Interviews

28/02/2015free

Valery Gergiev in conversation with Matthew Hunter

05/02/2015free

Simon Rattle in conversation with Vesa Siren

27/01/2015free

Amnon Weinstein on the Violins of Hope

24/01/2015free

Christian Gerhaher, Gijs Leenaars and Christian Thielemann about Brahms’s “Deutsches Requiem”

17/01/2015free

Christian Thielemann in conversation with Amadeus Heutling

10/01/2015free

Herbert Blomstedt about Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony

20/12/2014free

Jörg Widmann in conversation with Dominik Wollenweber

13/12/2014free

Tugan Sokhiev in conversation with Stanley Dodds

29/11/2014free

Sir Simon Rattle on Schubert’s “Winterreise”

29/11/2014free

Christian Elsner on Schubert’s “Winterreise”

22/11/2014free

Alan Gilbert in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

09/11/2014free

The Fall of the Berlin Wall - Memories of Musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker

09/11/2014free

The Fall of the Berlin Wall - Memories of Sir Simon Rattle

31/10/2014free

Emmanuelle Haïm in conversation with Jonathan Kelly

25/10/2014free

Daniele Gatti in conversation with Tobias Möller

18/10/2014free

Emanuel Ax in conversation with Matthew Hunter

26/09/2014free

Winrich Hopp in conversation with Benedikt von Bernstorff

25/09/2014free

Musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the Brahms/Schumann cycle

19/09/2014free

Introducing Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings – The label of the Berliner Philharmoniker

18/09/2014free

Sir Simon Rattle about the Brahms/Schumann cycle

13/09/2014free

Patricia Kopatchinskaja in conversation with Ulrich Knörzer

30/08/2014free

Greeting the new season

18/06/2014free

“The Unanswered Question” – A musical introduction

Interview on the concert “The Unanswered Question” – A musical introduction The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives lasts less than six minutes and yet is one of the landmarks of modern music as well as one of the most original American contributions to music history. In the...

18/06/2014free

Musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker about Daniel Barenboim

Interview on the concert Berliner Philharmoniker musicians about Daniel Barenboim Daniel Barenboim debuted as pianist with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June 1964. Conducted by Pierre Boulez, the programme included Béla Bartók’s First Piano Concerto. Fifty years later, Barenboim...

31/05/2014free

Hilary Hahn in conversation with Albrecht Mayer

Interview on the concert Hilary Hahn in conversation with Albrecht Mayer Despite her youth, the violinist Hilary Hahn can already look back on a long and extraordinary career. The artist has played with all the renowned orchestras of the world; since her debut in 1999, she has...

24/05/2014free

Sol Gabetta in conversation with Stephan Koncz

Interview on the concert Sol Gabetta in conversation with Stephan Koncz Cellist Sol Gabetta is not only one of the most successful musicians of her generation, but also one of the most cosmopolitan. Her family roots extend to France and Russia; Gabetta grew up in Argentina; her...

24/05/2014free

Krzysztof Urbański in conversation with Krzysztof Polonek

17/05/2014free

Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker remember Claudio Abbado

Interview on the concert Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker look back on Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado died on 20 January 2014. He was the principal conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1990 to 2002, and every May since then he had returned to the orchestral rostrum. On the...

10/05/2014free

Unsuk Chin in conversation with Helge Grünewald

Interview on the concert Unsuk Chin in conversation with Helge Grünewald The Korean Unsuk Chin is among the most significant composers of our time. A pupil of Ligeti, who has received many awards and has been living in Berlin since 1988, her work is appreciated by conductors such as...

16/04/2014free

Live Lounge from the 2014 Baden-Baden Easter Festival

Music fans question the musicians: In our live Hangout at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival 2014, the global audience were again able to put fascinating, funny and thoughtful questions to members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and soprano Eva-Marie Westbroek. The recording of this event is now...

22/03/2014free

Yannick Nézet-Séguin in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

Interview on the concert Yannick Nézet-Séguin in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud The Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the most gifted and successful conductors of the younger generation. He has already taken up a significant number of important posts with great orchestras in...

22/03/2014free

Andreas Blau in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

Interview on the concert Andreas Blau in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud Andreas Blau, whose father was also a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker, took the position of principal flutist with the orchestra at the age of 20 after brief studies. After Karajan and Abbado, Sir Simon...

15/03/2014free

Bernard Haitink in conversation with Peter Brem

Interview on the concert Bernard Haitink in conversation with Peter Brem Since his debut in 1964, the Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink has collaborated particularly closely with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In conversation with the violinist Peter Brem, a member of the orchestra since...

28/02/2014free

Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars in conversation with Andy King-Dabbs

Interview on the concert Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars in conversation with Andy King-Dabbs Sir Simon Rattle got to know the St John Passion only at 30; for a long time Peter Sellars considered the work a mere preliminary study to St Matthew Passion . In conversation with...

22/02/2014free

Georg Friedrich Haas in conversation with Götz Teutsch

Interview on the concert Georg Friedrich Haas in conversation with Götz Teutsch In conversation with Götz Teutsch, formerly principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas tells of his collaboration with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner...

