Live concerts
Mikko Franck and Yefim Bronfman perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1
Photo: Dario Acosta
Yefim Bronfman opens this evening with Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. “When I think of Brahms, I think of natural landscapes, mountains, green valleys and beautiful panoramas, of this incredible grandeur,” says the pianist, who has been one of the world's top musicians for many years. Jean Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony also offers similar associations. The work with its grandiose final hymn will be conducted by the Finn Mikko Franck, who feels a special bond with the landscape of his homeland.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Mikko FranckYefim Bronfman
Johannes Brahms
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in D minor, op. 15Yefim Bronfman piano
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, op. 82
European Concert from Berlin with Kirill Petrenko
Photo: Heribert Schindler
As in 2020, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko will again give their 2021 European Concert in the Philharmonie Berlin, due to the corona pandemic – this time in the foyer of the building. Its special architecture is an invitation to present the music spatially: Blacher’s festive Fanfare, Ives’ enigmatic Unanswered Question, Mozart’s serene Notturno and Penderecki’s spherical Emanations consciously rely on the effect of spatial sound. Also in the European Concert programme: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s charming Orchestral Suite No. 3 and John Adams’ witty piece Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill PetrenkoBoris Blacher
Fanfare for the Opening of the PhilharmonieCharles Ives
The Unanswered QuestionWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Notturno for 4 orchestras in D major, K. 286Krzysztof Penderecki
Emanations for 2 string orchestrasPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Suite No. 3 in G major, op. 55John Adams
Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Susanna Mälkki conducts “Bluebeard’s Castle”
It is “a masterpiece, a musical volcano that erupts for sixty minutes of tragic intensity and leaves us with only one desire: to hear it again.” That is how Zoltán Kodály described Béla Bartók’s only opera, Bluebeard’s Castle. Composed in 1911, the one-act work is a brilliantly orchestrated symbolic psychological drama that takes us deep into the emotional world of the fin de siècle. “What do you see?” Bluebeard asks his bride Judith, who wants to open the seven doors of the Duke’s past. Susanna Mälkki conducts this musical psychoanalysis, which makes listeners shudder.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Susanna MälkkiIldikó Komlósi, Johannes Martin Kränzle
Kaija Saariaho
Vista (German première) – commissioned jointly by Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation together with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (concert performance)Béla Bartók
Bluebeard’s Castle, Sz 48 (concert performance)Ildikó Komlósi mezzo-soprano (Judith), Johannes Martin Kränzle baritone (Bluebeard)
Simon Rattle conducts Ginastera and Britten
Photo: Oliver Helbig
A programme which allows the Berliner Philharmoniker to show off their skills as soloists: Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra offer our musicians wonderful opportunities to showcase the tonal splendour of their instruments. Principal horn Stefan Dohr and tenor Allan Clayton lead us through different nocturnal moods in Britten's Serenade, ranging from the tender and mysterious to the menacing.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon RattleAllan Clayton, Stefan Dohr
Alberto Ginastera
Variaciones concertantes, op. 23Benjamin Britten
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, op. 31Allan Clayton tenor, Stefan Dohr french horn
Benjamin Britten
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, op. 34
Alan Gilbert conducts Brahms, Chin and Webern
The early 20th century was not only influenced by avant-garde concepts but was also characterized by an unbridled passion for intoxicating sounds. Alan Gilbert, chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, demonstrates that in this programme. We can almost feel the gentle breeze that Anton Webern evokes in his impressionist early work Im Sommerwind (In the Summer Wind). And Arnold Schoenberg clearly took great pleasure in intensifying the colours of Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1, drawing on all the orchestra’s resources. Unsuk Chin’s iridescent, sensuous Piano Concerto will be heard between the two works, with Sunwook Kim as soloist.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Alan GilbertSunwook Kim
Anton Webern
Im Sommerwind, Idyll for large orchestraUnsuk Chin
Concerto for Piano and OrchestraSunwook Kim piano
Johannes Brahms
Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, op. 25 (orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg)
Herbert Blomstedt conducts Sibelius and Brahms
“Conducting is a good profession to grow old in, because it’s always a challenge, and you need challenges when you get older,” said Herbert Blomstedt, born in 1927, who is continuing his long-standing collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker with undiminished energy and vitality. On this programme Sibelius’s dark, mist-shrouded Fourth Symphony is contrasted with Brahms’s Third. Between them, a rarity will be heard: the solemn Intermezzo from the cantata Sången (The Song), composed in 1926 by the Swedish late Romantic composer Wilhelm Stenhammar.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert BlomstedtJean Sibelius
Symphony No. 4 in A minor, op. 63Wilhelm Stenhammar
Interlude from the Symphonic Cantata Sången, op. 44Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 3 in F major, op. 90
Jean-Christophe Spinosi and Philippe Jaroussky
Jean-Christophe Spinosi’s artistic home is music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He also appears as an opera conductor, with acclaimed interpretations of works by Mozart and Rossini. For his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker Spinosi has put together a varied programme including two works from the Baroque period, a symphony from the Viennese Classical School and Romantic bel canto. Philippe Jaroussky is also at home in this repertoire and contributes arias by Vivaldi and Rossini in his brilliant countertenor.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Jean-Christophe SpinosiPhilippe Jaroussky
Antonio Vivaldi
Sinfonia from L'Olimpiade, RV 725Antonio Vivaldi
Aria “Mentre dormi amor fomenti” from L'Olimpiade, RV 725Philippe Jaroussky countertenor
Georg Philipp Telemann
Concerto in E minor for Flute, Recorder, Strings and Continuo, TWV 52:e1Antonio Vivaldi
Aria “Gemo in un punto e fremo” from L'Olimpiade, RV 725Philippe Jaroussky countertenor
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 82 in C major “L’Ours”Gioacchino Rossini
Overture to L’Italiana in AlgeriGioacchino Rossini
Cavatina “Di tanti palpiti” from TancrediPhilippe Jaroussky countertenor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”
Concert from the Waldbühne with Martin Grubinger
Photo: Simon Pauly
At his debut with the orchestra in March of 2019 listeners could experience the presence, physicality and enthusiasm with which multi-percussionist Martin Grubinger executed the solo part in Peter Eötvös’s percussion concerto Speaking Drums. He virtuosically elicited a wealth of timbres from his arsenal of instruments – from eruptive cascades of sound to delicate bell tones. At the close of the concert season in the Waldbühne the percussion star returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker: pure rhythm under the stars.
From the Berlin Waldbühne
Berliner Philharmoniker
Wayne MarshallMartin Grubinger
Leonard Bernstein
On the Town: 3 Dance EpisodesJohn Williams
Percussive PlanetMartin Grubinger drums
George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue (orch. Ferde Grofé)Leonard Bernstein
On the Waterfront, Symphonic Suite