Robert Levin in Residence: Mozart Requiem

Artist in Residence Seong-Jin Cho and the Karajan Academy

Our Artist in Residence Seong-Jin Cho made his name by winning the legendary Chopin Competition; since then, Chopin’s music has been particularly close to his heart. In this concert with the Karajan Academy, the pianist is the soloist for a chamber music version of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1: a work in which gives Seong-Jin Cho scope for both technical brilliance and poetic creativity. Beethoven's cheerful wind quintet and the mysterious piece My Shadow by Korean composer Donghoon Shin will complete the programme.

Composer in Residence: Caroline Shaw & Kamus Quartet

For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!

Free Lunchtime Concert: Composer in Residence

For many years now, Lunchtime Concerts have been held in the Main Hall and the Recital Hall. The concerts range from public rehearsals by the Concertgebouworkest, to chamber music performances by young up-and-coming artists.For Lunchtime Concerts you will require a free ticket, which you can buy online. Doors to the concert hall open about 30 minutes before the Lunchtime Concert starts.We offer a broad range of music: the majority of concerts include classical music, but you can sometimes hear more modern repertoire. The concert programme is announced one week in advance on our website. The concerts last thirty minutes and are free of charge. Visitors are advised that these concerts are suitable for children from six years old.

Mozart: Requiem

What would have happened if Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had had time to complete his Requiem? What worlds might have opened up to us if the then 35-year-old had not been carried off in 1791 by the »severe miliary fever« – a diagnosis that has not been clearly identified to this day? Now his last, most mysterious and existential work has remained a fragment – albeit skilfully completed by Franz Xaver Süßmayr. It is only logical that the world-famous Dresdner Kreuzchor (boys’ choir) understands the fragmentary nature of the Requiem as a quality and sets it with works by a contemporary composer who is known for his deeply spiritual attitude like almost no other: Arvo Pärt. At the Elbphilharmonie, compositions by the Estonian composer are combined with the masterly sounds of Mozart to create a new whole that illuminates death – and life – from a perspective between then and now.

Artist in Residence: Seong-Jin Cho plays Shostakovich

Seong-Jin Cho, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Artist in Residence for the 2024/25 season, is considered a poet at the piano, but also has a penchant for black humour. This is demonstrated not least by the work he has chosen for this programme: Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano and Trumpet, which brilliantly parodies the piano concerto genre. Anton Bruckner’s First Symphony provides a counterpart to this with its tonal opulence, solemnity and spirituality. The concert is conducted by Estonian Paavo Järvi, who opens the evening with an overture by compatriot Veljo Tormis.

Artist in Residence: Seong-Jin Cho plays Shostakovich

Seong-Jin Cho, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Artist in Residence for the 2024/25 season, is considered a poet at the piano, but also has a penchant for black humour. This is demonstrated not least by the work he has chosen for this programme: Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano and Trumpet, which brilliantly parodies the piano concerto genre. Anton Bruckner’s First Symphony provides a counterpart to this with its tonal opulence, solemnity and spirituality. The concert is conducted by Estonian Paavo Järvi, who opens the evening with an overture by compatriot Veljo Tormis.

Artist in Residence: Seong-Jin Cho plays Shostakovich

Seong-Jin Cho, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Artist in Residence for the 2024/25 season, is considered a poet at the piano, but also has a penchant for black humour. This is demonstrated not least by the work he has chosen for this programme: Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano and Trumpet, which brilliantly parodies the piano concerto genre. Anton Bruckner’s First Symphony provides a counterpart to this with its tonal opulence, solemnity and spirituality. The concert is conducted by Estonian Paavo Järvi, who opens the evening with an overture by compatriot Veljo Tormis.

Artist in Residence Seong-Jin Cho and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker

Artist in Residence Seong-Jin Cho and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker unfold a panorama of Hungarian musical styles in this concert. Johannes Brahms was often inspired by Hungarian music in his works, for instance in the finale of his clarinet trio, which oscillates between deep emotion and serenity. The trio for violin, horn and piano, which the Hungarian György Ligeti wrote in homage to Brahms, is characterised by folk rhythms. The piano quintet by the young Béla Bartók, who would go on to revolutionise Hungarian music, is still very much rooted in the Romantic period. But even here – according to Seong-Jin Cho – you can sense “Bartók's musical future”.

London Schools Symphony Orchestra

The London Schools Symphony Orchestra takes you on an epic tour of the orchestra before reaching for the stars with Holst's cosmic masterpiece.

Mozart Requiem – Schubert »Unvollendete«