15/02/2014free

Mitsuko Uchida in conversation with Ludwig Quandt

Interview on the concert Mitsuko Uchida in conversation with Ludwig Quandt Hardly any other soloist performs as regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker as Mitsuko Uchida, who is represented in the Digital Concert Hall, for instance, with a complete cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven’s...

08/02/2014free

Herbert Blomstedt talks about Paul Hindemith´s Mathis der Maler

Interview on the concert Herbert Blomstedt talks about Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler Every year the Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt is guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker; his interpretations of works by Beethoven and Bruckner in particular have made unforgettable...

01/02/2014free

Alan Gilbert and Magnus Lindberg in conversation with Sarah Willis

Interview on the concert Alan Gilbert and Magnus Lindberg in conversation with Sarah Willis “ Kraft is coming home!” the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg declares in conversation with conductor Alan Gilbert and French horn player Sarah Willis. Gilbert has already performed the...

25/01/2014free

Zubin Mehta in conversation with Martin Stegner

Interview on the concert Zubin Mehta in conversation with Martin Stegner Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado knew each other for more than half a century, and a close friendship developed between the two musicians over this time. The first concert after the former principal conductor’s...

18/01/2014free

Marlis Petersen in conversation with Eva-Maria Tomasi

Interview on the concert Marlis Petersen in conversation with Eva-Maria Tomasi Marlis Petersen became internationally known as the temperamental and virtuoso title heroine in Alban Berg’s opera Lulu . In January 2014 she debuted with the Berliner Philharmoniker with George Crumb’s...

11/01/2014free

Menahem Pressler in conversation with Carolin Pirich

Interview on the concert Menahem Pressler in conversation with Carolin Pirich The 90-year old Menahem Pressler recounts in conversation with the journalist Carolin Pirich the great importance that Mozart’s music has had in his life (“without Mozart we couldn’t fly”)....

11/01/2014free

Semyon Bychkov in conversation with Madeleine Carruzzo

Interview on the concert Semyon Bychkov in conversation with Madeleine Carruzzo The conductor Semyon Bychkov has been invited to work with the Berliner Philharmoniker on a regular basis. In his interview with violinist Madeleine Carruzzo, Bychkov tells of memories of his Russian...

21/12/2013free

Barbara Hannigan in conversation with Hans Abrahamsen and Paul Griffiths

Interview on the concert Barbara Hannigan in conversation with Hans Abrahamsen and Paul Griffiths Hans Abraham’s three-part song cycle Let me tell you shows emotional states such as love, hope, desperation and mania in fascinating soundscapes that the composer seems to have learned...

15/12/2013free

Daniel Harding in conversation with Matthew Hunter

Interview on the concert Daniel Harding in conversation with Matthew Hunter The English conductor Daniel Harding admires Robert Schumann more than most other composers, and considers Scenes from Goethe’s Faust one of his favourite works. In the dialogue in the interval with violist...

06/12/2013free

Gustavo Dudamel in conversation with Sarah Willis

Interview on the concert Gustavo Dudamel in conversation with Sarah Willis Sarah Willis brings along two bags of popcorn to this conversation with the conductor Gustavo Dudamel – no wonder, given that the concert was broadcast live to movie theaters. Both of them turn out to be...

06/12/2013free

Gustavo Dudamel in conversation with Edicson Ruiz

Interview on the concert Gustavo Dudamel im Gespräch mit Edicson Ruiz Like Edicson Ruiz, double-bass player with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gustavo Dudamel is originally from Venezuela, and both of them received their first musical inspiration in the legendary education project El...

02/11/2013free

Sir Simon Rattle talks about Schumann’s symphonies

Interview on the concert Sir Simon Rattle talks about Schumann’s symphonies The performance of all the Schumann symphonies was a core project of the Berliner Philharmoniker and their principal conductor in 2013. In this introduction, Simon Rattle speaks about the four works and why he...

27/10/2013free

Thomas Quasthoff in conversation with Christoph Franke

Interview on the concert Thomas Quasthoff in conversation with Christoph Franke The great bass baritone Thomas Quasthoff sang with the Berliner Philharmoniker over a period of many years before retiring from the stage as singer in 2012. He uses his return to the orchestra in October...

20/10/2013free

The opening of the Berlin Philharmonie in 1963 - recollections of Rudolf Weinsheimer

Interview on the concert The opening of the Berlin Philharmonie in 1963 – Rudolf Weinsheimer’s memories The cellist Rudolf Weinsheimer was a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1956 to 1996, and he experienced the building of the Philharmonie first-hand. On the occasion of...

19/10/2013free

Introduction by Simon Halsey

Interview on the concert Introduction by Simon Halsey On the occasion of the revival of Bach’s St Matthew Passion , Simon Halsey, principal conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, speaks in his accustomed eloquent and entertaining manner about the never-ending search for the...

19/10/2013free

Peter Sellars in conversation with Mark Padmore

Interview on the concert Peter Sellars in conversation with Mark Padmore The American director Peter Sellars and the English tenor Mark Padmore speak about their joint work on the St Matthew Passion . It was such an exhilarating experience for both performers and audience that in 2013,...

11/10/2013free

Karl-Heinz Steffens in conversation with Walter Seyfarth

Interview on the concert Karl-Heinz Steffens in conversation with Walter Seyfarth Karl-Heinz Steffens and Walter Seyfarth played clarinet jointly with the Berliner Philharmoniker for many years before Steffens decided to give up his position as principal and embark upon a career as...

