What does it take for a symphony orchestra to go on tour? If you're the Berlin Staatskapelle, it takes over 120 plane tickets from Berlin to New York, 82 boxes and crates for instruments and tuxes, as well as special visas for instruments made of or containing materials protected in the United States, such as ivory, tortoiseshells and tropical woods. 60 string instruments containing such materials have needed to pass inspection and get certificates attesting they were built before bans on such substances went into effect. With the hard stuff behind them, the Staatskapelle can go about their fun at Carnegie Hall, playing the complete Bruckner symphonic cycle for their GMD Daniel Barenboim over the course of 11 days.
Reviewing the Staatskapelle's recent concert of Bruckner's Third Symphony at the Berlin Philharmonie, I wrote that I have rarely heard the Staatskapelle sound more magnificent.
With the Staatskapelle off on their New York adventure, the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin is guesting at the Schiller Theater with a new production of Henry Purcell's King Arthur. The Staatsoper im Schiller Theater will resume on February 9 with Die Zauberflöte, performed in rotating repertory with Tosca and La Bohème.
Barenboim and his band will be back in town on February 6 for a Mozart / Beethoven / Berg / Widmann concert featuring the great Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski. In case you can't wait that long for their return, the closing Carnegie concert (of Bruckner's Ninth, naturally) will be streamed live on www.staatskapelle-berlin.de on January 29.
The band landed in New York this morning, a few ahead of the opening concert on January 19, meaning that they'll catch one last glimpse of "The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" before the Trump presidency commences Friday. Sadly, the musicians missed their last chance for pastrami at the Carnegie Deli, which served its last deli sandwiches on December 31. Maybe Barenboim can recommend some other good Jewish delis.