Reviews
Operas and ballets from the Metropolitan Opera House and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre have become familiar, popular, welcome presentations at cinemas throughout the country. They are the next-best-thing to attending these venues and experiencing their remarkable productions — at reasonable prices. The world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic is the first orchestra in Europe to realise this potential. I doubted that I, a ‘live music snob’, would enjoy their concert in a cinema. Despite mild reservations regarding the restlessness of the camera, I loved the experience.
It was a privilege to see the state-of-the-art Berlin Philharmonic concert hall and to listen-in on conversations, about the music, between the conductor and players and then to see and hear that music being performed. Gustavo Dudamel, the brilliant, 32-year-old Venezuelan music director of Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Caracas, conducted an imaginative programme of well-known and unfamiliar music.
