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New Year’s Eve Concert with Daniel Barenboim
Go to concertOur latest 9 concerts:
Tugan Sokhiev conducts Rachmaninov, Borodin and Prokofiev
Photo: Stephan Rabold
In this concert, Tugan Sokhiev, director of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, conducts a Russian programme supported by the choir of his legendary opera house. While Alexander Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Sergei Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevsky are full of primitive power and recount historical Russian war heroes, Sergei Rachmaninov's operatic scene Spring takes an intimate private drama as its theme.
12 Jan 2019Berliner Philharmoniker
Tugan SokhievChoir of the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow
Sergei Rachmaninov
Vesna (Spring), cantata for baritone, chorus and orchestra, op. 20Vasily Ladyuk baritone, Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Valery Borisov chorus master
Alexander Borodin
Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances (original version with choir)Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Valery Borisov chorus master
Sergei Prokofiev
Alexander Nevsky, cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra, op. 78Agunda Kulaeva mezzo-soprano, Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Valery Borisov chorus master
- free
Interview
Tugan Sokhiev in conversation with Andreas Ottensamer
Kirill Petrenko conducts the German National Youth Orchestra
Photo: Stephan Rabold
Working with the German National Youth Orchestra is something close to Kirill Petrenko’s heart, so on the occasion of the orchestra’s 50th anniversary, the chief conductor designate of the Berliner Philharmoniker couldn’t turn down the opportunity to join them for a jubilee concert. In addition to rousing compositions by Leonard Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky, the programme also includes a contemporary work: William Kraft’s First Timpani Concerto with the Philharmoniker’s principal timpanist Wieland Welzel as the soloist.
09 Jan 2019Bundesjugendorchester
Kirill PetrenkoWieland Welzel
- free
Leonard Bernstein
West Side Story, Symphonic Dances - free
William Kraft
Concerto No. 1 for Timpani and OrchestraWieland Welzel timpani
- free
Igor Stravinsky
Le Sacre du printemps
Iván Fischer and Christian Gerhaher
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
The lieder of Hugo Wolf are unique in their clear-cut directness. Their aim is not the artistic sublimation of emotions, but real, unfiltered expression. Christian Gerhaher, the “foremost lieder singer of our time” (The New York Times), performs selected settings by Wolf of Goethe and Mörike. Conductor Iván Fischer also presents Franz Schubert’s Great Symphony, with its shifts between the idyllic and the abyss.
22 Dec 2018Berliner Philharmoniker
Iván FischerChristian Gerhaher
Antonín Dvořák
Legendes for Orchestra, op. 59: nos. 6 & 10Hugo Wolf
Lieder after poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Eduard MörikeChristian Gerhaher baritone
Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 8 in C major, D 944- free
Interview
An introduction by Iván Fischer
Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler’s Second Symphony
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony is a work which exceeds all limits. The composition was intended to depict nothing less than the entire universe: the lofty and the humble, tradition and avant-garde, pastoral serenity and demonic grotesques, songs and chorales, and death and resurrection, all expressed in music that is correspondingly multifarious and grandiose. It is conducted here by Andris Nelsons, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
15 Dec 2018Berliner Philharmoniker
Andris NelsonsMDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Lucy Crowe, Gerhild Romberger
Maija Einfelde
Lux aeterna for mixed choir, chime bells and vibraphoneMDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig choir
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 2 in C minor “Resurrection”Lucy Crowe soprano, Gerhild Romberger contralto, MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig choir, Risto Joost chorus master
- free
Interview
Andris Nelsons in conversation with Matthew Hunter
Valery Gergiev conducts Stravinsky’s “Firebird”
Photo: Stephan Rabold
Music based on three colourful Russian fairytales are to be heard in this concert with Valerie Gergiev: the bloodthirsty story of The Golden Cockerel set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, excerpts from Prokofiev’s humorous and charming ballet Cinderella, and from Stravinsky, his iridescent, energetic Firebird. The concert opens with another magical, but very different work: Debussy’s Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune.
08 Dec 2018Berliner Philharmoniker
Valery GergievClaude Debussy
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un fauneNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Le Coq d’Or, suiteSergei Prokofiev
Cinderella, ballet, op. 87 (excerpts)Igor Stravinsky
The Firebird Suite (version from 1919)- free
Interview
Valery Gergiev in conversation with Stephan Koncz
Christmas Concert “Winter Drummerland”
Photo: Stephan Rabold
“I got rhythm” was the theme of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s family Christmas concert on the 1st Advent Sunday of 2018. On this occasion, the percussion section of the orchestra took centre stage. The concert, which was presented by the Philharmoniker’s horn player Sarah Willis, combined the informative (in the form of short presentations about the instruments) with the entertaining (in the form of a performance with spoons) and regularly encouraged the audience to participate in the proceedings.
02 Dec 2018Percussionists of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Guests
Sarah Willis
- free
Winter Drummerland
Sarah Willis concept, horn and presenter
George Benjamin’s “Written on Skin” with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Photo: Adam Janisch
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founded by Claudio Abbado, performs Written on Skin, one of the most successful operas of our time. It deals with a love triangle: the protagonists are a brutal, jealous husband, a young, inexperienced woman and a gifted painter. Based on a medieval Provençal legend, librettist Martin Crimp created a highly modern story of power, subjugation, rebellion and self-discovery – the perfect framework for the atmospherically dense, rich-toned music of George Benjamin.
12 Nov 2018Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Sir George BenjaminSir George Benjamin
Written on SkinEvan Hughes bass baritone (The Protector), Georgia Jarman soprano (Agnes), Bejun Mehta Countertenor (Angel 1/The Boy), Victoria Simmonds mezzo-soprano (Angel 2/Marie), Robert Murray tenor (Angel 3/John), Benjamin Davis stage direction
With Gustavo Dudamel in Taiwan
One of the most spectacular new concert halls in Asia is the National Kaohsiung Center for Arts and Culture in the South of Taiwan. After the opening in mid-October, the Berliner Philharmoniker is to be the first international orchestra to perform there. Conducting the evening with works by Bernstein and Mahler is Gustavo Dudamel, musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and regular guest of the Philharmoniker for ten years.
14 Nov 2018
From the National Kaohsiung Center for the ArtsBerliner Philharmoniker
Gustavo DudamelLeonard Bernstein
Divertimento for OrchestraGustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5
Gustavo Dudamel conducts Bernstein and Shostakovich
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
In 1944, at the age of just 25, Leonard Bernstein conducted the first performance of his First Symphony, a work based on the Old Testament lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah and which demonstrates astonishing musical and intellectual maturity. The same expressive intensity characterises Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, which dates from the same time, but from a completely different sound world. The conductor of this exciting juxtaposition is Gustavo Dudamel.
02 Nov 2018Berliner Philharmoniker
Gustavo DudamelTamara Mumford
Leonard Bernstein
Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah” for mezzo-soprano and orchestraTamara Mumford mezzo-soprano
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47- free
Interview
“A beautiful hurricane of energy” – Gustavo Dudamel in conversation with Sarah Willis
