Live concerts

Photo: Gregor Hohenberg

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 Unfinished Symphony, with its shifts between the idyllic and the abyss.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

The conductor of this New Year’s Eve concert is Daniel Barenboim, one of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s oldest friends. He also takes on the role of soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 – a work of sparkling beauty and nuanced expression. There are also four famous works by Maurice Ravel, which create an impressive synthesis of elegance and originality. The final highlight is the Boléro, perhaps the most stunning crescendo in music history.

Photo: Patrice Nin

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.

Photo: Martin Walz

This concert with Mariss Jansons is in a sense a late-Romantic family reunion: Richard Wagner’s Rienzi overture will be presented alongside the triumphant First Piano Concerto by his father-in-law, Franz Liszt. His musical “descendant”, Richard Strauss, in turn, perfected the symphonic poem originally developed by Liszt, such as the famous Also sprach Zarathustra which is also performed in this concert. The evening’s soloist is Evgeny Kissin, one of the great pianists of our time.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 is a work of compelling, pure beauty, and for its tone, which both sings and speaks, Lisa Batiashvili is the ideal interpreter. Alan Gilbert, chief conductor designate of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, also presents Richard Strauss’ Symphonia domestica in which the composer portrays his family both humorously and musically. Gilbert also presents the European premiere of Metacosmos by the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

Photo: Felix Broede

The international press praised Marek Janowski’s complete recording of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies for its “verve” and “passion for detail”. In this concert, he turns to the Sixth whose appeal, in contrast to other Bruckner symphonies, lies less in metaphysical aspects than in its decisive forward drive. The concert also includes Bruckner’s E Minor Mass, whose orchestration consisting exclusively of wind instruments evokes an intriguingly archaic atmosphere.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

The culmination of this concert with Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, a both overpowering and vivid work, which also includes "the primitive nature of Russian song ... in its melodies" (A. Khachaturian). The French-Canadian Nézet-Séguin opens the concert with French repertoire: Maurice Ravel's charming Menuet antique and Claude Debussy's dazzling La Mer – a masterpiece of musical Impressionism.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Martin Grubinger, the “multi-percussion star, who runs around between his many instruments during his performances with dizzying acrobatics” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) makes his debut here with the Berliner Philharmoniker. The concert includes works by Edgard Varèse and Peter Eötvös in which Grubinger can demonstrate his breathtaking versatility. Conductor Zubin Mehta also presents Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s exotic and powerful Scheherazade Suite.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

When Kirill Petrenko conducted Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony in March 2017, The reviewer of broadcaster rbb was “stunned at how beautiful and breathtakingly exciting this music can be”. The chief conductor designate of the Berliner Philharmoniker now presents Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, with its shifts between driving momentum and inner turmoil. In addition, we hear the spirited Patricia Kopatchinskaja as the soloist in Arnold Schoenberg’s breakneck and virtuosic Violin Concerto.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

A double reunion: for the first time since the end of his tenure as chief conductor of the orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker. The programme features one of the most sensational productions of those years: Bach’s St. John Passion in the production of Peter Sellars, which uses intensive imagery to accentuate the meditative as well as the dramatic dimensions of the work. The singers include the Rundfunkchor Berlin and a top-class ensemble of soloists.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

During his Berlin years, the adventurous exploration of contemporary music was as important to Simon Rattle as work on the traditional repertoire. This double focus also characterises this evening with Helmut Lachenmann’s My Melodies for eight horns, in which the solo instruments reveal many surprising tonal facets. The finale of the concert is Schumann’s Second Symphony, with an exuberance which repeatedly borders on mania.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

The music of Gustav Mahler stands on the threshold of Modernism: sometimes sceptical, sometimes self-confident, and yet despite occasional nostalgic impulses, it is always decidedly innovative. Daniel Harding juxtaposes Mahler’s First Symphony with works by Alban Berg and Charles Ives, contemporaries whose musical language has similarities as well as major differences to Mahler. An exciting journey of discovery.

Photo: Thomas Brill

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Photo: Holger Kettner