Live concerts

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.

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.

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.

Photo: Stephan Rabold

Kirill Petrenko opens the new season of the Berliner Philharmoniker with the enchanting and mysterious world of Romanticism. The main work on the programme is Franz Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony, in which exuberance, dance and nobility are shaken by moments of deep despair. Carl Maria von Weber transports us to the magical realm of Oberon, the king of the elves, which inspired Paul Hindemith’s colourful Symphonic Metamorphosis.

Photo: Pavel Hejny

Bruckner’s “Romantic” Fourth Symphony has a distinct feeling of longing and closeness to nature – for instance, in the horn call at the beginning and the melancholy singing of the strings. The work is conducted by Jakub Hrůša, who also presents the world premiere of Keyframes for a Hippogriff by Olga Neuwirth, one of the most sought-after composers of our time. Neuwirth says the work is about trying “to remain a free soul despite the despair and pain in this world”.

Few works have captured the horror of the Nazi regime as powerfully in music as Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto funebre. The soloist in this performance with Kirill Petrenko is Artist in Residence Patricia Kopatchinskaja. The concert closes with the striking ballet music from The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky. The two composers, who admired each other, both strived towards uncompromisingly modern yet moving music.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

In this concert, Tugan Sokhiev presents three melodious discoveries: Ernest Chausson’s Symphony in B flat major, which the orchestra last performed in 1975. This work features shimmering French colours and a great lamento influenced by Wagner. Other rarities are Rimsky-Korsakov’s folklike overture to the opera The Tsar’s Bride and the First Piano Concerto by the 17-year-old Sergei Rachmaninov, with Nikolai Lugansky as soloist.

Photo: Martin U. K. Lengemann

Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony is the documentation of an existential crisis. At the time of its composition, the 50-year-old composer was not accepted as an artist, nor had he found the desperately longed-for wife. With the confident architecture of the Finale and its solemn orchestral chorales, the Symphony displays more defiance than despair, however. It will be conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, one of the outstanding Bruckner interpreters of our time.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is fascinating because of the contrast between the brutal sultan and the clever title heroine. The composer’s vision of the Orient sounds splendid – it is not surprising that he was a sought-after teacher of orchestration. One of his students was Prokofiev, who acquired from him a fondness for Russian folk melodies, as we hear in his Second Violin Concerto. Both conductor Gustavo Gimeno and violinist Augustin Hadelich make their debuts.

Photo: Todd Rosenberg

The history of film music would be different without John Williams. Cinema classics like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter are inextricably linked with his musical style. His soundtracks captivate listeners with thrilling, moving themes and a tremendous range of atmospheres and sounds. John Williams makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker at this concert, conducting several of his most famous scores.

Adam Fischer is a conductor with an exceptional feeling for Viennese Classicism. That was already obvious at a concert devoted to Mozart and Haydn with the Philharmoniker in 2019. This time we will hear Mozart’s exuberant Symphony No. 33 and the Kyrie in D minor, an anticipation of the Requiem. Fischer also presents Haydn’s choral scene The Tempest and his penultimate symphony, which surprises listeners with a timpani roll at the beginning.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

In this programme, Kirill Petrenko first takes us to Great Britain. Inspired by a visit to Scotland, Mendelssohn composed his atmospherically dense Third Symphony. Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony – the first he wrote after Stalin’s death in 1953 – is programmatically very different. The composer makes the repression of the Stalin era palpable with oppressive, often grotesque music, before closing with a movement full of hope.

Photo: Sheila Rock

Mahler’s Fourth occupies a special place among his symphonies because of its delicate transparency: a sunny idyll that seems to be faced with a constant threat, however. “It contains the cheerfulness of a higher and, for us, unfamiliar world that holds something eerie and horrifying,” Mahler said. The conductor of this performance is Semyon Bychkov; also on the programme is a new piano concerto by Thomas Larcher, with Kirill Gerstein as soloist.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

You think 20th-century music is complicated? Andris Nelsons demonstrates the contrary in this programme. Although Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps turned the music world upside down at the premiere, the elemental force of its strongly rhythmic tonal language is conveyed spontaneously. The trumpet concerto by Mieczysław Weinberg is a discovery: a work of sparkling virtuosity and irony, with the Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger as soloist.

