev Loftus:
Dominic Oelze:
And Pedro Torrejón González:
The drummers have an extensive battery of instruments!
Jubilation:
We have very little chamber music in Blu-ray video. This program of over 140 minutes of music, with its variety in musical periods and modes of execution, is the most significant chamber music video to be published so far:
The Initiale piece, which I call a fanfare, stresses the personalities and tone quality of the brass instruments rather than just blasting away with traditional trumpet calls. It’s rather odd but quite pleasant.
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is a classic Schubert Lied based on a mashup of 3 different and rather obscure romantic era poems. The music is vastly more impressive than the lyrics. Schubert’s commission called for the music to show a range of emotions, which it bravely does. But the overall effect is of utter hopelessness, perhaps reflecting the few weeks Schubert still had to live. The Mozart piano quartet is more noble and optimistic.
The Berg Chamber Concerto would be the most difficult piece on the program for most music lovers to enjoy. I found the Adagio actually lyrical. And I know the rest was good for me, like that fish oil I take. The Widmann Clarinet piece is fun and short; the audience rewarded Widmann with enthusiastic applause for one of their own.
The Boulez sur Incises is a seeming exponentially out-of-control pandemic of string-and-tuned-percussive excess. It’s terrific—the shortest 45 minutes of modern music ever for me. Why was it over so soon? There are only 2 CDs of this (both old performances of the Ensemble InterContemporain with Boulez conducting), and subject title seems to be the only video. This Blu-ray from Arthaus could easily become the definitive recording of this astonishing work for a long time. It might become a collectors item.
The Arthaus disc has excellent SQ, PQ, and good video content, especially in light of the specialized nature of the performance captured in a new venue. My only complaint would be the skimpy documentation (about the size of a postcard) in the package. Grade: A+
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