Brett Dean conducts Brett Dean
Brett Dean played the viola with the Berliner Philharmoniker for 14 years before embarking on a highly successful career as a composer. He returns in 2026/27 as Composer in Residence, presenting not only his music but also himself as a conductor: in his Conversations with Schumann, Dean explores the Romantic composer’s complex inner life; And once I played Ophelia is a portrait of Hamlet’s beloved, while Beggars and Angels draws its power from the contrast between earthly and heavenly beings.
Brett Dean regards his conducting debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker as “a unique challenge: if I’d been approached with a traditional Philharmoniker programme, I’d probably have said: ‘Thank you, but someone else would be better suited to it’. But a programme tailored specifically to me as a composer, featuring works of mine that I have already conducted – I think I can communicate that to the orchestra with a fair bit of confidence.” The bespoke programme, which is also part of Musikfest Berlin, features three works by the Composer in Residence. Inspired by music, literature and the visual arts, they reflect Brett Dean’s commitment to immediacy: “What would it be like to hear a new piece on the radio without knowing the title or having read the programme notes? Even in that case, the music should be captivating and coherent.”
Together with soprano Jennifer France, the Berliner Philharmoniker and their former member will first perform his Conversations with Schumann. The Schumanns and their artistic circle are reflected here in fragmentary, microtonally distorted echoes of Romantic music. Much like Robert Schumann’s dual alter egos – the impulsive Florestan and the sensitive Eusebius –, past and present engage in a compelling dialogue. In And Once I Played Ophelia, the soprano portrays the lover of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who, having lost her mind, drowns. The vocal part is extremely demanding, both technically and expressively.
This is followed by Debussy’s La Cathédrale engloutie in a luminous orchestration by Colin Matthews, serving as a kind of atmospheric interlude, before the programme concludes with Brett Dean’s Beggars and Angels. The Australian composer was inspired to write this orchestral work while visiting an exhibition that contrasted sculptures of beggars with paintings of angels. Dean suggests – through shimmering harmonics and powerful bursts of sound, amongst other things – that these two spheres are by no means clearly separated; indeed, the angels might even pose a threat. This piece in particular illustrates what the Composer in Residence says about his relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker: “The sound of this orchestra is still within me when I compose, even after 25 years.”
© 2026 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