“Real horror” seized Gustav Mahler when he realized the enormous dimensions of his Third Symphony. The vastness of the work was consistent with his spiritual conception, however, since nothing less than “the entire world” was to be mirrored in the symphony. At the close is a poignant hymn to love. The conductor is Zubin Mehta, who was introduced to this musical cosmos by Mahler’s assistant Bruno Walter.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

The Berliner Philharmoniker and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko say goodbye to 2021 with a different style of Viennese dance music. Incidental music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold enriches a Shakespeare comedy with Viennese charm, Richard Strauss celebrates café culture in his ballet Schlagobers (Whipped Cream), while Maurice Ravel offers an ecstatic version of the Viennese waltz in La Valse. Another highlight is Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with Janine Jansen.

Photo: Peter Adamik

Daniel Barenboim has conducted acclaimed performances of the great Verdi operas. In this concert, he introduces works by the composer which were not initially intended for publication and offer insights into Verdi’s emotional life. The first work is his only string quartet, in a version for orchestra, in which operatic intensity is combined with elegance and melancholy. We also hear Verdi’s expressive Quattro pezzi sacri.

Photo: Victor Santiago

Peter Tchaikovsky’s last opera, Iolanta, is tender, magical and ambiguous. The focus of the story is a blind princess, who regains her sight through love – a rare happy ending in 19th-century opera. Tchaikovsky composed poetic music for the work, in which we also hear his love for French opera. This unjustly forgotten treasure will be presented in a performance with Kirill Petrenko and Sonya Yoncheva in the title role.

Photo: Johannes Ifkovits

When a storm erupts during an orchestral work, there is a moment of overwhelming energy, followed by relief. Philippe Jordan conducts two powerful works in which such scenes occur: Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensymphonie and excerpts from Wagner’s Rheingold. Expressive power is also unleashed with a blizzard and a thunderstorm in Alban Berg’s Altenberg Lieder. The soloist is Anja Kampe, who has enjoyed worldwide success as a Wagner interpreter.

Anyone who wants to continue the symphonic tradition must have self-confidence and creativity. In this concert, Kirill Petrenko presents two composers who took this risk: we hear Witold Lutosławski’s splendidly virtuosic Symphony No. 1 and the Janus-faced Second Symphony by Johannes Brahms, which the composer himself described as a “lovely monster”. The concert opens with Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s sound surface composition Photoptosis.

Photo: Nicolas Brodard

One of Kirill Petrenko’s priorities is to introduce the music of Josef Suk to a larger audience. At this concert, he presents the symphonic poem Ripening, which combines late Romantic tonal splendour with modern harmony. Johannes Brahms was a supporter of Suk. We hear Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, in which brusque force and tender feelings collide. The soloist is Sir András Schiff, a long-time partner of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Photo: Danny Clinch

“Why have you lived? Why have you suffered?” These are elemental questions that Gustav Mahler raises in his Second Symphony. He summons up impressive forces with chorus and orchestra. Grotesque humour and yearning solo voices are also heard within this immense expressive spectrum. The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel, who has appeared regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker as a Mahler interpreter and thrills listeners with his enthusiasm and precision.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Igor Stravinsky was a composer of the avant-garde, but he also took up the legacy of music history. François-Xavier Roth presents both sides: first, the groundbreaking ballet Petrushka, which combines a fairground atmosphere with a visionary musical idiom. In his charming Divertimento, on the other hand, Stravinsky pays his respects to Tchaikovsky’s ballets. No less graceful is Bach’s Oboe Concerto in A major, with the orchestra’s principal oboe, Albrecht Mayer.

Photo: Peter Adamik

Hans von Bülow, the first chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, was deeply moved: “Even in a rather mediocre performance,” he wrote to Giuseppe Verdi, his Requiem had “moved me to tears”. The work does, in fact, have an emotional immediacy that is unusual for liturgical music – for example, in the Dies Irae, which depicts a shattering apocalypse. This performance will be led by Daniel Barenboim, honorary conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke

John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir present two key choral works from the Romantic period. During this era, spiritual music was intended to edify. Johannes Brahms does that in his dramatic Schicksalslied by reinterpreting Hölderlin’s resigned text with an optimistic epilogue. Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony, on the other hand, shows the way from darkness into the radiant vision of a better world with melodious choruses, duets and arias.

