Thursday, April 29, 2010


Modern Makeover

Berlin's Fabled Philharmonic Gets a Reboot

By Joachim Kronsbein

Though still Germany's best orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic is worried about losing touch with audiences in the digital age. To face these challenges, it will be getting a new director -- with a television background and unorthodox views about how to address these challenges.

He still has his office in a converted factory in Berlin's Moabit neighborhood, where had had produced television programs for almost six years. His resume includes police procedurals like "Tatort" and "Polizeiruf 110" as well as programs airing on paid television, such as the court show "Richterin Barbara Salesch" and "Bauer sucht Frau," a show about farmers looking for wives.

Martin Hoffmann, 50, is a media manager. He was managing director of the German private broadcaster Sat.1, where he was expected to stabilize the channel. But, in 2003, he was ousted after only three years on the job -- and just after having managed to improve the broadcaster's ratings and reputation with productions such as "Das Wunder von Lengede," a made-for-TV film about a 1963 mining accident, and the Cold War drama "Der Tunnel." After leaving Sat. 1, Hoffmann became CEO of the TV production company MME Moviement AG, where he came up with new television shows.

Today, Hoffmann is back in his old office developing visions for one of the most famous, successful and idiosyncratic institutions in German high culture, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

The elite orchestra, one of the top three in the world, has selected Hoffman to become its new director. He will present his plans in mid-May and assume office in September, when he will move into his new office in Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the famous building designed by Hans Scharoun, not far from Potsdamer Platz.

Born of Revolt

Hoffmann's new position is somewhat of a revolving door. Few of his predecessors have held on to it for very long. Some have been shown the door, while others have walked through it voluntarily. Current Director Pamela Rosenberg, 64, is leaving the orchestra after four years, at her own request. Her predecessor, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, lasted only a year in the job. The Berlin Philharmonic can make music without a conductor, if necessary, and sometimes it does so for the sheer fun of it. It can certainly manage without a director -- or at least that is how it sees things.

This exceptional orchestra consists of 128 musicians. Together, they decide who will be their principal conductor and how long he will hold on to that job. The musicians also choose and approve each new member and, together with the conductor, their director. The Philharmonic is organized as a foundation and manages itself, as an orchestra republic of sorts.

A revolt in 1882 led to the Philharmonic's establishment. Benjamin Bilse, a conductor in Berlin, ran a tight ship with his music ensemble. When the group was scheduled to give a guest concert in Warsaw, Bilse told his musicians that he would only approve fourth-class train tickets for them. Some 50 musicians mutinied, quit their jobs and formed their own orchestra. From then on, they were determined to decide their own fate, and it has remained that way to this day.

Traditionally, a director and the principal conductor jointly develop the programs, engage guest conductors and soloists, and organize tours. Hoffmann -- who plays the violin, can read music and admires the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein ("Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent") -- wants to do, and is expected to do, a lot more.



1A - Carlos Chávez - Sinfonía India - Dudamel y la Filarmónica de Berlín

Part 2: Exploring New Media Channels

Hoffmann has been given the task of making the Philharmonic a modern brand and one ready for the future of media. When it comes to this subject, "excellence" is Hoffmann's favorite word. He wants to ensure "that he maintains, advances and develops the public's attachment to the level of excellence with which the music of the Berlin Philharmonic transports audience, and perhaps even via numerous media channels."

When he makes such statements, Hoffmann -- with his tousled hair, jeans and black turtleneck sweater -- leans far forward across his orderly desk. He stretches out his arms, bringing his hands together on the desk surface in an imploring gesture, as if he were trying to pull listeners to his side.

The Berlin Philharmonic is one of the best-funded orchestras in the world. Every year, it receives more than €15 million ($20 million) in government subsidies, which is a lot when you compare it with what the Munich Philharmonic gets (€13.7 million) or what the symphony orchestra in the western city of Bochum collects (€6.8 million). Deutsche Bank is the main sponsor of the Berlin Philharmonic, which consistently sells 90 percent of its concert tickets. Indeed, the orchestra does not suffer from any lack of audiences, attention or prestige.

What it does lack, however, is a plan for the 21st century. Should the Philharmonic only give black-tie concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, or should it also do so while on tour in New York, Tokyo, Paris and London?

And who will even buy CDs in five or 10 years? Today's market for music sales is merely a weak reflection of the boom it experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, when the CD, a novel item at the time, attracted classical music fans back into the stores.

The Marketing Heyday

In the Philharmonic's marketing heyday, when Herbert von Karajan -- the principal conductor from 1954 to 1989 and successor to the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler -- still headed the orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic made dozens of recordings a year. In those days, the musicians always collected a share of the orchestra's handsome profits. With these royalties, their salaries and the fees they earned as instructors at music colleges, they were among the best-paid musicians in the classical music industry.

Even Claudio Abbado, Karajan's Italian successor, made a relatively sizeable number of recordings when he was the principle conductor. But the current occupant of that role, Sir Simon Rattle, 55, has only made 27 recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic in eight years.

Other elite ensembles are not faring any better. Production costs are high, and sales are weak. What's more, there are already dozens of excellent recordings of the current repertoire available on the market.

New Sources of Revenue

The record company EMI, with which Rattle has a contract that more or less obliges the Berlin Philharmonic to record for it, is in a crisis. Hoffmann's job will be to develop new sources of revenue. One model could resemble that of the renowned London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and other ensembles that are now marketing themselves via various media channels. For example, the LSO produces its own recordings and sells them through an online platform.

