Everyone has them: those days crammed with appointments, with one meeting after another, a phone that won’t stop ringing, lunch on the run, trying to squeeze some essential shopping into the break. That’s why taking a few moments away from the hectic daily routine at midday can do you good.
You could, for example, make a date for lunch. And where? In the foyer of the Philharmonie, where a new concert series has been running since October 2007: the Lunchkonzerte – Lunchtime Concerts, which are happening again this season every Tuesday at 1 pm, between 6 September 2011 and 19 June 2012 (not on 1 May 2012). Chamber music of supreme quality with free admission and good food – that’s the idea behind these concerts, and it’s been exciting Berlin’s finest musicians. The 30-40 minute programmes feature not only members of the Berlin Philharmonic and scholars of its Orchestra Academy, but also instrumentalists from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and the Staatskapelle Berlin along with students at Berlin’s music conservatories.
The lunchtime concerts are not only ideal for working people looking to relax during their midday break, but also for music-loving tourists seeking to recover from sightseeing, for seniors shying away from a late trip home after an evening concert, and indeed for anyone who’d like for once to experience these musicians in a relatively private and intimate setting, away from “official” musical events. Not only your ears, but also your palate will of course be indulged at the lunchtime concerts – an imaginatively planned catering will see to that. Unlike the music, that isn’t quite free but is most reasonably priced.
