Live concerts

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”.

Photo: Julia Baier

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.

Photo: Michael Trippel

The first education project led by Kirill Petrenko features great opera: 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 young singers, the choir of the vocal heroes choral programme, and the Karajan Academy.

Photo: Stephan Rabold

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 Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

Photo: Holger Hage

Es sind elementare Botschaften der Natur – inklusive Erzählungen von Blumen und Tieren –, die Gustav Mahler in seiner Dritten Symphonie ausformuliert. Damit schuf er ein gigantisches Weltenpanorama, mit einem überwältigend schönen Hymnus als Gipfelpunkt. Interpreten dieser Aufführung sind Yannick Nézet-Seguin, designierter Leiter der New Yorker Met, und Elīna Garanča, die nicht nur »über stimmliche Schönheit verfügt, sondern auch jene undefinierbare Magie, die man Charisma nennt« (The Telegraph).

Photo: Oliver Helbig

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.

Photo: Oliver Helbig

With Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Simon Rattle conducts one of the most impressive works of the 20th century. The terminally ill composer, who fled to the USA to escape the National Socialists, presents himself here sometimes melancholically, sometimes sarcastically – and then again, quite surprisingly, releases youthful freshness, verve and joie de vivre. The concert opens with Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, in which he plays creatively and unconventionally with sounds, noises and language: a mysterious musical labyrinth.

Photo: Stephan Rabold

Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio is a plea for overcoming the arbitrariness of power and tyranny – and a hymn to love. Beethoven’s lifelong motto, “Freyheit über alles lieben; Wahrheit nie, (auch am Throne nicht) läugnen” (Love freedom above everything else, never disavow truth, not even before the throne), is reflected vividly in his work. Following performances at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, Kirill Petrenko conducts the work in the Philharmonie. The cast is headed by Marlis Petersen, currently the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Artist in Residence.

Photo: Selina Pfrüner

Photo: Akos Stiller

Photo: Sebastian Hänel

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Photo: Martin Walz

Photo: Mark Hanauer

Photo: Mark Hanauer

Photo: Holger Kettner

Gustavo Dudamel, die Berliner Philharmoniker und die Waldbühne – das ist eine großartige Erfolgsgeschichte. Als 27-Jähriger gab der Venezolaner im Juni 2008 auf der Open-Air-Bühne mit einem spanisch-südamerikanischen Programm seinen philharmonischen Einstand. In dieser Saison leitet er bereits zum vierten Mal das Waldbühnenkonzert, das unter dem Motto Eine Olympische Nacht steht. Und eines ist sicher: Es wird ein weiterer Höhepunkt in der gemeinsamen Zusammenarbeit von Dirigent und Orchester sein.