Programme Guide

In the 2013/2014 season, Murray Perahia was the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Pianist in Residence, the high-point of a 35-year collaboration between the American pianist and the orchestra dating back to 1977, when they performed Mozart’s C minor Piano Concerto under the baton of Riccardo Muti. This 2013 season brought a further highlight: for the first time, Perahia appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker not “only” as a soloist but also as the conductor.

For this occasion the musician again chose a work by Mozart, his last piano concerto, K 595 in B flat, a work that demonstrates the composer’s unsurpassed mastery of the genre. Eschewing all external effects, the work strikes a tone of simplicity and optimism as well as intimacy. The songlike theme of the rondo became famous when Mozart used it as the melody of his lied Komm, lieber Mai not long thereafter.

Also sure to be of special interest is the programme’s conclusion: the Grand Duo composed by Schubert as a sonata for piano fourhands, performed in an orchestrated version by the great violinist, composer and friend of Brahms, Joseph Joachim, who detected in Schubert’s original a “veiled symphony”. At this concert the Berliner Philharmoniker and Murray Perahia offer a rare opportunity to hear this beautiful work.