04/10/2013free

Reinhard Goebel in conversation with Raimar Orlovsky

Interview on the concert Reinhard Goebel in conversation with Raimar Orlovsky Reinhard Goebel has been leading the Ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, which he founded, for more than 30 years – and it has been a global success. In the meanwhile he has also made a name for himself as...

28/09/2013free

Daniel Harding in conversation with Rachel Helleur

Interview on the concert Daniel Harding in conversation with Rachel Helleur The Berliner Philharmoniker are well acquainted with Daniel Harding, ever since his debut here at the age of just 21. The former assistant to Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle shares with the two of them their...

21/09/2013free

Antoni Wit in conversation with Krzysztof Polonek

Interview on the concert Antoni Wit in conversation with Krzysztof Polonek Krzysztof Penderecki’s monumental St Luke Passion fascinates us with its successful fusion of tradition and avantgarde compositional techniques, ranging from twelve-tone rows to clusters to noisy and spoken...

14/09/2013free

Thomas Zehetmair in conversation with Eva-Maria Tomasi

Interview on the concert Thomas Zehetmair in conversation with Eva-Maria Tomasi Leoš Janáček’s Violin Concerto with the poetic sobriquet “Pilgrimage of the Soul” remained unfinished, but the version compiled based on the composer’s sketches reveals all his music’s typical...

08/09/2013free

Christian Gerhaher in conversation with Albrecht Mayer

Interview on the concert Christian Gerhaher in conversation with Albrecht Mayer Known in equal measure as concert singer, opera singer and Lieder singer, Christian Gerhaher is one of the most prominent musicians of our time. For the 2013-14 season, he was appointed Artist in Residence...

08/09/2013free

Sir Simon Rattle talks about Witold Lutosławski

23/08/2013free

Sir Simon Rattle talks about the new season

Interview on the concert Sir Simon Rattle presents the new season At this press conference, music director Sir Simon Rattle presents the plans for the 2013-14 season. The home base of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Hans Scharoun’s inspired concert hall, is celebrating the 50th...

15/06/2013free

Sir Simon Rattle in conversation with James Jolly

31/05/2013free

Albrecht Dümling on Boulez' [Notations]

31/05/2013free

Albrecht Dümling on Bruckners Symphony No. 7

25/05/2013free

Herbert Blomstedt on Beethoven and Nielsen

19/05/2013free

Konstantia Gourzi on the collaboration with Claudio Abbado

19/05/2013free

Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique: A little organology with Philipp Bohnen

Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique is a score of excesses, a musical portrayal of drug-induced fantasies. Nevertheless, it is a very artfully constructed work in which the composer employs the instruments of his time in a virtuoso and innovative way. In our video, Philipp Bohnen, violinist...

10/05/2013free

Jaap van Zweden in conversation with Christoph Streuli

27/04/2013free

Brett Dean: Composing Socrates

Two exciting approaches to instilling new life into the genre of oratorio were presented by the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and Sir Simon Rattle in April 2013. One of the works – Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates – was given its world premiere, the other –...

27/04/2013free

Simon Halsey on Michael Tippett's "A Child of Our Time"

Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time has established itself since the 1940s as one of the outstanding British choral works. At the concert in the Berlin Philharmonie in April 2013, Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates was paired with Tippett’s work. For the listener, it was...

20/04/2013free

Leonidas Kavakos on Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto

In the 2012/2013 season, the Berliner Philharmoniker invited a violinist as Artist in Residence for the first time: Leonidas Kavakos, who made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in 2003. In the following years, he was also heard with the orchestra as the...

13/04/2013free

Paavo Järvi on his work with the Berliner Philharmoniker

In the concert in April 2013, Paavo Järvi revealed a range of different qualities: In Beethoven’s First Symphony, he succeeded in making a core work of the symphonic repertoire sound as fresh and new as if it had just come from the composer’s pen. But Järvi also showed himself to be the...

07/04/2013free

Sir Simon Rattle on Mozart’s “Magic Flute”

Concert performances of opera can be tricky things. Can the action, the drama, really come across without sets or costumes? The recent performance of Mozartʼs Magic Flute in the Berlin Philharmonie with Simon Rattle at the podium showed just how wonderfully – and wonderfully dramatic – the...

01/04/2013free

Introduction by Sir Simon Rattle

01/04/2013free

Robert Carsen on the staging of [The Magic Flute]

01/04/2013free

Behind the scenes

22/02/2013free

Miklós Perényi on Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto

The 20th century was rich in ingeniously devised music. More rarely, there were works whose substance unfolds in more of a playful rather than an intellectual way which, while still ingenious, are also sensuous and spontaneous. One of these sumptuous creations – Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto...

16/02/2013free

Barbara Hannigan on her work with Henri Dutilleux

The works of Henri Dutilleux lead rather a shadowy existence in the music world. Unjustly so, as shown by his Correspondances for soprano and orchestra, premièred in 2003 by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle. In February 2012, this virtually fully Romantic-sounding work was...

09/02/2013free

Manfred Honeck in conversation with Stephan Koncz

To this day, guest appearances by Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Berliner Philharmoniker are an event. After all, there is no other musician of our time whose career has been more closely linked with the orchestra. In early February, the violinist interpreted Dvořák’s Violin Concerto at the...

