31 Days of Halloween: Day 13

So, I saw Jonas Kaufmann last night. It was a brilliant concert, with the Staatskapelle Orchester and Choir, performing Liszt's Psalm 13 and Faust Symphony. The venue was the Berlin Philharmonie, the inside of which would make a very good spaceship, like something out of Firefly.

I'm still trying to take in the whole experience. I've almost certainly heard the Faust before, as I sat in my seat going, "This! I know this!" quite a bit, but Psalm 13 was entirely new. Now, I don't much like Franz Liszt as a person-reading the biography of his daughter, Cosima, and the things he put her through as a child just made me lose all respect for the man himself. But there is no denying that his music is fantastic. Not as technically light and savvy as Mozart nor as passionate as Beethoven, but it was brilliant nonetheless. The best word I can come up with to describe it is sumptuous. There was a lot of it, like a really yummy cake that you could get sick eating too much of. But I digress.

Kaufmann sang in both pieces and was his usual highly-polished self, all pressed tails and extremely shiny shoes. And he seemed at pains to make this concert into a team effort-a They came for the music, not for ME kind of deal. Of course, the audience was having none of it, and everyone onstage new it. After the Psalm, they bowed as an ensemble-Kaufmann, Barenboim, the choir conductor. Roars from the audience; one bow, two bows, three. Then Barenboim put his hand on Kaufmann's back and all but shoved him forward for a solo bow, and we members of the audience (well, not me. I'm opposed to shrieking) howled out our approval. He acknowledged it with a grin, and turned to applaud the orchestra and choir, which I thought was sweet.

During intermission, the Australian gentleman seated next to me lectured me about the technical difficulty of Liszt and complained that the first half of the evening was "not very good". I replied that I had no basis of comparison, not being a Liszt afficianado, and he grumbled some about mad tenors and asked if I was a "Kaufmann fangirl". "I come for the music," I replied evenly, "although Kaufmann IS my current go-to tenor. Him and Juan Diego Florez." He nodded at that, and we talked for a bit about opera. Then the lights went down again.

The Faust Symphony began to a stage devoid of singers, which gave me some consternation, as I was pretty certain that the piece called for choir and tenor. The gentleman next to me fidgeted. "Where's the choir?" he muttered, and I shrugged. But they came out for the third movement, Mephistopheles, all the men. Kaufmann followed them out, moving hesitantly, as though either uncertain of where he was supposed to stand, or as though his leg hurt. He sang very confidently, though, from behind the orchestra, and there was no problem at all hearing him. And then the organ started, and since the pipes were just above and to the right of my seat, it was definitely a bombastic experience.

I was one of the crowd that waited around afterwards for an autograph, but nothing came of it, I am sorry to say. A man eventually came out to say "Herr Kaufmann something German that I couldn't translate", but which was clearly, "He's not coming out, guys, sorry." Everyone groaned. I suspect that the man went out into a different part of the Philharmonie to do signings and couldn't make it across to where we all were. That's what I gathered from general conversation, in any case.It certainly is a labyrinthine building. I was sad, but also proud of myself for waiting. In Saarbrucken, I just booked it out of there.

I had a hairy experience this afternoon, when on my rambles to and from my class, I walked straight into the Staatskapelle Orchester going into the Konzerthaus for a rehearsal of tonight's concert. No Kaufmann, though, although I did wait around to see if he would appear. To be honest, I'm not sure that I'd have gone up to him even if he had shown up. I have issues with approaching people on the street.

All in all, it was a great evening, and if I had the money, I'd go again tonight.