Introductions by Ingo Metzmacher and Winrich Hopp (17 min.)

Hard to believe, but true: Until September 2012, the Berliner Philharmoniker had never played the Symphonic Dances from Bernstein’s West Side Story. They constituted the culmination of an American evening with Ingo Metzmacher, who took to the conductor’s stand of the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time since 2001. In an introduction to the concert which was presented by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation and the Musikfest Berlin, conductor Ingo Metzmacher and Winrich Hopp, Artistic Direktor of the Musikfest Berlin, talk about the works performed this evening.