I first heard the rumour at JP’s birthday party last Friday: Sting will be the special guest performing at the next yellow lounge event on Monday in Berlin. The yellow lounge? It’s a marketing move from Universal Music to promote their label Deutsche Grammophon. The idea is pretty straight forward: combine a classical music DJ with a live performance in a bar or club. Past performers inlcuded Emerson String Quartet, Magdalena Kozena, and Andreas Scholl. Why Sting? He recorded an album with lute songs of John Dowland. Should you go? Maybe. Sting’s performance on the album is pretty boring, but he will be accompanied by Edin Karamasow, who is truly amazing! How do I know it’s really Sting? The concert will be recorded and broadcast by Deutschlandfunk.
No guarantee though.
By the way: the concert was better than the recording. You can check it out on November 10, 9.05pm on Deutschlandfunk (there is a web stream).
What I liked about the event:
– No smoking! That’s rare in Berlin. Even at the Philharmonie people are allowed to smoke during intermission. (I know this sounds crazy!)
– No drinks during the concert. At a lot of events like this, the noise from the bar is louder than the music.
– People were really quite.
The amplification system was not suited for playing classical recordings. (This reminded my of the symphony concert during the world cup).