With Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte
IN PROGRESS
This season with BSK is turning out to be a study in what can go wrong when organising such events.
This time, the bus they had ordered was about 16 seats too small. However, it has to be said that after some frantic phone calling by both our guide and the driver, a much larger replacement bus appeared astonishingly quickly (from BEX) and in the end, our total delay amounted to less than half an hour.
The side programme was a guided tour of Gedenkstätte Seelower Höhen. Another glorification of war. As so often before, I could not help wondering why the men in this world still harbour such sick fascination and bloodthirst that they seem to find it worth waging war despite the death, destruction, and utter horror. So the visit left me both depressed and angry on behalf of all non-male people the world over. We could have it all, but thanks to warlike male leaders, it is again slipping away from us.
Anyway, the concert with Quatuor Danel (Beethoven, Schostakowitz and Tchaikowski) was absolutely marvellous but would have been even better if it were not for the bizarre behaviour of Marc Danel (the first violinist). Classical musicians learn proper posture, demeanor and stage presence early on in their education, but Marc Danel makes a mockery of it all, and of the music, with bad posture, awful mimicry and weird leg exercises. How the other three musicians put up with it, I don’t know. I found it almost scandalous and had to keep my eyes fixed on the cellist in order to be able to concentrate and not walk out. If you want to come across as excentric as a classical musician, there are other, less ridiculous and more endearing, ways.
I did not take many photos but did have fun in the tunnels on the way back.
