Orchestrating an Act of Reaffirmation

To go or not to go? That was the question many artists asked themselves after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Many canceled their tours. But not the Berlin Philharmonic.

The orchestra decided to go ahead with its five-city tour that began in New York earlier this month, then moved to Boston, Chicago and Ann Arbor, Mich., before it concludes next week at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, orchestra intendant (executive director), elaborated in a recent phone call from Boston:

“You may imagine after this terrible act on Sept. 11 and the American government speaking about war, that you have to be very careful about your responsibility in sending an orchestra abroad for 18 days.

“We had to check how safe traveling was, especially regarding planes. There was a lot of confusion about the security aboard American flights, which we had to work out. We found a way. We are traveling with charter flights.”

Dean Corey, executive director of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, which is presenting the exclusive West Coast portion of the tour, wrote a letter urging the orchestra to make the tour. It was read at a rehearsal.

“I was in contact with all our presenters,” Ohnesorg said. “I regarded Dean Corey’s letter as a very personal letter.”

A flutist and former director of the Cologne Philharmonic in Germany, Ohnesorg had a stormy stint as executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall from 1999 until his resignation in December 2000.

The orchestra, founded in 1882, is regarded as one of the top orchestras in the world. Its roster of music directors reads like a Who’s Who: Hans von Blow, 1887 to 1895; Arthur Nikisch, 1895 to 1923; Wilhelm Furtwngler, 1923 to 1954.

After Furtwngler’s death in 1954, Herbert von Karajan was music director from 1955 to 1989. Claudio Abbado succeeded Karajan after his death. Abbado, 68, is stepping down for health reasons. Simon Rattle will take over next year. The players were well aware of the significance of their coming, according to Ohnesorg.

In the program for its tour-opening Carnegie Hall concert, the orchestra dedicated its concerts and tour to “all those who suffered” from the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We come as a reaffirmation of our common humanity, which is so deeply expressed in the music of these concerts,” the program said. “John F. Kennedy once said at a critical moment in Berlin’s history, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’ At this terrible moment, we are the ones who say with you, ‘We are all New Yorkers.”’

The response was tremendous.

“Everybody in the orchestra knows how important these concerts are in these days,” Ohnesorg said. “The people are really just hungry for music.”

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Claudio Abbado will lead the Berlin Philharmonic on Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. The Monday program will be Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth symphonies. The Tuesday program will be Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and orchestral excerpts from Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” and “Tannhuser.” The concerts, sponsored by Philharmonic Society of Orange County, are part of the Eclectic Orange Festival. $34 to $109. (714) 556-2787.