Live concerts

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.

This year’s European Concert at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris is a powerful symbol of the German-French friendship. Daniel Harding, music director of the Orchestre de Paris, conducts eminent works by Wagner, Berlioz and Debussy which reveal the many links between the musical cultures of the two countries. The Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel appears as soloist with the Philharmoniker again for the first time in 18 years.

Photo: Thomas Brill

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Photo: Holger Kettner