Audio transcription

Welcome to our Christmas tour. My name is Christian Mücke and I’ve been a tenor in the RIAS-Kammerchor (chamber choir) for thirty years. Besides being a professional singer I also regularly visit Gemäldegalerie Berlin. It features my favourite painting, the Virgin in the Church by Jan van Eyck, and it holds a fascinating collection of Old Masters of the German, Flemish and Italian schools.

I find it fascinating to note that since the 15th century, Flemish and German painting weaves landscapes into its representations of the saints, depicts fabrics and faces with incredible precision and definitely aims to move and emotionally touch the viewers. And yet these representations always remain within a clear and objective framework of image traditions and symbolism.

It is a great pleasure and honour for me to tune in to our musical tour through Gemäldegalerie’s rooms. We have coupled some marvelous paintings around the Christmas theme with hopefully inspiring choir pieces sung by RIAS chamber choir.

I’m very happy that the tour through Gemäldegalerie includes my selection of the most beautiful paintings and I hope you enjoy viewing and listening.