Programme Guide

Since 1991, the Berliner Philharmoniker have celebrated the anniversary of their founding with a concert in another European music centre: for the 21st Europakonzert, they were guests at the magnificent Teatro Real in Madrid. Their programme comprised the exuberant rhapsody España by the French composer Emmanuel Chabrier, Rachmaninov’s dramatic Second Symphony and a quintessential Spanish composition: Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

Schiller’s play Don Carlos famously opens with the line “The pleasant days here in Aranjuez are now drawing to a close”. Music lovers are more fortunate because thanks to Rodrigo’s immortal guitar concerto they can continue to savour the magical mood in the summer palace of the Spanish kings, especially when the soloist is a flamenco star such as Cañizares, who can throw such fascinating light on every facet of this multi-layered score.

After the interval, Simon Rattle, a keen fan of Sergei Rachmaninov, conducted his Second Symphony. As he noted afterwards, the orchestra “played the hell out of it”, resulting, in the opinion of the press, in a thrilling and very special experience. “The orchestra was urged on by Rattle’s impulsive direction, playing with brio and unleashing wave after wave of tension, turning the symphony’s sweeping movements into a self-contained and thrilling whole.”