Enigma Variations: Music with secret and cryptic messages
This playlist, named after Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, presents works characterised by hidden messages or secret ideas. Whether it is Alban Berg retelling the story of an affair, Robert Schumann paying homage to his “distant beloved” or Dmitri Shostakovich capturing Stalin’s brutality in sound, it is instrumental music that in each case allows the composer to express and hide secrets at the same time.
Recommended for you
- “La Mer”: Water music with the Berliner Philharmoniker
- Light music and favourite works with the Berliner Philharmoniker
- A conductor recommends: François-Xavier Roth’s highlights
- From Brazil to China: Classical works inspired by other sound worlds
- A soprano’s perspective: Marlis Petersen’s favourites
- Violinists with the Berliner Philharmoniker
- Splendour and grace: Baroque music with the Berliner Philharmoniker
- Our double bass player’s perspective: Matthew McDonald’s favourites
- “Unanswered Questions”: Musical Modernism between 1910 and 1920
- Johannes Brahms II: Orchestral and Vocal Works, Serenades, Dances
