The Fr Agile Orchestra

The (fr)agile Orchestra

The Corona pandemic has affected orchestra organizations around the globe since January 2020. Most of the ensembles were forced to stop operations during hard lockdown periods of public life. Freelance ensembles and privately funded orchestras faced even higher pressure than state funded ones. The pandemic has shown, how fragile orchestras may be. On the other hand the pandemic has brought forth a boost of creative alternatives from single musicians, from greater ensembles and from orchestra managements to upkeep operations under new physically distanced conditions and on the internet. Highest flexibility was shown in artistic planning, in creating new programs, in digital and recording work, in outreach and education activities, in new concert formats or support of pandemic-related charity campaigns. The pandemic has shown, how agile orchestras might be. The very questions are: What are the lessons learned from the pandemic challenges? What are new structural approaches for musicians and managements to rethink orchestral organizations for the post-pandemic future? How can the engagement of musicians and staff for the own organization be enhanced? How can the ties towards the members of already familiar audience groups be strengthened? Every co-author of this book is a specialist in his or her field. Together we're looking out to all aspects from which we think that orchestral organizations should take a breeze of fresh air and rethink their operations in the "new normal" after the pandemic. There is no step back, there only are steps forward.

The (fr)agile Orchestra

Reich's Orchestra

For decades the relationship between the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and National Socialist regime has been shrouded in mystery. In 1933, the world-renowned orchestra came under the control of Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels; the musicians became civil servants of the Reich and until the end of World War Two, the orchestra served as Germany's flagship cultural ambassador, touring internationally, and performing at the Nuremberg Rallies, the opening of the 1936 Olympic Games and each year on Hitler's birthday. While benefiting from this patronage, the orchestra musicians were ambivalent abouttheir position - some colleagues joined the Nazi Party while others were of Jewish ancestry - and attempted to balance their political status with artistic independence. At the heart of this story is the iconic conductor, Wilhelm Furtwängler, a figure who continues to arouse fierce debate, not the least due to his close relationship withGoebbels. Furtwängler promised that "the name Wilhelm Furtwängler should alwaysremain inseparable from that of the Philharmonic" and the consequences of this pactare explored comprehensively. For decades, Furtwängler's successor as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, a former Party member whose meteoric rise was intimately tied to the intrigues of the Third Reich, discouraged investigation of this disturbing history .Now bringing together documents culled from the orchestra and State archives, as well as private letters and testimony from the orchestra's musicians, Misha Aster tells this remarkable story for the first time. He portrays how German societyfirst came to be seduced and then morally compromised by Nazism. Though the Berlin Philharmonic enjoyed exceptional privilege during the years 1933-45, The Reich's Orchestra vividly captures how ordinary Germans experienced the Nazi regime, and how their normal lives were stretched between desperation, fear, reticence and opportunism. The Reich's Orchestra is a remarkable depiction of the moral ambiguities of living under the Nazis told through the story of one of the world's great orchestras.