Our latest 10 concerts:
New Year’s Eve concert with Kirill Petrenko and Diana Damrau
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
For the first time, the new chief conductor Kirill Petrenko was at the helm for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve concert – which revealed a new, vibrant facet to Petrenko’s repertoire. While German and Russian composers have been the main focus of his previous Philharmoniker concerts, this evening’s programme takes us on a musical journey to the USA: with dances from Bernstein’s West Side Story and Gershwin’s An American in Paris. You can also hear star soprano Diana Damrau in captivating songs from musicals.
31 Dec 2019Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill PetrenkoDiana Damrau
George Gershwin
Overture to the musical Girl CrazyRichard Rodgers
“If I loved you” from CarouselDiana Damrau soprano
Leonard Bernstein
“I feel pretty” from West Side StoryDiana Damrau soprano
Leonard Bernstein
Symphonic Dances from West Side StoryKurt Weill
“Foolish Heart” from One Touch of VenusDiana Damrau soprano
Kurt Weill
Symphonic Nocturne (Suite, arr. Robert Russell Bennett) from Lady in the DarkStephen Sondheim
“Send in the clowns” from A little Night MusicDiana Damrau soprano
Harold Arlen
“Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of OzDiana Damrau soprano
George Gershwin
An American in ParisFrederick Loewe
“I could have danced all night” from My Fair LadyDiana Damrau soprano
Franz Waxman
“The Ride of the Cossacks” from Taras Bulba- free
Interview
Craig Urquhart in conversation with Noah Bendix-Balgley - free
Interview
Diana Damrau in conversation with Albrecht Mayer - free
Interview
Kirill Petrenko in conversation with Raphael Haeger
Simon Rattle conducts Berio and Bartók
Photo: Stephan Rabold
To help contain the coronavirus, the Philharmonie has been closed since 11 March. A last concert under the direction of Simon Rattle could still be given – but without an audience in the auditorium, exclusively and free of charge for visitors of the Digital Concert Hall. It opened with Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, which plays creatively with sounds, noises and language. The highlight of the programme is Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, which shifts between melancholy and vigorous rebellion.
12 Mar 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle- free
Interview
Andrea Zietzschmann and Simon Rattle on a concert without an audience Luciano Berio
Sinfonia for 8 Voices and OrchestraNeue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart
- free
Interview
Simon Rattle on Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra Béla Bartók
Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116
Simon Rattle conducts Strauss and Beethoven
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
In his Oboe Concerto, Richard Strauss magically succeeded in composing in the spirit of Mozart and Schubert without denying his own artistic identity. Simon Rattle performs the work with the Philharmoniker’s principal oboe Jonathan Kelly. He then presents Beethoven’s oratorio Christus am Ölberge, which conveys less spiritual devotion than operatic expressiveness, such as in a dramatically escalating scene depicting the arrest of Jesus.
07 Mar 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon RattleJonathan Kelly
Richard Strauss
Concerto in D major for Oboe and Small Orchestra, AV 144 / TrV 292Jonathan Kelly oboe
Benjamin Britten
Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, op. 49: PanJonathan Kelly oboe
Ludwig van Beethoven
Christus am Ölberge (Christ on the Mount of Olives), Oratorio, op. 85Franz Xaver Huber, Iwona Sobotka soprano, Benjamin Bruns tenor, David Soar baritone, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Simon Halsey chorus master
- free
Interview
Jonathan Kelly in conversation with Tobias Möller
Mahler’s Third Symphony with Elīna Garanča and Lorenzo Viotti
Photo: Stephan Rabold
In his Third Symphony, Gustav Mahler gives musical form to elemental symbols of nature – including stories of flowers and animals – with which he creates a gigantic world panorama, culminating in a hymn of overwhelming beauty. In this performance we hear Lorenzo Viotti, who steps in for Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Elīna Garanča, who not only has “beauty of voice, but also that indefinable magic called charisma” (The Telegraph).
29 Feb 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Lorenzo ViottiElīna Garanča
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 3 in D minorElīna Garanča mezzo-soprano, Women of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Boys of the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir
- free
Interview
Elīna Garanča in conversation with Julia Gartemann
Kirill Petrenko conducts Stravinsky, Zimmermann and Rachmaninov
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The music of the 20th century is often considered inaccessible. Kirill Petrenko shows how wrong this prejudice is with three works written between 1940 and 1950 which differently convey sensuousness and energy. We experience rhythmic power in Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, the combination of innovation and Brazilian flair in Zimmermann’s Alagoana and finally, the voluptuous melancholy of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.