Photo: Monika Rittershaus

No opera demonstrates more vividly than Peter Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades the fact that people’s desires are often their undoing. The outsider Herman strives for success at cards but loses everything in the end. Lisa searches for her great love, is disappointed and takes her life. There is also a mysterious countess. Kirill Petrenko conducts the passionate music Tchaikovsky composed for this dark tale.

Photo: Nikolaj Lund

Antonello Manacorda is at home in the great opera houses. As chief conductor of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, he has also made award-winning recordings, including the complete Schubert symphonies. Rarely has this music sounded “leaner, more logical, more exhilarating”, Der Spiegel wrote. For his debut with the Philharmoniker, Manacorda has programmed Schubert’s “Unfinished”. A further highlight is Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, with baritone Christian Gerhaher.

Photo: Peter Adamik

The Karajan Academy celebrates its 50th anniversary at this concert, together with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Conducting scholar Nodoka Okisawa opens the concert with Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony. Kirill Petrenko conducts Beethoven’s celebrated Fifth Symphony and a world premiere by Donghoon Shin. The soloist is the former Academy scholar and now 1st principal cello of the Philharmoniker, Bruno Delepelaire.

Photo: Oliver Helbig

During his tenure as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Simon Rattle frequently presented Dvořák rarities. The graceful yet dramatic Scherzo capriccioso will be heard at this concert. For the first time the orchestra plays Dvořák’s “American” Suite, whose affinity with the Symphony “From the New World” is unmistakable. Another novelty is music by Roberto Gerhard, a student of Schoenberg, whose works combine avant-garde and Spanish sounds.

Photo: Oliver Helbig

“I’m crazy about Haydn,” Simon Rattle once said. And in fact, there are few other conductors with such a deep understanding of this composer. During this concert, Sir Simon conducts the Symphony No. 102, which is striking because of its heartfelt slow movement. Igor Stravinsky is also extremely important to Simon Rattle, who presents unfamiliar facets of the composer with a Stravinsky Journey he compiled himself.

Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

His highly acclaimed recordings prove it: for Paavo Järvi, Beethoven is not simply an overpowering titan, Sibelius not merely a Nordic melancholiac – instead, he conveys the youthful power of this music. Järvi conducts Beethoven’s Eighth and Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony at this concert. In addition, Emmanuel Pahud gives the world premiere of a flute concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür. The music of the Estonian composer and former rock musician is atmospheric and energetic.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Anton Bruckner wrestled with self-doubt, frequently revising his symphonies – but not his Sixth. He called the unconventional work with the eerie Scherzo, not without seriousness, his “cheekiest”. It will be conducted by John Storgårds, who makes his debut with the orchestra. Before the symphony, Matthew McDonald, 1st principal bass of the Philharmoniker, presents a world premiere: Gerald Barry describes his concerto for double bass as a dreamlike scene.

Photo: Stephan Rabold

Under this season’s theme “Lost Generation”, Kirill Petrenko devotes this concert to three Jewish composers who suffered anti-Semitic persecution during the Nazi regime. Erwin Schulhoff’s Second Symphony fascinates in its playing with styles such as jazz. Two works full of Italian temperament by Leone Sinigaglia will be heard, with concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley. The concert closes with Alexander Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, with Lise Davidsen and Christian Gerhaher.

Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Violinist Janine Jansen is able to bring out the subtlest nuances of a work with focussed playing. This skill is ideally suited to the demands of Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, with its delicate melodic lines. The Berliner Philharmoniker also play the First Symphony by the Danish composer Rued Langgaard – a late Romantic rarity, which the orchestra premiered in 1913. The conductor of this performance is Sakari Oramo.

Photo: Dario Acosta

The Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko end the season in the Waldbühne with vivid Russian colours. Sergei Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto is both yearning and rebellious. Star pianist Daniil Trifonov is the perfect interpreter to bring out both the virtuosity and delicacy of this music. We will also hear Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, during which scenes of tremendous force and richness unfold in quick succession.