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Berlin Philharmonic performs at Sheldonian
One of the best orchestras in the world, the Berliner Philharmoniker, has chosen the Sheldonian Theatre as the venue for its annual Europa Konzert tomorrow (1 May). Afterwards, Oxford music students will have a masterclass with its principal horn player.
The Berliner Philharmoniker chooses places of cultural importance to host its annual Europa Konzert, which celebrates its foundation in 1882 and the cultural life of the European Union. Renowned conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim will lead the orchestra and soloist Alisa Weilerstein (cello) in a programme of Wagner, Elgar and Brahms. One billion people across Europe and Asia will see the concert on television.
After the performance, the public will have the opportunity to watch the orchestra’s principal horn player giving a special masterclass in chamber music to Oxford University music students.
The sold-out concert takes place at 10am on Saturday 1 May, and the student masterclass will be held at 1.30pm in the Holywell Music Room on Holywell Street, where Stefan Dohr will coach 13 students on a variety of pieces by Poulenc, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Ligeti.
William Blake, a second-year music student who sang on the latest Harry Potter film score with The Queen’s College Choir, said: ‘All students of music aspire to play at the level of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and it is very exciting to have a conductor of the calibre of Daniel Barenboim directing to us here in Oxford. The masterclass is a brilliant opportunity for students to learn from Stefan Dohr, a musician at the top of his game, and to perform with him in front of an intimate audience of fewer than 200 at the Holywell Music Room.’
TV producers expect about one billion people to have access to the concert, and a DVD of the event will be released later. The concert will be shown live in China, Japan, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain, and screened later in at least 15 countries including Mexico, Singapore, Korea and on the BBC.
In those countries where it is shown live, an 18-minute film featuring Oxford and the study of music at the University will be broadcast during the interval. A number of University members are featured in the video, including Stephen Darlington, choirmaster at Christ Church; Jeffrey Hackney, Chair of the Curators of the Sheldonian; St John’s College music student Isla Mundell-Perkins; and New College medicine student George Coltart.
The concert will feature young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, a rising star on the international stage, who will perform Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor. The orchestra will play a romantic programme which begins with Wagner's prelude to the third act of Die Meistersinger and concludes with Brahms' First Symphony.
Maestro Barenboim has won multiple Grammy Awards and is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th and 21st centuries. He broke a long-held taboo in Israeli society by leading a German orchestra in performing Wagner at an arts festival in Jerusalem in 2001. He received an honorary doctorate of music from Oxford University in 2007.
The dress rehearsal for the concert will also be held today at 4pm in front of an audience which includes 300 Oxford students. Elizabeth Burrowes, a second-year musician and singer, said: ‘To be able to watch the Berliner Philharmoniker being conducted by Daniel Barenboim in a dress rehearsal will give an insight into how a world class conductor prepares an orchestra for a big performance.
‘We will see Barenboim stopping the orchestra and getting them to repeat certain parts so that they play perfectly on Saturday, and this is an experience that can only benefit our progression as students.’