02/02/2013free

Gustavo Dudamel in conversation with Sarah Willis

For his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker – an open-air concert at the Waldbühne in 2008 – Gustavo Dudamel presented the music of his homeland in an exclusively “South American Night”. This was followed by appearances in the Philharmonie with more of a Russian flavour, then for his...

25/01/2013free

Louis Langrée in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

A look at Louis Langréeʼs current commitments demonstrate clearly just how passionate a performer of Mozart he is. He is chief conductor of the Camerata Salzburg from the birthplace of the composer, and he has served as music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York since 2002. But it...

18/01/2013free

Sir Simon Rattle talks about [in vain] by Georg Friedrich Haas

18/01/2013free

Murray Perahia in conversation with Sarah Willis

“Come, dear May, and make the trees green again.” With the theme of this song, Wolfgang Amadeus ended his Piano Concerto No. 27, which Murray Perahia and the Berliner Philharmoniker performed last weekend. Many of the audience in a wintry, frosty Berlin would surely have agreed with this wish...

11/01/2013free

Riccardo Chailly in conversation with Albrecht Mayer

At first glance, the most recent guest performance by Riccardo Chailly with the Berliner Philharmoniker was an evening of symphonic contrasts. Felix Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, referred to by the composer himself as “Italian”, paired with the Sixth by Anton Bruckner, whose music is...

21/12/2012free

Kirill Petrenko in conversation with Alexander Bader

08/12/2012free

Christian Thielemann in conversation with Eva-Maria Tomasi

An entire evening of Verdi with the Berliner Philharmoniker: If you exclude performances of the Requiem, this is a rare treat. The last time it occurred, Claudio Abbado performed highlights from Verdi’s operas for the New Year’s Eve concert in 2000. In December 2012 Christian Thielemann also...

09/11/2012free

Interviews with Sir Simon Rattle and Simon Halsey

Both works were composed in 1913: Stravinsky’s ballet music Le Sacre du printemps and Rachmaninoff’s tone poem The Bells. And yet they convey completely different sound and intellectual worlds. In November 2012 the Berliner Philharmoniker and Simon Rattle excitingly juxtaposed both works in a...

03/11/2012free

Iván Fischer in conversation with Simon Halsey

There are many prejudices about the music of the 20th century – for example, that it is always complicated or ponderous, or in the worst case, both. In early November 2012, the Berliner Philharmoniker, conductor Iván Fischer and the violinist Lisa Batiashvili proved the opposite to be the case...

26/10/2012free

Andris Nelsons in conversation with Esko Laine

He was a “miracle conductor”, wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about Andris Nelsons, who has impressed concert-goers around the world with interpretations full of passion and excitement. The fact that he is also able to put together an exciting concert programme was demonstrated by Nelsons at...

20/10/2012free

Kristjan Järvi in conversation with Philipp Bohnen

It is probably a unique situation for a young conductor to make his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker following directly in the footsteps of his father and brother. Under these auspicious circumstances, Kristjan Järvi – son of Neeme Järvi and younger brother of Paavo Järvi – replaced...

13/10/2012free

Andrea Marcon in conversation with Albrecht Mayer

It is always doubly exciting when an Early Music expert stands on the podium of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Firstly, because the fusion of historical performance practice and the characteristic sound of the orchestra produces unexpected, delightful results, and secondly because there is the...

06/10/2012free

Bernard Haitink in conversation with Matthew Hunter

The heroism in Beethoven’s “heroic” Symphony No. 3 can take many forms. Often the music is interpreted brashly and tensely, bursting with boundless energy. Bernard Haitink’s reading in a performance from October 2012 was dominated by a different characteristic: an energy that comes from...

24/09/2012free

Cameron Carpenter and Sarah Willis introduce the organ of the Berlin Philharmonie

Many may have seen it, but only the very few have ever heard it: The Karl Schuke organ in the Berlin Philharmonie. The instrument has been extensively renovated and equipped with a state-of-the-art console in 2012. In September of that year, the outstanding qualities of the restored organ were...

23/09/2012free

Jörg Widmann in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

The European premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Flûte en suite was eagerly awaited in September 2012. The piece received its world premiere in Cleveland in 2011. At the concert in Berlin the soloist was Emmanuel Pahud, who confidently brought together all the virtuosity, changes of mood and the...

15/09/2012free

Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Willard White in conversation with Sarah Willis

Almost every music lover can whistle at least one or two tunes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess . Yet very few are aware of just how much outstanding music there is in the rest of the opera alongside hits such as “Summertime” or “I got plenty o’ nuttin’”. Only a complete performance...

15/09/2012free

Behind the scenes of “Porgy and Bess”

08/09/2012free

Introductions by Ingo Metzmacher and Winrich Hopp

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...

24/08/2012free

Sir Simon Rattle on Witold Lutosławski

The second half of the concert that celebrated the start of the 2012/13 season was dedicated to the composer Witold Lutosławski. The concert included his Third Symphony, whose premiere Simon Rattle had followed on the radio in his younger years. According to Rattle, he realised immediately that...

22/06/2012free

Andris Nelsons on his work with the Berliner Philharmoniker

The Berliner Philharmoniker brought their 2012/2013 season to a close together with Andris Nelsons, a conductor who enjoys the esteem of the orchestra like few other young conductors. The programme included works from the late 19th century. Firstly, Mahler’s songs based on folk poems from the...

