More Berlin Pictures

I went to the outer fringes of Berlin to see a famous cinema, the Titania Palast.   Built in the 1920's, it was a beautiful example of modernism and "New Objectivity".
It looked like this:

Miraculously, it survived the war  As the only intact large theater space in Berlin, it was where the Berlin Philharmonic had its first postwar performances.  So I wanted to see it.   Alas, what Allied bombers failed to achieve, consumer capitalism has.  The front of the theater is now a clothing store, and the theater itself has been multiplexed.  A photo, avoiding the storefront:

I am going to remove those signs in Photoshop!


On the way, I saw this crazy structure; at first I thought it might be some war structure that couldn't be torn down (like the flak towers).  But it turns out that it was built in the 1970's as a beer hall/restaurant, and is now empty.  It became an art project for graffiti artists, hence the colors.

More pictures from the Mitte area, which is still being restored  (and more pink pipes).

The beautiful synagogue.   Unfortunately, the sidewalk in front of it is off limits; guarded by security guards.

I took some long rides on the S-Bahn. There were interesting views of all kinds of industrial and transportation structures in varying states of decay.

The famous Fehnsenturm, symbol of East Berlin:
(Somehow, whenever I see bulbous structures with windows, I think of the spaceship in 2001.)

The Hackesche Market S Bahn station:

Berlin Museums

Today we went to Berlin's museum for European paintings, the Gemäldegalerie.  This an amazingly good collection of paintings; housed in a fairly nondescript modern building, it is not a major tourist attraction.  It should be.  In Paris, everyone who visits goes to the Louvre; in Berlin no one seems to go to the Gemäldegalerie.  It was a wonderful viewing experience; quiet and spacious, the museum even has the great idea of setting aside small rooms with comfortable seats and no paintings, so that one can take a breather.  There are about 20 Rembrandts, 2 Vermeers, and a number of iconic paintings such as Breughel's "Proverbs".   Also, several Bosch-like paintings by Cranach, and an excellent collection of works by Durer.

I liked this de Hooch a lot, though the official photo doesn't do it any justice.

 

I also went to the Berggruen Museum, which contains part of the collection of the eponymous art collector and dealer.  It has over 100 works by Picasso on display, as well as around 70 works by Klee, plus Matisse, Cezanne, etc.   I went for the Klee, and was thoroughly entranced; it was like a retrospective.   I think I began to have a sense of how Klee works with color;  every painting has a different color palette, but within each painting I think there is a sense of "harmony" in the same sense that we think of harmony in music.  Klee may very well have written about this, and I know nothing.  I was particularly excited by the colors in a painting called "Necropolis", as in the Egyptian Pyramids.  I wanted to take it home; if I ever have a career as an art thief, it will have started here.  An iPhone shot:

I was so satiated after looking at the Klees that I skipped the Picassos...


Lastly, I had some time before I was scheduled to meet Vera, and stumbled upon a show at the Emil Nolde Siftung (who knew?) entitled "Nolde and Switzerland".   I didn't know anything about his work, other than the well known early expressionist work.   These were mostly water colors, dating up until the 1950's, semi abstract.  Beautiful colors, and not that different from his early work.  Another iPhone shot:

Berlin Concerts

We went to a sort of opera by Sciarrino, entitled "Vanitas, a still life in one act".   Very correct description.   Not much happened.  Participants were a singer, two elderly, well dressed people who occasionally moved, and a cellist and pianist.  It took place in the workshop of the Schiller Theatre, now the temporary home of the Staatsoper.

The singer spent most of the time stuck in the doorways; when she eventually made it in to the room, she was crawling.   As we were in the front row, the most exciting part was when she was on the floor, about 3 feet away from my shoes, singing.  The texts were incomprehensible as sung.

In a more traditional vein, we went to hear the Konzerthaus Orchestra in the Konzerthaus.  The hall itself is beautiful; I liked the sound of the hall.  Every hall (and every seat, in some cases) has its own special sound.  The Konzerthaus orchestra would not be mistaken for the Berlin Philharmonic, and the conductor was rather idiosyncratic.  The first piece, the Brahms first piano concerto, was subject to some very pronounced tempo shifts.  The second half was Mendelssohn's music for Midsummer Night's Dream; not the melodramas, but most of the rest.   It was delightful, and a great pleasure to hear.  And, of course, there is the famous wedding march.  Rather odd to hear this played in a concert!   The conductor, Ivan Fischer, placed all the members of the chorus seated, interspersed within the orchestra.  It seemed to work well.