Since 1984 Akamus has had its own concert season at the Konzerthaus Berlin, a very beautiful classical building, designed and built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Frederick the Great’s favourite architect. For more than a decade now, concert seasons and cycles have preferred groups with the versatility to adapt to historiographical norms. That’s why the orchestra is constantly in demand, not only to perform the eighteenth-century instrumental repertory but to participate in the great passions, oratorios and cantatas with choirs and soloists.
According to the members themselves, the Akademie’s present reputation “simply comes down to sustained work, which is very important. Recordings gradually became one of the group’s strong points and they are of great importance to us, although is it difficult to say exactly to what extent. Initially, the Akademie was a little lucky in that 1985 marked the 200th anniversary of the births of Bach, Handel and Schütz, which helped us to make a name for ourselves since there was almost nothing in the field of historical performance in the GDR. Later, thanks to our contact with René Jacobs during the mid 90s, we began a long association with the recording company harmonia mundi, for whom we record three to four discs each year, with increasing success. Without these recordings, the group would obtain much less media coverage; achieving good sales figures also increases the possibility of giving concerts. Moreover, media coverage for the launch of each new recording is important for the Akademie”, adds Uhde.
|
The group is a society in which the musicians share the risks and profits. We do not have any form of subvention, making us totally dependent on our performances.
|
Two artists who are not members of the group played very important roles in bringing the orchestra up to international standards. Firstly, Marcus Creed, the former director of the RIAS-Kammerchor of Berlin, a musical institution that has been closely tied to the group since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And secondly, as mentioned above, René Jacobs, an omnipresent figure in European early music. The Belgian conductor regularly invites the Akademie to perform in his productions of pre-Classical works at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. This opera house has been the scene of enormously successful productions of little-known works such as Telemann’s Orpheus, Reinhard Keisers’s Croesus and Alessandro Scarlatti’s Griselda. AKAMUS maintain a reciprocal relationship with both Creed and Jacobs and both are permanently featured in their concert cycle as guest conductors.
|
|
|
|