Berlin, Rejoice!

November 9, 1989. After 28 years  of dividing the city, the Berlin Wall fell, and the call, "Berlin, Rejoice!" rang out through the chaos of overwhelming emotions that gripped the city.

"Berlin, Rejoice!" is the theme of the benefit concert in the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) on Monday, November 9, that celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. For the first time in history, the Rundfunk-Sinfonie Orchestra, Berlin (Berlin's Radio Symphony Orchestra) and its choir, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, will perform together with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester (or DSO), and the RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir).

The significance of this memorial concert is enormous. The RSO, Germany's oldest radio symphony orchestra, was under the supervision of the GDR radio from 1949 till the Fall of the Berlin Wall, while the DSO was established by the US forces during the occupation. At that time it was known as the RIAS Orchestra, the acronym standing for Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor, or Broadcasting in the American Sector, the radio station to which the orchestra was linked. During the Berlin blockade, RIAS played a central role in carrying the message of the Allied forces' determination to resist Soviet intimidation.

On Monday, November 9, the four great orchestra/choirs will perform together in a unique commemoration of reunification.

The program includes sacred music by Schubert and Mendelssohn -- a tribute to the religious tolerance in which freedom is rooted; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Schönberg's "Friede auf Erden" -- an expression of the magnitude of the event;  and Richard Wagner's Overture from "Die Meistersinger vom Nürnberg" -- a reference to the long shadows cast by history.

The performance will be transmitted live on Deutschlandfunk, BBC, Radiotelevisione Italiana, as well as radio stations in Denmark, Lithuania, Canada and Romania.


"20 Jahre Mauerfall - Das Konzert" takes place at the Berliner Dom on Monday, November 11 at 8:30 PM. Tickets are between 15 EUR and 70 EUR and are available at the ticket counter of the Berliner Dom every day between 11 AM and 6 PM (though tickets are going fast). Public transportation to the Berliner Dom includes: U and S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz; S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt, Bus 100 and 200 to Lustgarten.  More information is available at www.musikinkirchen.de