Berlin parties as Europe expands

Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate is the place to be on New Year's Eve as a huge party gets underway to welcome Bulgaria and Romania to the EU. The headline act is the Scissor Sisters, with the two new member states supplying support in the form of Bulgarian rock singer Roberta and Romanian band Sistem, and more than one million visitors are expected to attend. The Brandenburg Gate has been the scene of a number of famous free concerts including Leonard Bernstein’s Beethoven Ninth in 1989, see the photo above. If you can’t be in Berlin tomorrow night the next best thing is to join in the fun online via this link.

* Now playing - Michael Tippett's suite from his opera New Year. Not exactly party music, the opera is set on New Year's Eve in Terror Town where the principal characters face up to life in a violent, blighted society with the help of friendly space voyagers. There is only one recording, Richard Hickox presides over the fun with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

For more on eastern European music read how Composers struggle under Shostakovich regime
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
A reader has written in to say Fred Frith ( electric guitar), www.fredfrith.com , now prof composition at Mills College / Oakland and Evelyn Glennie often perform as a duo ( improvising) , see : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3I8TTelv2I&mode=related&search=
Garth Trinkl said…
Happy New Years from Kyiv, pliable!

Here is a link to the concept for Eastern Europe's newest cultural-musical center, including a new philharmonic and music center, next to Kyiv's UNESCO World Heritage- listed 1,000 year old Historic-Cultural District and active Near and Farther Caves Christian Orthodox Monasteries:

http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/data/1_6271.html
Pliable said…
Great to hear from you Garth, and I am delighted that you are keeping our multi-cultural theme going.

Which is more than can be said for BBC Radio 3. Their contribution to multi-culturalism and the expanded Europe on New Year's Eve is .... a re-broadcast of the 2006 Last Night of the Proms.

Fool Britannia.

Recent popular posts

Crouching composer, hidden dragon

The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

Who am I?

Why cats hate Mahler symphonies

Philippa Schuyler - genius or genetic experiment?

Nada Brahma - Sound is God

There is no right reaction to great music

Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

Music and Alzheimer's

David Munrow - Early Music's Pied Piper