MIT DEN VÖGELN SINGEN Berlin Concert

They are close to the clouds, combining the lightness of air and wind with the heaviness of the earth: birds have been regarded since ancient times as messengers from heaven, mediators between this world and the next, and a link between God and humankind. Every language has poems about birds, and there is hardly an artist who has not fallen under the spell of their picturesque form and mysterious nature. Countless composers over the centuries have been fascinated by birdsong. For it resounds in inexhaustible diversity and beauty, a kind of magical primordial music. Reason enough to imitate it with sounds and thus build a bridge between nature and art.

Birds need space and expanse. In this concert, their voices fill the enormous concrete architecture of the Kraftwerk Berlin, an important testament to local industrial history, which also houses one of the world's most famous techno clubs, Club Tresor.
Under the direction of Justin Doyle, the RIAS Kammerchor embarks on a multifaceted musical and ornithological journey. The program ranges from Renaissance music to contemporary compositions inspired by the singing of birds: William Byrd and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy follow the sweet love call of the nightingale, Áine Mallon opens her ear to the sounds of dusk, Orlando Gibbons tells of the “unmusical” swan, which is gifted with beguiling song at the moment of its death. Edward Elgar, Gerald Finzi, and Ralph Vaughan Williams are enchanted by the diverse bird life of their English homeland.

Biologist Uwe Westphal enriches the musical aviary: he can imitate the sounds of more than 100 bird species, will “sing” alongside the choir, and provide insights into the cosmos of chirping, cooing, whistling, and trilling vocal acrobats.