Programme Guide

Daniel Barenboim has been working with the Berliner Philharmoniker for almost 50 years: he made his debut under the direction of Pierre Boulez as the soloist in Béla Bartók’s First Piano Concerto in June 1964, and six years later he conducted the orchestra for the first time. He has since performed regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker as a pianist and conductor.

The programme of this Europakonzert has an international flavour: Otto Nicolai’s Singspiel The Merry Wives of Windsor, which received its premiere in Berlin in 1849, is based on William Shakespeare’s comedy of the same name, and its lively overture has long since secured a place on the concert stage. Also inspired by a Shakespearean comedy hero is Edward Elgar’s symphonic study Falstaff. We then turn from comedy to the tragic twists of fate: The Fifth Symphony of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is characterised by a sombre main theme that for the Russian composer symbolises “a complete resignation before fate, which is the same as the inscrutable predestination of fate”.