15 Feb 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill PetrenkoIgor Stravinsky
Symphony in Three MovementsBernd Alois Zimmermann
Alagoana. Caprichos Brasileiros, Ballet SuiteSergei Rachmaninov
Symphonic Dances, op. 45- free
Interview
Kirill Petrenko in conversation with Christoph Streuli
Kirill Petrenko conducts Puccini’s “Suor Angelica”
Photo: Michael Trippel
The first opera in the Philharmonie Berlin led by Kirill Petrenko: Giacomo Puccini’s drama Suor Angelica, which takes place in a convent and tells the moving story of a young nun. Even if the period and setting have little to do with the realities of life today, the message of the opera is more current than ever: it concerns humanity in an inhuman environment and the struggle for one’s own dignity. In this production, it is given a contemporary setting by director Nicola Hümpel and performed by up-and-coming singers, the choir of the Vocal Heroes choral programme, and the Karajan Academy.
01 Feb 2020Karajan Academy
Kirill PetrenkoChoir of the Vocal Heroes Choral Programme, Nicola Hümpel, Ann Toomey, Katarina Dalayman
- free
Giacomo Puccini
Suor AngelicaChoir of the Vocal Heroes Choral Programme, Nicola Hümpel direction and costumes, Oliver Proske stage conception and video technology, Ann Toomey soprano, Katarina Dalayman soprano, Daniela Vega mezzo-soprano, Fleur Barron mezzo-soprano, Sarah Laulan mezzo-soprano, Aurora Marthens soprano, Qing Wang soprano, Aphrodite Patoulidou soprano, Alessia Schumacher soprano, Ekaterina Bazhanova mezzo-soprano, Yeo-Jung Ha soprano, Bernadeta Astari soprano, Yui Kawaguchi dance and choir choreography, Matan Porat piano and composition of prologue
- free
Interview
Kirill Petrenko on Puccini’s “Suor Angelica”
Paavo Järvi and Stefan Dohr
Photo: Stefan Rabold
Romanticism was not only an epoch of sensibility, but also of radical concepts. No work shows this more clearly than Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique. It portrays a drug-induced frenzy, a murder of passion, an execution and a witch’s Sabbath. No less exciting is Berlioz’ sound world: excessive, glaring, brutal – and then again enchantingly graceful. Paavo Järvi also conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto by Hans Abrahamsen. The soloist is Stefan Dohr.
31 Jan 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Paavo JärviStefan Dohr
Igor Stravinsky
Scherzo fantastique, op. 3Hans Abrahamsen
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra − commissioned jointly by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the NTR Zaterdag Matinee, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia PremiereStefan Dohr french horn
Hector Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique, op. 14- free
Interview
Stefan Dohr, Paavo Järvi and Hans Abrahamsen in conversation
Kirill Petrenko conducts Mahler’s Sixth Symphony
Photo: Stephan Rabold
For the first time, Kirill Petrenko presents himself with the Berliner Philharmoniker as an interpreter of Mahler. The Sixth Symphony is one of the composer’s most disturbing works, bringing together turmoil and idyll, triumph and catastrophe, nature, and life and death. It conveys a world panorama as well as an intimate insight into Mahler’s inner world. For as his widow Alma explained, “No work has flowed from his heart as directly as this”.
25 Jan 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill PetrenkoGustav Mahler
Symphony No. 6- free
Interview
Kirill Petrenko in conversation with Martin Menking
Herbert Blomstedt and Leif Ove Andsnes
A medieval city, a knight on horseback, and the sound of the forest were atmospheric inner images that inspired Anton Bruckner to create his mysteriously luminous Fourth Symphony. The conductor of this performance is Herbert Blomstedt, one of the foremost interpreters of Bruckner. In Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 – which audibly picks up on the soundscape of the opera Le nozze di Figaro which he wrote at the same time – we also hear Leif Ove Andsnes, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Pianist in Residence for 2010/2011.
18 Jan 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert BlomstedtLeif Ove Andsnes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 22 in E flat major, K 482Leif Ove Andsnes piano
Edvard Grieg
Lyric Pieces, op. 54: No. 2 GangarLeif Ove Andsnes piano
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major “Romantic” (2nd version from 1878/1880)- free
Interview
Herbert Blomstedt on Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony
Kirill Petrenko and Daniel Barenboim
Photo: Stephan Rabold
Kirill Petrenko, the new man at the head of the Berliner Philharmoniker, encounters a decades-long friend of the orchestra: Daniel Barenboim. Together, they present Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, whose appeal lies in its self-assured showmanship and distinctive C Minor colouring. The music of Josef Suk, which has received far too little attention, is also a matter close to Kirill Petrenko’s heart. Here we hear his Second Symphony, an expressive work full of pain and sonority.
11 Jan 2020Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill PetrenkoDaniel Barenboim
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in C minor, op. 37Daniel Barenboim piano
Franz Schubert
Impromptu in A flat major, D 935 no. 2Daniel Barenboim piano
Josef Suk
Symphony in C minor, op. 27 “Asrael”- free
Interview
Kirill Petrenko in conversation with Alexander Bader
