The 1999 Europakonzert in Krakow with Bernard Haitink, Emanuel Ax and Christine Schäfer

Since 1991 the Berliner Philharmoniker have marked the anniversary of its formation on 1 May 1882 with a concert held in a venue specially chosen for its cultural significance. To mark the 150th anniversary of Chopin’s death, the orchestra travelled to the Polish composer’s homeland and, under the direction of Bernard Haitink, gave their ninth European Concert in the magnificent setting of Krakow’s Gothic St Mary’s Basilica.

Emanuel Ax, winner of the Artur Rubinstein Prize and, according to the press, “one of the most talented Chopin performers of our time”, was the soloist in Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. At the time of the 1999 European Concert he was about to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. To a certain extent, the concert marked a return to the pianist’s roots, for he had been born in L’viv as the son of Polish Jews and lived for a time in Warsaw before emigrating to Canada with his parents in 1959.

The conductor was the Dutch maestro Bernard Haitink, who has been closely associated with the Berlin Philharmonic since 1964. Yet during this association, Schumann had previously appeared on these programmes only infrequently, making this performance of the First Symphony – also known as the Spring Symphony – all the more interesting in consequence. The composer himself admitted to having written the work “in that first flush of spring that arguably continues to inspire man even in ripe old age, overwhelming him anew each year”.

But a basilica naturally demands the performance of sacred music, and so Christine Schäfer opened the concert with two sacred works by Mozart, the motet Exsultate, jubilate and the Et incarnatus est from the unfinished Mass in C minor.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Bernard Haitink