At the start of their first concert tour since the beginning of the pandemic, the Staatskapelle Berlin and its conductor Daniel Barenboim were celebrated frenetically on Wednesday evening in Athens.
The applause lasted seven minutes.
“We are finally living musically again,” said Marina, a 26-year-old music student from Athens to the German press agency.
After the concert ended, audience members commented:
Athens - "We haven't seen the audience like this for a long time."
The romantic program included the “Spring Symphony” by Robert Schumann and the first symphony by Johannes Brahms. In an Athens newspaper Barenboim was announced as "The King of Conductors in Athens". The Megaron Concert Hall was sold out. Due to the corona, only 80 percent of the almost 2,000 places could be occupied. After the concert in Athens, the Staatskapelle and Barenboim are also guests in Milan, Geneva, Madrid, Vienna and Zurich.
In June the orchestra and conductor were already in Paris.
"The three concerts and the reactions of the audience have shown how much the live experience has been missing in the last few months and how grateful the audience is," said Barenboim of the German Press Agency at the start in Athens.
"Now we are the first to do such an extensive tour after the long pandemic months to set an example for the culture."
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Barenboim referred to the selection of countries in which there was not the same political support through subsidies as in Germany, for example. “We want to encourage the return of culture. Now, with the vaccination, we have an important key to taking a step towards normalcy, ”said the 78-year-old, who is also general music director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. “It is all the more important that we now stand up for culture and music and do everything we can to get in direct contact with our audience again. The energy that arises in the room, this joint creation process, means everything for the Staatskapelle and for me, of course. ”Athens is considered to be the cradle of democracy, western philosophy, literature and theater.He could not imagine a more symbolic place for the start of the European tour, said Barenboim. “Music brings people together, creates relationships and such trips are an important cultural dialogue for the audience and us. For us it is a friend and an honor to be invited again and again as cultural ambassadors and thus to be able to represent the music, but also Berlin - far beyond the borders. ”Dpa