20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Reunification left Berlin – now a city with a population of 3.5 million – with three major opera houses – the Staatsoper and Komische Oper in the former East, and the Deutsche Oper in the West. All three have survived despite pressure from some quarters to consolidate, but the rivalry continues – with Daniel Barenboim a central figure in the story.

Petroc meets Matthias Glander, principal clarinettist and board member of the Berlin Staatskapelle (the orchestra of the Staatsoper), who talks about first breathing the air of former West Berlin, and about how Barenboim gave the opera’s former Eastern musicians the confidence they had lacked under communist rule.

Two long-standing members of the Deutsche Oper orchestra recall their life as professional musicians before and after 1989, and the company’s outgoing intendant Kirsten Harms talks to Petroc about the role of politicians, and explains why she is leaving.

As Berlin’s Culture Senator in the 1990’s, Ulrich Roloff-Momin was responsible for many theatre closures. He explains to Petroc about Berlin’s culture of financial entitlement – a legacy of huge state subsidy on both sides before 1989, and how he believes politicians are too involved in cultural affairs.

The Berlin Philharmonic’s intendant Pamela Rosenberg (who thinks politicians are less involved than in the UK) talks about the role corporate sponsorship – still a relatively new concept in Berlin.

And in the Berlin State Parliament building – the Bundesrat – Petroc meets the Green Party’s cultural spokesperson Alice Ströver, who puts forward the case for Berlin’s thriving young independent cultural scene and argues that the big organisations should be more accountable to the state.

Simon Rattle – whose tenure as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic has just been extended to 2018 – believes that Berlin is still a divided city. His orchestra is not only seen as the jewel in Berlin’s crown, but is an internationally recognisable Berlin brand. Not everyone agrees that it stands so far above the city’s half a dozen other orchestras though.

The question of whether Berlin can support so many professional ensembles continues to be a source of debate. Conductor Ingo Metzmacher, who took over at the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra in 2006, explains to Petroc why he announced his resignation earlier this year over problems with funding, and talks about the importance of each orchestra forging an individual identity. And new kid on the block Sebastian Nordmann – intendant of the Konzerthaus, the concert hall in the former East which was rebuilt 25 years ago by the GDR, talks about his ambitions for the hall and its resident orchestra.

Finally Petroc visits the formerly East Berlin music academy bearing the name of Hanns Eisler, a composer and pupil of Schönberg, and finds out from its vice president Jörg Mainke how over the last twenty years professors from both sides of the city have had to deal with their different approaches to music. And students from the academy’s new music Echo Ensemble share their experiences of living in Berlin – a city reunified but still showing tensions between East and West.