Alan Gilbert, Daniel Müller-Schott and Magnus Lindberg

In this concert from February 2014, the audience in the Berlin Philharmonie had its first opportunity to hear a performance of Kraft, a spectacular work inspired by Punk music which brought the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg his international breakthrough. The concert opens with Dvořák’s wistful Cello Concerto performed by conductor Alan Gilbert and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott.

In his second concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the 2013/14 season, the American conductor Alan Gilbert encounters the Munich-born cellist Daniel Müller-Schott. The centre of the encounter of the two musicians is formed by a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s cello concerto. Because of its symphonic structures and enormous technical demands, the work constitutes not only a milestone in the solo cello repertoire, but also a touchstone for any virtuoso on the instrument.

The orchestral composition Kraft by Magnus Lindberg, composed in Berlin in the mid-1980’s, is spectacular in an entirely different way. The piece was inspired by the Berlin punk scene, which Lindberg followed with great interest and whose colossal energy and unusual sound experiments fascinated him. “I was shocked by this music, but also a bit jealous of its force, and I asked myself whether one couldn’t achieve something similar with the resources of a classical orchestra,” Lindberg admitted.

What resulted is an exceptional work which, according to Alan Gilbert, one of the most adept conductors of Kraft, has true event character – not least because as desired by the composer (who plays the piano part himself at the concert) the large orchestra making use of unusual sound sources performs distributed throughout the hall. And given its unique architecture, the Berlin Philharmonie is the perfect venue for such concepts.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Alan Gilbert

Daniel Müller-Schott

Magnus Lindberg