16/06/2012free

Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé”

The press wrote of a “memorable evening” with a “rising star in the conducting firmament” when Yannick Nézet-Séguin, chief conductor designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra made ​​his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in October 2010. For his return to the podium of the...

10/06/2012free

Mariss Jansons on Smetana, Dvořák and Martinů

The fact that Czech music has more to offer than folklore – rather, that it encompasses an infinite range of colours, styles and emotional worlds – was amply demonstrated in June 2012 with the concert by the Berliner Philharmoniker with Mariss Jansons and Frank Peter Zimmermann. Another...

03/06/2012free

Herbert Blomstedt on Beethoven’s Missa solemnis

We know that Wilhelm Furtwängler stopped conducting Beethoven’s Missa solemnis when he was 44 years old. Not because he regarded the work as inferior, but on the contrary, because he thought it too great and grand for any earthly performance. Although Herbert Blomstedtʼs regard for the...

27/05/2012free

Sir Simon Rattle on Wagner’s “Die Walküre” · Part 1

When the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Simon Rattle, performed Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence in the summer of 2007, they had not played the work for four decades. “You do not know what an orchestra is until you have heard the Berliner Philharmoniker,”...

27/05/2012free

Sir Simon Rattle on Wagner’s “Die Walküre” · Part 2

When the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Simon Rattle, performed Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence in the summer of 2007, they had not played the work for four decades. “You do not know what an orchestra is until you have heard the Berliner Philharmoniker,”...

11/05/2012free

Isabelle Faust on Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto

Alban Berg dedicated his violin concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”, to Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler, who died in the spring of 1935 at the age of only 18. “I do not attempt … to find the words where language fails by letter,” Berg wrote to Alma Mahler, “but yet: one...

09/05/2012free

The 12 Cellists: past and presence

The 12 Cellists of the Berliner Philharmoniker are a prominent institution on the international music scene – and have been now for four decades! No matter what genre the musicians turn their hands to, their performances are a unique chamber music collaboration by twelve soloists, who through...

28/04/2012free

Gustavo Dudamel on Ravel, Korngold and Richard Strauss

In his acclaimed concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gustavo Dudamel has for a long time focused mainly on Russian, French and Latin American composers. However, the programme of his guest appearance in April 2012 included a work from the orchestra’s core German repertoire for the first...

21/04/2012free

“Carmen” at the Berlin Philharmonie

Probably no other opera has so many “hits” as Carmen – from the orchestral preludes to the Habanera and the Toreador Song. But despite its popularity, Carmen can always be discovered anew, as was also the case at this performance by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle on...

14/04/2012free

Murray Perahia on his thoughts and feelings about music

“The soul of a poet, the mind of a thinker, the hands of a virtuoso,” was how an American critic succinctly and accurately described the qualities of Murray Perahia. As Pianist in Residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the 2011/2012 season, he was heard regularly in solo and chamber...

21/03/2012free

Mark Padmore and Bernhard Forck in conversation and in rehearsal

Orchestral musicians do not often have the opportunity to pursue a love of music from the Baroque period. As a result, members of the Berliner Philharmoniker took the logical step and founded the Berliner Barock Solisten in 1995 – an ensemble that is now among the best in the field of early...

17/03/2012free

Zubin Mehta on Bruckner’s Eighth: an introduction to the work with excerpts from rehearsals

Zubin Mehta and Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony: This is a long-term love affair, with the Berliner Philharmoniker playing a not insignificant role – to be precise, with a recording of the work by Wilhelm Furtwängler which deeply affected Mehta at young age. Yet, for many years, the symphony was...

11/03/2012free

Christian Thielemann on passion and nobility in Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony

Whether he is performing Wagner in Bayreuth or Bruckner with the world’s major orchestras, Christian Thielemann’s interpretations of late German Romanticism always receive high praise from the critics. It was all the more exciting when, in March 2012, he conducted a work which illuminates...

04/03/2012free

Albrecht Mayer on the oboe concerto by Richard Strauss

Albrecht Mayer is not only principal oboist with the Berliner Philharmoniker, but has also made a name for himself as a guest soloist with orchestras around the world. In March 2012, he performed the Oboe Concerto by Richard Strauss together with the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor...

04/03/2012free

Christian Thielemann on Strauss’s Oboe Concerto and Bruckner’s Fourth, including excerpts from rehearsals

The concept that underlies Christian Thielemann’s concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker is a captivating one. The conductor wanted to juxtapose two works which go well together – while remaining in contrast to each other. And so here we have an evening of late Romantic music, in which the...

18/02/2012free

Simon Halsey on Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony and his friendship with Hugo Wolf

Hans von Bülow, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, was somewhat disturbed when Gustav Mahler played him the first movement of his Second Symphony. Mahler wrote in a letter that “he went into a nervous shock and declared Tristan to be like a Haydn symphony compared to my...

09/02/2012free

Sir Simon Rattle on the completed Ninth Symphony of Anton Bruckner

Sir Simon Rattle is certain: If Anton Bruckner had lived just two months longer, he would have been able to complete the finale of his Ninth Symphony. When he died in October 1896, the work on this movement was so far advanced that the original intentions of the composer can be reconstructed...

