Splendour and grace: Baroque music with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Since the 1990s, the Berliner Philharmoniker have regularly given concerts with the pioneers of historical performance practice. In this way, the orchestra has also enhanced its stylistic profile in the field of Baroque music. The music of this period is virtuosic, sensuous and characterised by ever-changing emotions, which our playlist presents to you in performances by the Philharmoniker.
Modern symphony orchestras have long since ceased to leave performances of Baroque music exclusively to the special ensembles that were formed in the wake of the success story of historical performance practice. Today, the boundaries are fluid: the Early music scene has become more diverse and undogmatic, and modern orchestras have learned an enormous amount from working with the pioneers of historically informed performance. For the Berliner Philharmoniker, the debut of Nikolaus Harnoncourt in 1991 marked a significant turning point.
Today, the archive of the Digital Concert Hall contains a wealth of German, English, Italian and French music from the pre-Classical period. In addition to the all-rounders Simon Rattle and François-Xavier Roth whose huge repertoire naturally also includes Baroque music, the playlist features world-renowned specialists in 17th and 18th century works: Emmanuelle Haïm, who has frequently conducted the Philharmoniker, the Vivaldi expert Andrea Marcon, the conductor and harpsichord virtuoso Ton Koopman and Reinhard Goebel, from whose knowledge the members of the Karajan Academy have benefited in several projects.
