Musical Journey with the Berliner Philharmoniker

[Ben]

The Berlin Philharmonic has gone 3D!    As what seems to be an extension of their digital concert hall, the BPO is releasing a 3D film of a live concert they performed in Singapore.  The concert included Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and Mahler's 1st Symphony.  The film is being released on Monday to theaters.  I can't seem to find any information if it's being released in the U.S. yet, but it seems it will be released in the U.K. and Ireland on Monday, May 9.

Here's the YouTube promo for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmCFedLcWNU

It's nice to see an orchestra try to move more into the mainstream and try to reach a broader audience.  The Met Opera HD Broadcasts to theaters have been very successful.  While I'm perhaps not the biggest fan of Rattle, the production quality of the BPO's digital concert hall has been very impressive to me.  So, I'm sure this film will have a great visual experience (though I'm not a fan of the somewhat gimimicky 3D...).

As for the programming, obviously Mahler is a great way to reach out.  The Rachmaninov...well, that seems a bit of an odd choice.

If anyone has a chance to see it, let us know how it is.  Musically and visually!  I hope it does well.

[barry guerrero]

"The Rachmaninov...well, that seems a bit of an odd choice"

If I were to teach a course on orchestration, the "Symphonic Dances" would be my absolute number one work to hold up as an excellent example - even above anything by Mahler. The Janacek "Sinfonietta" would be right up there too.

The BPO made a pretty good recording of the "S.D." under Maazel for DG. Rattle made a pretty good one with the Los Angeles Phil., but it never made it to CD.

[Zoltan]

"The Rachmaninov...well, that seems a bit of an odd choice"

If I were to teach a course on orchestration, the "Symphonic Dances" would be my absolute number one work to hold up as an excellent example - even above anything by Mahler.

As I said already elsewhere: any composer who can organically bring in the saxophone without sounding annoying (as I'm not the biggest fan of sax music either) is brilliant. Besides, the Symphonic Dances could very well be called Symphony No. 4, considering not only the form of the work but it's rich content as well.