02/02/2012free

Guy Braunstein reveals how the Brahms’s Violin Concerto brought him to the Berliner Philharmoniker

The famous dictum that Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto is a concerto “against the violin” is attributed to Hans von Bülow – simply because the work gives the soloist little opportunity for virtuoso showmanship. In a concert from February 2012, soloist Guy Braunstein, the Berliner...

27/01/2012free

Magdalena Kožená and Sir Simon Rattle in conversation and in rehearsal

In January 2012, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle presented a concert which conveyed delicate melancholy in a variety of forms. In addition to orchestral works by Ravel and Schubert – including Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony – the programme included late songs by...

21/01/2012free

Boris Berezovsky on Liszt’s First Piano Concerto

For Gramophone magazine, Boris Berezovski is “surely the true successor to the great Russian pianists of the past.” In January 2012, he performed Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 alongside conductor Tugan Sokhiev – a work that alternates masterfully between effervescent furore and...

14/01/2012free

Simon Halsey on Edward Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius”

You could almost talk of an “Elgar Festival” which took place in the Berlin Philharmonie and the Digital Concert Hall in winter 2011/12. In December, Donald Runnicles conducted the First Symphony, and in February, the famous Enigma Variations followed under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle....

23/12/2011free

Nicola Luisotti in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

17/12/2011free

Anne Sofie von Otter in conversation with Christoph Hartmann

10/12/2011free

Ludwig Quandt in conversation with Götz Teutsch

04/12/2011free

Daniel Stabrawa in conversation with Christoph Streuli

05/11/2011free

Helmut Lachenmann in conversation with Catherine Milliken

The conclusion of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is no jubilant finale – but resolution, even annihilation, become music. And so the audience at first remained silent when the Berliner Philharmoniker and Simon Rattle performed the work in November 2011. Only gradually did the roaring applause rise...

29/10/2011free

Nikolaus Harnoncourt in conversation with Olaf Wilhelmer

Anyone listening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony inevitably imagines the composer as a revolutionary firebrand. In October 2011, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Berliner Philharmoniker showed that this is only half the truth when they performed Beethoven’s symphony alongside the Mass in C major,...

22/10/2011free

Pablo Heras-Casado in conversation with Madeleine Carruzzo

For over a decade, no Spanish conductor has stood at the podium of the Berliner Philharmoniker – until October 2011 when Pablo Heras-Casado made his debut with the orchestra. In his young career, he has attracted particular attention due to his versatility, enabling Heras-Casado to work...

15/10/2011free

Simon Halsey on the premiere of [Weltethos] by Jonathan Harvey

To give expression to the common values of world religions with spoken and sung words – this is the ambitious goal of the choral work Weltethos , realised by the composer Jonathan Harvey and the theologian Hans Küng as librettist. The work, which will be part of the cultural programme of the...

08/10/2011free

Nikolaj Znaider in conversation with Amihai Grosz

The fact that Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto should one day become one of the most famous of its kind was by no means foreseeable at the premiere in 1904; with an overtaxed soloist and an uninspired orchestra, it was a complete failure. It took top-class musicians such as Jascha Heifetz and...

02/10/2011free

Johannes Moser in conversation with Walter Küssner

In September 2011 the Berliner Philharmoniker and Semyon Bychkov presented a concert of wide-ranging dynamics: from Luciano Berio’s Sequenza No. 7 for solo oboe, to a chamber orchestra Schubert collage by the same composer, to the unbridled force of the full orchestra in William Walton’s...

24/09/2011free

Semyon Bychkov in conversation with Sarah Willis

In September 2011 the Berliner Philharmoniker and Semyon Bychkov presented a concert of wide-ranging dynamics: from Luciano Berio’s Sequenza No. 7 for solo oboe, to a chamber orchestra Schubert collage by the same composer, to the unbridled force of the full orchestra in William Walton’s...

18/09/2011free

Sir Simon Rattle on Mahlers Symphony No. 8

Of all Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, the Eighth is probably the least often performed – not because of any doubts regarding its quality, but because of the forces required in terms of instrumentalists and singers which only a few orchestras are in a position to meet. With such large numbers...

11/09/2011free

Dr. Winrich Hopp in conversation with Dr. Helge Grünewald

26/08/2011free

The Berliner Philharmoniker prepare for the 2011/12 season

23/06/2011free

Emmanuelle Haïm in conversation with Catherine Milliken

For her concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June 2011 Emmanuelle Haïm has programmed some of the most beautiful and varied orchestral suites of the Baroque. The most famous of them is undoubtedly George Frideric Handel’s Water Music . Jean-Philippe Rameau stands alongside Handel as...

18/06/2011free

Peter Eötvös in conversation with Sarah Willis

In previous centuries it was quite natural that a conductor would sometimes perform his own compositions, and vice versa: that a composer would be responsible for conducting the premieres of his own works. There is now a division of labour between musicians who compose and conduct, but this...

12/06/2011free

Simon Halsey on Mahler, Bach, Stravinsky

It was not Gustav Mahler’s destiny to become a composer of opera. But listening to his early work Das klagende Lied gives us an idea of just how a stage work from Mahler’s pen might have sounded – a fairy-tale of enormous dimensions, which has been performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker...

