Carnegie Hall > Berlin in Lights Festival Blog

Tschüssi, Berlin in Lights!

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:02:05 GMT

Aaahhh ... Two-plus weeks of Berlin-in-New York cultural bliss are over. Whatever will we do with ourselves now ... by Kris Wilton

Stravinsky for All

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:55:32 GMT

The crowd at the United Palace Theater on Sunday afternoon was probably one of the most diverse groups that a Carnegie Hall event has attracted for quite a while. There were Harlem locals ... by Noah Block-Harley

Barock and Roll

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:34:14 GMT

In his essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” T. S. Eliot notes that “no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation ... by Noah Block-Harley

Perfectly Invisible

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:53:20 GMT

The best performers are often the least conspicuous. Rather than displaying their brilliance for its own sake, they use their musical intelligence ... by Nick Romeo

Of Speakeasies, Radio Plays, and Rather Long Readings

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:52:06 GMT

Saturday’s Berlin Alexanderplatz reading at the Goethe-Institut felt like something from the long-gone era of speakeasies and radio plays ... by Kris Wilton

Extreme Music

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:09:56 GMT

The Berliner Philharmoniker easily qualifies as one of the most highly regarded orchestras around ... by Noah Block-Harley

Raised Eyebrows

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:48:24 GMT

The eyebrows of many chamber musicians are impressive instruments in their own right. They seem to have trained for years in the best European conservatories ... by Nick Romeo

On the Corner of Friedrichstraße and Delancy

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:59:23 GMT

It may have been the children pummeling the timpani after the performance. Perhaps the group of elderly Polish women chattering excitedly ... by Noah Block-Harley

An Abundance of Shadows

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:26:55 GMT

The P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center has perfected the art of stylish dilapidation. The walls are scuffed, the white paint in the stairwells is peeling, the red bricks are chipped ... by Nick Romeo

Fun and Mourning with Adès and Mahler

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:59:47 GMT

Last night’s Berliner Philharmoniker performance at Carnegie Hall was rather a somber affair, particularly in contrast to the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra on Monday ... by Kris Wilton

iTunes Download - Mahler’s 9th Symphony

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:31:48 GMT

Be among the first to download a new recording of Mahler’s 9th Symphony by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Very Full of Sounds

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:51:32 GMT

It’s far too easy to dismiss a composition you don’t immediately understand as incomprehensible rubbish. The small leap from “I don’t understand” to “There’s nothing to be understood” ... by Nick Romeo

Angels and Tangos

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:27:09 GMT

If music is any indication, angels differ rather widely by nationality. The first half of the program the 12 Cellists of the Berliner Philharmoniker performed at Zankel Hall ... by Nick Romeo

Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen Before

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:10:36 GMT

Oh boy oh boy oh boy, I had no idea what I was getting into with the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra. I have honestly never seen anything like it ... by Kris Wilton

Politics as Usual and Then Some

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:08:35 GMT

At Sunday evening’s Political Berlin panel discussion at Weill Recital Hall, there was much talk of “key issues” and ... by Nick Romeo

The Venezuelan Invasion

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:38:27 GMT

What a Venezuelan youth orchestra has to do with a Berlin cultural festival seems difficult to establish until ... by Nick Romeo

Concept Is King

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:19:05 GMT

“Im Prinzip, nichts,” began one of the 12 pieces that KNM Berlin, or Kammerensemble fr Neue Musik Berlin, performed last evening, ... by Noah Block-Harley

Beyond Silents

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:54:15 GMT

Full disclosure: Before I saw Robert Fischer’s Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin: From Schnhauser Allee to Hollywood at MoMA last night ... by Kris Wilton

Seven Men with Bağlamas Walk into a Bar ...

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:17:05 GMT

While it may initially be a shock to see seven, somber, full-grown men each with a long-necked, pear-shaped lute ... by Noah Block-Harley

A Beautiful, Blue Sunday

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:37:37 GMT

HK Gruber is a delight to watch perform. He is a delight to watch sing, a delight to ... by Noah Block-Harley

The Train Station of the Future

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 22:35:45 GMT

I happened upon Berlin’s compulsively modern train station for the first time last August. The S-Bahn pulled into a station ... by Noah Block-Harley

New! Photo Slideshows

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:55:07 GMT

Check out photo highlights from festival events, updated daily throughout the festival.

