Berliner Philharmoniker

Based on a live concert performance given before an invited audience in the Berlin Philharmonie, this 1972 film of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony shows the orchestra marrying a depth of tone Nikisch and Furtwängler would have recognised with a new-found brilliance of attack which Karajan’s Toscanini-inspired Beethoven readings had brought to the Berlin tradition.

Herbert von Karajan in the Digital Concert Hall

Herbert von Karajan dirigiert Tschaikowskys Sechste Symphonie (1973). Die Tschaikowsky-Tradition der Berliner Philharmoniker reicht zurück bis in die Anfangszeit des Orchesters. Der Komponist kannte und schätzte die beiden ersten Chefdirigenten der Berliner, Hans von Bülow und Artur Nikisch, und ihre Lesart von Tschaikowskys Werken – vor allem der drei letzten Symphonien – fand eine ebenso engagierte und charismatische Fortsetzung durch Wilhelm Furtwängler und Herbert von Karajan.

There is nowhere else in the world that the Berliner Philharmoniker have been received with more warmth, enthusiasm, and for so many years, than in Japan. Recorded in the Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 1994, this concert with Claudio Abbado gives an impression of just the kind of reception they are given. The programme includes Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” Suite.

Claudio Abbado in the Digital Concert Hall

Mit dem Europakonzert des Jahres 2002 im Teatro Massimo von Palermo begann Abbados letzte Tournee an der Spitze des Orchesters. Sie führte quer durch seine italienische Heimat bis nach Wien, wo Abbado - mit Nachfolger Sir Simon Rattle im Publikum - am 13. Mai 2002 ein letztes Mal als Chefdirigent mit den Berliner Philharmonikern konzertierte. Er dirigierte u. a. Antonín Dvořáks Symphonie Nr. 9 »Aus der neuen Welt«.

Seit 1991 gastieren die Berliner Philharmoniker jedes Jahr am 1. Mai an einem europäischen Ort von besonderer (kultur-)historischer Bedeutung, um an ihre Gründung am 1. Mai 1882 zu erinnern und ein Zeichen zu setzen für das gemeinsame Erbe der Alten Welt. Im Olympiajahr 2004 fiel die Wahl auf Athen, die Wiege der abendländischen Kultur und Demokratie. Das war das erste gemeinsame Konzert von Sir Simon Rattle und Daniel Barenboim überhaupt mit Brahms' Erstem Klavierkonzert.

Waldbühne 2005: the very last encore – Paul Linke’s "Berlin Air”, in which the orchestra’s principal conductor as usual played the bass drum.

The critics’ reviews of St Matthew Passion in the Philharmonie were full of superlatives. The radio station RBB Kultur considered it to be “a moment of glory for Rattle! And one of the best evenings with the Philharmoniker for years.« Media praise didn’t stop at the Berliner Philharmoniker and their principal conductor but extended to what is called the “ritualization” by American star director Peter Sellars.

What a programme Sir Simon Rattle, soprano Barbara Hannigan and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker have assembled for this Late Night: naughty, sophisticated, sexy and subversive – in the spirit of Stravinsky and Weill, but also very British: William Walton’s 1923 “entertainment” Façade,

Für Simon Rattle ist Robert Schumann »the echt Romantic«. Und in der Tat: Das Überschäumende dieser Epoche, ihre Leidenschaft ebenso wie ihre Melancholie lässt sich bis heute in Schumanns Musik nacherleben. Für die Berliner Philharmoniker gehören Schumanns Symphonien zum Kernrepertoire. Und so ist es nur naheliegend, dass die Berliner Philharmoniker ihr Label Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings 2014 mit den vier Schumann-Symphonien eröffnen. Hier ein Auschnitt aus der Ersten Symphonie.

On occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2014 the orchestra played Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which with its utopian content of unity, joy and fraternity optimally corresponded to subsequent generations’ artistic religious ideas.

“Manon Lescaut” at the 2014 Easter Festival: From naive innocence to femme fatale and outlaw – the fall from grace of the heroine of Abbé Prévost novel “L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut” is extreme. With the dramma lirico “Manon Lescaut“, the 35-year-old Giacomo Puccini made his artistic breakthrough in 1893.

A highlight of the 2015/2016 season: the Beethoven cycle with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. Here is an excerpt from the "Eroica". The complete cycle can be found in the Digital Concert Hall.

To the Digital Concert Hall

The natural philosophers of the 19th century would have adored this work. As overwhelming as Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony is in its dimensions, as astounding it is in expressing the primordial experience of nature, which this piece focuses on. Zubin Mehta stands on the Philharmoniker’s rostrum, a conductor with one of the longest affiliations with the orchestra.

Anton Bruckner called his First Symphony a "saucy maid" and it is probably true to say that there is more exuberant joie de vivre to be found in this than in any other of the composer's works. It is hard to believe that, previous to this performance with Seiji Ozawa, the Berliner Philharmoniker had not included this highly original symphony in a concert for a quarter of a century.

Gustavo Dudamel holds a prominent position among musicians of our time – as a conductor who stands out not by an otherworldly authority over others but by an absolute devotion to the music and a unique ability to inspire orchestras and audiences with his energy. In this concert he demonstrates his qualities in, among other works, Richard Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra”.

Die Überraschung war perfekt: Am 21. Juni 2015 wählten die Berliner Philharmoniker mit großer Mehrheit Kirill Petrenko zum designierten neuen Chefdirigenten der Berliner Philharmoniker und Künstlerischen Leiter der Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker. Der Russe stand 2006 erstmals am Pult des Orchesters. Hier dirigiert er Alexander Skrjabins »Le Poème de l’extase«. Ein Orchesterwerk, dessen orgiastischer Klangrausch typisch für viele Kompositionen der Spätromantik ist.

Andris Nelsons, which was in 2008 the 30-year-old (indirect) successor to Sir Simon Rattle at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, first conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in October 2010. Here he conducts the "Tannhäuser” prelude by Richard Wagner.

Herbert Blomstedt has regularly given guest performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, often as a major advocate of Bruckner symphonies. For his February concerts 2014 at the Philharmonie, the maestro has included Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in the programme

The Easter Festival has always been an occasion for the Berliner Philharmoniker to work with young, aspiring soloists for the first time. This is also the case 2014 in Baden-Baden, where the Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta makes her Philharmoniker debut with Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

Martha Argerich and Riccardo Chailly have been linked with the Berliner Philharmoniker by long artistic friendships. For them to perform at the orchestra’s concerts jointly, however, is something of a rarity. Only twice, namely in 1983 and 1989, did the Berlin audience have the opportunity to experience the two of them on stage. This time they have decided to take on Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

The list of conductors who have conducted Brahms’s “Deutsches Requiem” with the Berliner Philharmoniker since Herbert von Karajan’s death is remarkable: Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink, Simon Rattle and lastly Donald Runnicles. In this recording Christian Thielemann conducts the masterpiece.

Bernard Haitink, a highly-esteemed guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker for more than 50 years, conducted in Mai 2015 a work which he has never performed before with the orchestra: Franz Schubert’s Fifth Symphony in B flat major.

A unwillingness to compromise means that the legendary pianist Krystian Zimerman agrees to the release of recordings only in exceptional cases. All the more fortunate that his interpretation of Johannes Brahms’s First Piano Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle is available in the Digital Concert Hall.