02/06/2011free

Sir Simon Rattle on the Berliner Philharmoniker’s 2011/2012 season

Our video documents the annual press conference of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2011, with chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle presenting the upcoming season. From August 2011, he himself continued his Mahler cycle which he had started in the 2010/2011 season, and he also had two opera highlights...

28/05/2011free

Stanisław Skrowaczewski – a life in music

After 25 years, the 87-year-old Stanisław Skrowaczewski stood once again at the desk of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the end of May 2011 – and celebrated an “overwhelming success met by standing ovations” ( Berliner Zeitung ). The renowned Bruckner expert included the composer’s Third...

22/05/2011free

Yutaka Sado on the fulfilment of his musical dream

Seldom had quite so many Japanese television teams and journalists been seen in the Philharmonie as at the end of May 2011. The concentrated media interest was all for one of the country’s best-known musicians: Yutaka Sado, who even as a child had dreamed of conducting the Berliner...

15/05/2011free

Claudio Abbado, Maurizio Pollini and Anna Prohaska on old and new musical friendships

Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini have been performing together for half a century: a unique friendship among artists that continues to reveal new facets. As happened in the middle of May 2011, when the two musicians performed their first joint interpretation of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17...

07/05/2011free

Christian Thielemann, Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson on Richard Strauss

It does not often happen that the Berliner Philharmoniker present a whole bouquet of works by a single composer in one concert. At the beginning of May 2011, however, they – together with conductor Christian Thielemann and the singers Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson – devoted themselves...

07/05/2011free

Thomas Hampson on classical music in digital media

How will new media change classical music? What possibilities will digital communication offer to gain new audiences for symphony concerts, operas and recitals? For many years now, the internationally acclaimed baritone Thomas Hampson has been involved in these issues. In our video, he talked...

26/04/2011free

Benefit concert for the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

One choir, two orchestras, two readers and one conductor: a wealth of artists came together in the Philharmonie at the end of April 2011 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the nuclear reactor disaster in Chernobyl which was again in the headlines following events in the Fukushima reactor in...

07/04/2011free

Sir Simon Rattle on performing Mahler’s symphonies (Part 2)

Among other things, the second part of the interview with Sir Simon Rattle about the performance of the complete Mahler symphonies looks at Sir Simon’s first encounters with these works in his youth. Another important theme is the programmatic approach of this cycle – the coupling of the...

03/04/2011free

Alan Gilbert on his work as a conductor and musician

When artists cancel an appearance, it is normally for unfortunate reasons. Not so in the case of Gustavo Dudamel, who was to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker on 1 April 2011, but had to cancel due to a happy event: the birth of his son two days before. Instead, Alan Gilbert conducted with the...

29/03/2011free

Christian Schneider (UNICEF Germany) in conversation with Andreas Wittmann

As a result of numerous concert tours and personal contact, the Berliner Philharmoniker and chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle feel a close connection to the Japanese people. The musicians were therefore extremely saddened to heard about the impact of the tsunami in March 2011. In order to raise...

18/03/2011free

Bernard Haitink and Leif Ove Andsnes about making music in the name of Fukushima

In March 2011, a Berliner Philharmoniker concert marked the terrible events after the tsunami in Fukushima. The orchestra, conductor Bernard Haitink and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes dedicated the evening to the victims in Japan. In their memory, the musicians performed Witold Lutosławski’s...

06/03/2011free

Herbert Blomstedt on Hindemith’s “Nobilissima visione” and Bruckner’s Mass in F minor

Paul Hindemith’s ballet music Nobilissima visione is at once both archaically austere and sensuous. The work reflects Giotto’s medieval frescos depicting the life of Francis of Assisi, which Hindemith discovered for himself in Florence. At the beginning of March 2011, the Berliner...

18/02/2011free

Sir Simon Rattle on performing Mahler’s symphonies (Part 1)

On the occasion of the performance of the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler, Sir Simon Rattle talks about the music and the characteristics of their interpretation. In addition, he explores the Mahler tradition of the Berliner Philharmoniker which took shape in particular under Claudio Abbado....

12/02/2011free

Toshio Hosokawa on his career and the images in his music

In a highly individual manner, the Hiroshima born Toshio Hosokawa seeks to revitalize traditional forms of composition. Moment of Blossoming is the title of his horn concerto – a tribute to the mythically revered lotus flower of Hosokawa’s homeland. The work is a musical portrayal of the...

12/02/2011free

Stefan Dohr on Toshio Hosokawa and his Horn Concerto

Since 1993, Stefan Dohr has been a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker – as principal horn within the orchestra’s brass section, and also sometimes as the soloist in horn concertos, for example those by Mozart or Strauss. In February 2011, Dohr gave the premiere of Moment of Blossoming , a...

05/02/2011free

Simon Halsey on Mahler’s Third Symphony

Almost everything in Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony is out of the ordinary: its length, its instrumentation, its number of movements. There is however in particular a remarkable wealth of stylistic levels where both the grandiose and the simple, the other-wordly and the everyday cross paths. In...

15/01/2011free

Anders Hillborg on his composition “Cold Heat”

Anders Hillborg is one of the leading Swedish composers of our time, and is at home in many styles of music, from symphonic and choral music to film music and pop. Many renowned orchestras have entrusted him with commissions for compositions – including the Berliner Philharmoniker, who...

