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Berlin Philharmonic to offer live webcasts throughout 2009-10 season
August 19th, 2009, 1:01 am · 7 Comments · posted by Timothy Mangan, music critic
The Berlin Philharmonic (aka the Berliner Philharmoniker, aka the world’s greatest orchestra) will launch its first full season of live webcasts on August 28 with Simon Rattle conducting the ensemble in Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s “Laterna Majica” and Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.” Normally, I might not to bother you about such an event (I’m not much of one to watch concerts on my computer screen and, I suspect, neither are you), but the Berliner’s Digital Concert Hall appears to be a horse of a different color, i.e. something worth a ride.
I was sent a link to test out the service, and it’s terrific: a high-definition image (Flash H.264 encoding), exceptional sound quality (data transfer rate of up to 320 kbit/s, close to CD quality) and even good camera work (remote controlled). Watch the test link yourself (it’s Rattle conducting the orchestra in the Brahms Second finale) at http://dch.berliner-philharmoniker.de/#/en/tour/.
I guess I should save some of you some time and say right now that the Digital Concert Hall isn’t free. A season subscription, 33 concerts, is approximately $209. There is also a 30-day subscription ($55). Individual concerts can be had for $14. You can also get access to archived concerts. Students receive a 30 percent discount.
Rattle will conduct 12 of the 33 digital concerts this season. Guest conductors include Gustavo Dudamel (who will lead a program including Gubaidulina’s “Glorious Percussion” and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 on Sept. 19), Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, David Robertson and Seiji Ozawa. Guest artists include Mitsuko Uchida, Thomas Quasthoff, Daniel Barenboim, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Janine Jansen, Hélène Grimaud and András Schiff.
Anyway, I’m tempted. Maybe I’ll ask for a subscription for Christmas.
AP Photo/Stuart Ramson
related links: 15 records that went ahead and made my days
the world’s greatest orchestras according to gramophone
carlos kleiber’s business model
my first classical record purchase
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Why wait for Christmas? I subscribed a few months ago and will be re-upping for the coming season. Live broadcasts or archived, the service is so good I cancelled my 2009-10 LA Phil subscription.
Joy! I see that you can also purchase individual pieces or single archived concerts. A brilliant idea and the video and audio quality seem to be outstanding. Ich bin ein Berliner …
I noticed this the other day when I visited the BPO website to read about their upcoming North American tour. I suspect that other orchestras shall soon follow suit. The day shall eventually come when we can sit in our living rooms and pay for seats in concert halls all over the world.
Terrific! I watched in max resolution and full screen, and it couldn’t have been better in both picture and sound quality. A great way to expand the audience (so long as it doesn’t adversely affect live attendance, of course).
Looks and sounds terrific on my computer.
Not a lot that interests me –is it a rule in Berlin that if you program something by Schoenberg the concert also has to have Brahms too?– but it’s a great idea, one that I’m sure will be emulated by all the major orchestras in the next few years. I wonder if they’ll eventually dig in to the BPO’s archive going further back than last season, I’m sure there’s plenty of goodies that were filmed for broadcast on German TV. The rights issues there might be a nightmare, though.
This is precisely what I wanted to see in 1997 when I created and performed the first live audio/video internet concerts from New York and Amsterdam. This can only add income through online subscription performances for the presenting organizations over time, in addition to the concert hall sales.
I live in the South Bay of LA. Anyone want to get together and watch the broadcasts together?