Hovering between fact and fantasy
From our UK edition
I had the strangest experience at the ballet in Dresden: all perfectly pretty onstage, the company well schooled but I couldn't believe the orchestra. I've never heard a ballet orchestra playing with such love for the music - beautiful phrasing, elegantly balanced winds, seamless ensemble, the right notes all the time, in tune...I had to pinch myself. Of course, this was no ordinary ballet band; at the Semper Oper in Dresden, the Staatskapelle, with a 455-year-old reputation to guard, has the longest record of continuous work of any bunch of musicians. The orchestra did first performances for Wagner and Weber, nine premieres for Richard Strauss, his dream team. It was Beethoven's super band.