Music in Berlin at Christmas
Visits to Potsdam & Sanssouci
- Numerous excellent collections of fine & decorative arts and first-rate architecture.
- A day excursion to Potsdam to see Frederick the Great’s Sanssouci.
- Includes tickets to La Bohème, Hansel & Gretel, The Magic Flute and the Berlin Philharmonic with Sir Simon Rattle and Lang Lang.
Berlin possesses some of the finest art galleries and museums in the world and offers the highest standards of music and opera performance. It is endowed with a range of historic architecture of the highest importance and is the site of Europe’s greatest concentration of first-rate contemporary architecture. Once again a national capital, it is also one of the most exciting cities on the Continent, recent and rapid changes pushing through a transformation without peacetime parallel.
One of the grandest capitals in Europe for the first forty years of the last century, it then suffered appallingly from aerial bombardment and Russian artillery. Then for forty years it was cruelly divided into two parts and became the focus of Cold War antagonism, a bizarre confrontation between an enclave of western libertarianism and hard-line Communism.
Since the Wall was breached in 1989 the city has been transformed beyond recognition. From being a largely charmless urban expanse still bearing the scars of war, it has become a vibrant, liveable city, the very model of a modern major metropolis. The two halves have been knitted together and cleaning and repair have revealed the patrimony of historic architecture to be among the finest in Central Europe.
The art collections, formerly split, dispersed and often housed in temporary premises, are now coming together in magnificently restored or newly-built galleries. Berlin possesses international art and antiquities of the highest importance, as well as incomparable collections of German art. The number and variety of museums and the quality of their holdings make Berlin among the world’s most desired destinations for art lovers.
With three major opera houses and several orchestras – one of which has claims to be the best in the world – Berlin is one of the few cities where truly outstanding performances can be virtually guaranteed.
Read the itinerary
Comments from participants in 2008:
‘Could not have been better – good balance between performances, tours and galleries.’
‘Superb hotel. Lovely room. Excellent breakfasts. Very courteous staff. Good facilities and location.’
‘Absolutely outstanding tour, far exceeding our expectations.’
‘Cannot praise our lecturer too highly for the range of his knowledge – political, aesthetic, architectural, artistic – combined with complete unflapability and energy.’
‘Could not have enjoyed our week in Berlin more.’