Oh, the Intoxication of Youth!

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:17:28 GMT

First of all, let me take this chance to say what a great time I’m having attending and covering the Berlin of Lights festival ... by Kris Wilton

On Ali Baba and the Forty DJs

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:16:02 GMT

One staple of a visit to Berlin (for those without an international cell phone, anyway) is a pilgrimage to one of the ubiquitous internet/call-shops sprinkled throughout the city. One enters from the street to find long lines of outdated PCs ... by Noah Block-Harley

The Politics of Preservation

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:01:47 GMT

At last night’s Urban Design and Memorials discussion at the German Consulate, architect Daniel Libeskind evoked the Austrian writer Robert Musil, saying, “The best way to forget is to create a memorial.” ... by Kris Wilton

Berlin as the Anti-New York

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:54:56 GMT

There was something dissatisfying about the Canvas Berlin: Europe’s New Capital of the Visual Arts panel discussion, which a woman I met in the lobby called “arid and antiseptic.” Maybe ... by Kris Wilton

Follow the Free Money

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:04:31 GMT

American novelist Jeffrey Eugenides first moved to Berlin because he was evicted. His wife had just had a baby and their Brooklyn landlord found a particularly cruel law that actually made a baby grounds for eviction ... by Nick Romeo

A Long and Winding Road: Today’s Architects Take on Berlin’s Robert Moses

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:56:22 GMT

The first indication we were in for a long night at the Berlin architecture panel discussion was the occasional comment from moderator Barry Bergdoll that the panelists would be discussing a point “at length over the course of the evening.” ... by Kris Wilton

A City of Malicious Energies

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:36:29 GMT

Long before it was a Zankel Hall, the basement theater at Carnegie Hall was a movie house that for years screened a steady stream of foreign, classic, and avant-garde films. On Saturday night ... by Nick Romeo

Going Back

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:19:25 GMT

"We're going back," Ute Lemper began last night in her deep, smoky voice, "to the year 1927." "Going back" seemed to be both the theme and goal of last night ... by Kris Wilton

A Well-Oiled Machine

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 13:12:18 GMT

The first thing I thought when I saw the setup for Berlin: Symphony of a City was that the two grand pianos pushed nose to nose reminded me of Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin: Especially in the serene, wood-paneled Zankel Hall ... by Kris Wilton

Tarantino Meets Fassbinder, Herzog Does the UWS

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:20:42 GMT

Last night’s "Screening Berlin: Filmmakers’ Views of the City" panel discussion was not the first time Best Foreign Film Oscar winners Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Volker Schlöndorff have met ... by Kris Wilton

Glitz, Glamour, and Hickory-Smoked Kettle Chips—New York Meets Berlin

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:32:34 GMT

Ah, the Guggenheim. Where sitting is strictly verboten (as your humble scribe had the misfortune to discover last night), and standing still generally frowned upon. While Arts after Dark at the Guggenheim ... by Noah Block-Harley

Is This Man Funny, or Is He Just German?

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:59:16 GMT

Vocalist Max Raabe seems to have the peculiar ability to transform any performance venue into an elegant German dance club circa 1932. His concert at Carnegie Hall last night was no exception ... by Nick Romeo

An Acid-Free, Water-Resistant Introduction to Berlin in Lights

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:59:37 GMT

Greetings, and welcome to the Berlin in Lights festival blog! Myself, Noah Block-Harley, along with two other Berlinophiles (Nick Romeo and Kris Wilton) will be posting regularly throughout the festival ... by Noah Block-Harley

Berlin’s Still Sexy

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:32:21 GMT

Before there was New York, there was Berlin. For me, anyway. Though I started visiting New York in the ’90s from Pennsylvania, where I grew up, I inhabited Berlin first ... by Kris Wilton

Ignorance is Power

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:58:29 GMT

If nothing else, four years at an expensive college taught me that admitting total ignorance of a subject can be a very useful skill. I find it particularly helpful around physicists ... by Nick Romeo