I like this youtube video. Although I'm not a great fan of jazz I think the Brandenburg Gate Revisited by Dave Brubeck is absolutely brilliant. It came out in 1963 which to my mind feels very like today. There is the same fear of nuclear war today that we had then.

This live recording from about 10 years ago is a little bit more classical then Brubeck's 1963 album which itself was based on a 1958 shorter version. The piece consists of about a dozen variations on a theme. He probably got the idea from the Goldberg Variations. The first few variations are very classical and then a bit more jazz comes in after the third variation. I like the way the author of the video focuses on that beautiful statue at the end of that wonderful second variation (01:20 – 02:27). For me watching and listening to that video is like sitting in front of the fire with a nice drink and thinking about the past.

The Brandenburg Gate has a fascinating history. Napoleon took a liking to the statue and had it taken to Paris. When the Prussians got to Paris they took it back. It is a miracle that it survived WWII. There are lots of pictures of it standing almost undamaged among the ruins of Berlin surrounded by celebrating Russians.



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