15/01/2011free

David Zinman and Yo-Yo Ma on melancholy, life and death in Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto

You could almost say that Dmitri Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto was a present to himself. Given its premiere on his 60th birthday, the work seems to be a nuanced reflection on Shostakovich’s own life. Only the best cellists are able to hit the mark with the ever-shifting tone of this...

22/12/2010free

Valery Gergiev in conversation with Wilfried Strehle

11/12/2010free

Neeme Järvi in conversation with Stanley Dodds

05/11/2010free

An introduction by Sir Simon Rattle

30/10/2010free

An introduction by Simon Halsey

23/10/2010free

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Yefim Bronfman in conversation with Sarah Willis

16/10/2010free

Baiba Skride and Andris Nelsons in conversation with Stanley Dodds

09/10/2010free

Eivind Gullberg Jensen and Vadim Repin in conversation with Sarah Willis

02/10/2010free

Magdalena Kožená in conversation with Jonathan Kelly

23/09/2010free

Giovanni Antonini in conversation with Raimar Orlovsky

18/09/2010free

Pierre Boulez in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

12/09/2010free

Winrich Hopp in conversation with Helge Grünewald

04/09/2010free

Intermission documentary: “Schoenberg and his circle”

27/08/2010free

Sir Simon Rattle introduces Beethoven's Symphony No. 4

27/08/2010free

Sir Simon Rattle introduces Mahler's Symphony No. 1

19/06/2010free

Tabea Zimmermann in conversation with Helge Grünewald (in German)

10/06/2010free

Sir Simon Rattle and Wynton Marsalis in conversation with Catherine Milliken

04/06/2010free

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 – An introduction by Herbert Blomstedt (in German)

22/05/2010free

Sir Simon Rattle in conversation with Harri Kuusisaari

16/05/2010free

An introduction by Simon Halsey

08/05/2010free

Renaud Capuçon in conversation with Matthew Hunter

27/04/2010free

Alisa Weilerstein in conversation with Ludwig Quandt

24/04/2010free

Pierre-Laurent Aimard in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

17/04/2010free

András Schiff in conversation with Jonathan Kelly

11/04/2010free

Peter Sellars in conversation with Simon Halsey

06/03/2010free

Neeme Järvi in conversation

20/02/2010free

The Berliner Philharmoniker support UNICEF's Haiti emergency assistance – a round table discussion

14/02/2010free

“It's a Venture - an Adventure” – Mitsuko Uchida and the Beethoven Piano Concertos Part II

10/02/2010free

"A Venture - an Adventure" – Mitsuko Uchida and the Beethoven Concertos Part I

04/02/2010free

Mitsuko Uchida in conversation with Gerhard Forck

30/01/2010free

An introduction by Ton Koopman

23/01/2010free

Frank Peter Zimmermann in conversation with Christoph Streuli

10/01/2010free

Hélène Grimaud and Tugan Sokhiev in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

20/12/2009free

Donald Runnicles in conversation with Fergus McWilliam

12/12/2009free

Christian Thielemann interviewed by Sarah Willis

06/12/2009free

Leonidas Kavakos in conversation with Walter Küssner

07/11/2009free

John Carewe talking about Schoenberg's "Erwartung" (Expectation)

24/10/2009free

Iván Fischer in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

17/10/2009free

Janine Jansen and Daniel Harding in conversation with Sarah Willis

10/10/2009free

Guy Braunstein and Semyon Bychkov in conversation with Terry Martin

04/10/2009free

Daniel Barenboim and Asher Fisch in conversation with Stanley Dodds

19/09/2009free

Sofia Gubaidulina in conversation with Margarete Zander

13/09/2009free

Angela Denoke and Lars Vogt in conversation with Helge Grünewald

09/09/2009free

Simon Halsey talking about Haydn's "The Seasons"

28/08/2009free

Sir Simon Rattle in conversation with Claus Spahn

13/06/2009free

Emmanuel Pahud in conversation with Lydia Rilling

06/06/2009free

Pierre Boulez and Pierre-Laurent Aimard in conversation with Christoph Franke

28/05/2009free

Siegfried Matthus in conversation with Tobias Möller (in German only)

24/05/2009free

Simon Halsey talks about Schubert, Mahler, Debussy and Claudio Abbado

17/05/2009free

Seiji Ozawa in conversation with Fergus McWilliam

10/05/2009free

Kirill Petrenko and Lars Vogt in conversation with Sarah Willis

25/04/2009free

Interview with Peter Eötvös

19/04/2009free

Alan Gilbert in conversation with Emmanuel Pahud

22/03/2009free

Nikolaus Harnoncourt 
talks about Haydn’s “Orlando Paladino”

14/03/2009free

Michael Boder in conversation with Fergus McWilliam

07/03/2009free

Gustavo Dudamel in conversation with Edicson Ruiz

01/03/2009free

Heinz Holliger in conversation with Götz Teutsch

13/02/2009free

Mitsuko Uchida in conversation with Sarah Willis

08/02/2009free

Simon Halsey talks about Schumann’s “Paradise and the Peri”

11/01/2009free

Zubin Mehta in conversation with Tobias Möller

12/11/1989free

Daniel Barenboim on the concert for people from the GDR

02/02/1968free

Sir Simon Rattle about Herbert von Karajan