But the LSO is selling its concert recordings. And although these come with a certain element of spontaneity and the charm of live performance, they still can't match the product of a sophisticated studio recording in which repeat takes can be used to iron out mistakes.

New York's Metropolitan Opera also produces its own CDs. Indeed, every recording of an opera performance for which there appears to be a market could theoretically be published digitally. Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met and a former record executive with the Sony label, has also found another way of milking the Met's brand name. For several years now, he has had opera evenings broadcast live in selected movie theaters or in open-air venues across the world. Nine productions are scheduled for this season. Nevertheless, under Gelb, the Met has still racked up a deficit in the millions.

To date, the Berlin Philharmonic can only be found online at the Digital Concert Hall, a Deutsche Bank-sponsored platform that allows users to download live concerts. But success seems to be slow in the coming. The only figures Hoffmann will mention are those that are "steadily growing" but "capable of improvement." He wants to hold onto the orchestra's current audience while attracting a new, younger audience, as well.

Part 3: Where Is the Star Power?

Self-marketing has long been commonplace in the pop-music industry. Many artists have made themselves independent of the record labels and their exclusivity requirements. Madonna, the British band Radiohead and rapper Jay-Z have all said goodbye to their conventional record contracts. Likewise, recording production costs have now declined as drastically as CD sales figures. Finally, since pop artists earn much of their income through concerts and merchandising, they no longer are dependent on having a major record label to make money. And the distribution structures have changed, as well, as pop albums are increasingly bought online and no longer just in record stores.

Whether similar strategies will work just as smoothly for classical music is still up in the air. The classical music aficionados who rave about Mahler, Brahms and Bruckner aren't exactly the group you would classify as cutting-edge and eager to adopt new things. And despite being aware of the problem, the artists themselves can be stubborn, as well.

There's also this issue: Star culture only works with stars. And conductors -- as the industry has discovered in recent years -- aren't nearly as much of a draw as they used to be. These days, instrumentalists and singers are the star attractions. And the notion of remaining true to the gracious art without offering glamour makes it difficult to attract mass audiences.

Differences between Karajan and Rattle

With his unruly hair, for example, Simon Rattle could prove to be a handicap. The Briton is an excellent conductor, but his recordings of contemporary music are often more appealing than his interpretations of the core classical repertoire.

Moreover, Rattle doesn't have Karajan's charisma. In the 1960s, Karajan made himself indispensable in the music world, boosting his fame and, with it, that of the Berlin Philharmonic in Milan, Salzburg, Vienna and elsewhere. At the time, there was a joke about Karajan, that whenever he got into a waiting car anywhere in the world and the chauffeur asked where he wanted to go, he would simply respond: "Oh, it doesn't matter. They need me everywhere."

Rattle has none of that. The conductor is a team player, serious and intellectual, but chances are that the Philharmonic had higher expectations of him when it comes to his effect on the public. In recent years he and his orchestra have performed Wagner's "Ring" to mixed reviews at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, in France, and at the Salzburg Easter Festival. And there are no recordings of these performances.

Moreover, although Rattle goes on tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and does an admirable job working with young people and in music education, he has not become an international brand whose name represents the entire package -- like Kleenex for tissues or Karajan for classical music. And he probably has no interest in doing anything of that kind.

Hoffman's Hopes

When he introduced his new director at Hoffmann's first public presentation, Rattle was somewhat restrained. Hoffmann, he said, didn't "exactly match the profile I had imagined for a director." But, he added, the new man has the "strategic thinking" needed to "develop new orchestra models and integrate our existing tradition into those models."

Hoffman wants to strengthen the Philharmonic's connection to Berlin and make it part of the city's culture. Shouldn't it go without saying, he asks, that the orchestra be involved in important commemorative events, such as the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of Germany's constitution? In the end, the orchestra was not involved in these events.

Hoffmann also envisions collaborative ventures with the nearby National Gallery, and he dreams of not just engaging a violinist, composer or -- as is currently the case -- the pianist Lang Lang as the Philharmonic's creative partner for a season. As he sees it, such a celebrity figure could also be a visual artist or a writer.

He wants to organize new concert series and, in the long term, build a new, third concert hall with fewer seats than the current 1,200-seat chamber music hall. The large concert hall seats 2,400.

Hoffman's Challenges

Despite all these hopes, Hoffmann's main task will be to fulfill the musicians' expectations. Their goal is to boost their fame and income and present a modern face to the world, complete with the latest in media sophistication, while at the same time not forfeiting their reputation as Germany's elite orchestra.

But there is a lot of competition in Berlin. The city has eight symphony orchestras, and the best of them, next to the Philharmonic, is Daniel Barenboim's Staatskapelle orchestra, which he directs primarily in operas, but also in concerts.

Likewise, big changes could also soon be coming to the Berlin classical music scene as a whole. Hoffman plans to present the Berlin Philharmonic performing with opera productions in the German capital and around the world. There have been occasional concert productions of operas at the Philharmonic in the past, but an elaborate production -- with scenery, costumes, action and all the magic of a stage performance -- has never been part of the package.

Richard Strauss's "Salome," for example, could be a candidate for a full-blown opera spectacle with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle. As is, the production will premier at the Salzburg Easter Festival next year, with Stefan Herheim as director and the American soprano Emily Magee in the title role.

Hoffman also wants to stage these kinds of events in Berlin. One day, that is. In an opera house. With the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic in the orchestra pit.

It would be a coup -- and a audacious challenge to Berlin's three opera houses.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan


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