Goldberg triumphs in Berlin dedicated to Sandu Sandrin by his son Cristian
Cristian Sandrin triumphs last night in Berlin with the ‘Goldberg Variations’ dedicated to his father the distinguished pianist and pedagogue Sandu Sandrin who would have been 77 years old this day. A commemoration for him a year on took place in Bucharest on the 5th November (the actual day is the 15th).
Designed by the famous Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who oversaw the rebuilding of Berlin after Napoleon’s comprehensive defeat at Leipzig and Waterloo. The concert hall is in restrained and elegant Noclassical style, the perfect setting for the music of the period. It was ceremoniously opened in 1821 with a prologue specially written by Goethe and saw the premiere of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz. Prussia was determined that Berlin would vie with Vienna and Prague as the cultural centre of Europe.
The building was completely destroyed by fire in the last weeks of World War 2 and Berliners were torn with whether to faithfully rebuild Schinkel’s masterpiece or build a modern concert hall. We can only be grateful that they chose the former option that recaptures the moment when the Age of Enlightenment meets the spirit of Romanticism.
