Philharmonie and the London Symphony Orchestra
by Armand Kovacs on 28.02.2020
Music has been one of the most expressive and beautiful means with which humankind has expressed its hopes and dreams throughout history. Starting from the old musical genres of ethnic groups throughout the world, to the magical times of the renaissance and that of the modern days, music always finds a way to be representative in human society and always brings a touch of color and beauty in our world.
At the Philharmonie Luxembourg we had the chance to attend the concert of the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus, presided by the master Sir Simon Rattle, one of the great directors of modern-day symphonic music.
We attended a touching representation which was split into two halves.
First, we had a violin concert piece from Alan Berg entitled “À la mémoire d’un ange”, having the talented and lovely Lisa Batiashvili as the first violin. I will be honest, I have never heard this piece or author before, but it turned out to be a rather interesting performance although it brought an aerie and quite macabre tone with it. Every minute of the performance truly made us think of death and the ideals and sense of purpose it gives us all. As a treat, after performing the piece, Lisa Batiashvili enchanted us also with a small piece from Bach, as a thank you for the heavy applause she and the orchestra got from the Luxembourgish audience.
After this came the main event: Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Le Christ au Mont des Oliviers“, directed by the great master | Sir Simon Rattle, who worked alongside the London Symphony Orchestra as well as the London Symphony Chorus. We were impressed by the amount of manpower this show required, because apart from the director, the tenor, soprano and bass there were the members of the orchestra themselves and over 100 people in the chorus. If you have the opportunity to attend something similar, I can tell you to go full speed ahead. It was an amazing experience that was only made better by the flawless musical performance of the orchestra and of the singers.
And the chorus…. The chorus was amazingly well balanced, bringing a fine tuning to the whole show, giving the audience highlights every time they were being added. I always thought choruses have something magical that brings people together and gives a performance a sense of grandeur.
Last but not least, I have to mention the incredible soprano Elsa Dreisig who gave an outstanding performance, every time her singing came into play she was just mesmerizing all of us and just uplifting the already great quality of the whole performance.
As always, it is a great honor to attend such shows, and indeed it is a great joy that we have access to such great artists and such beautiful performances in Luxembourg.
If you are interested in other similar shows from Philharmonie Luxembourg you can find their schedule here. I am sure you will find something you will be interested in the list of amazing artist and show that are coming to this artistic venue.