Houston Symphony Performs At Konzerthaus Berlin

The Houston Symphony and Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada performed the third concert in their eight-city tour through Europe on Monday, March 12, in Berlin, Germany.

The concert took place at the Great Hall at Konzerthaus Berlin, one of the most architecturally distinguished halls in the world. Its faithfully rendered decorations in gold and red, 14 chandeliers and sumptuously decorated ceiling, make this hall a sight to see. Acoustically, it is one of the best symphonic concert halls in the world. The venue is home to a four-manual pipe organ built by Jehmlich Orgelbau Dresden in 1984 as well as to the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester.

The first half of the program began with Dvo?ák's The Noon Witch, followed by Bernstein's lyrical Serenade for Violin featuring three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn. Other tour repertoire includes Leonard Bernstein's Overture to West Side Story and Three Dance Episodes from On the Town in honor of the composer's 100th birthday.

"The Houston Symphony has a very special sound and a very interesting way to approach these different composers, and particularly the symphonies we're playing on the tour like Dvo?ák's Symphony No. 7 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5," said Orozco-Estrada. "We share a very strong and special connection with these works, which at the end is what matters the most; that we connect ourselves with the music and with the audience."

The evening concluded with Dvo?ák's dramatic Seventh Symphony, a work that was featured in Orozco-Estrada's critically-acclaimed inaugural recording with the Houston Symphony. The Houston Symphony's next stops on the European tour are the Filharmonia Narodowa (March 14) in Warsaw, Poland and Wiener Konzerthaus (March 15) in Vienna, Austria, before returning to Germany for the last leg of the tour to debut at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (March 17) and perform at the Hannover Congress Centrum (March 18) and Gasteig München (March 19).

For more information about the European tour, visit https://www.houstonsymphony.org/european-tour.