New Year at the Philharmonie

Into the New Year with Beethoven's Ninth

BR-KLASSIK is a German public radio station that broadcasts classical music, jazz, and other cultural programs. It is part of Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), the public broadcaster of Bavaria.

Into the New Year with Beethoven's Ninth

BR-KLASSIK is a German public radio station that broadcasts classical music, jazz, and other cultural programs. It is part of Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), the public broadcaster of Bavaria.

Guest at the Philharmonie Köln

Ludwig van Beethoven: genius, freethinker and troubled soul – as well as a master of coping with crises through music. In 1809, he lamented: »We have experienced a rather crowded misery. The entire course of events has affected my body and soul. What a destructive, desolate life around me! Nothing but drums, cannons, all kinds of human misery!« At that time, he was greatly distressed by the current situation, as Vienna was occupied by Napoleon's troops. Food shortages, the black market and inflation were making life difficult for the people. Beethoven often sought shelter in the cellar – and put pillows over his head to avoid hearing the noise. But despite these unfavourable conditions, he wrote his great Fifth Piano Concerto: a gigantic work that gives the impression as if he wanted to drown out the chaos of war with the power and splendour of his music. For long segments, it spreads a belligerent sound – but with the Adagio, a very contemplative movement is interwoven: Beethoven is said to have been thinking of the »chants of devout pilgrims«. These fragmented states of mind are already pervasive in his Fifth Symphony, which was premiered a year earlier and can certainly be understood as a statement on the political fate of Europe at that time. With its famous obsessive motif, the work is at first full of anxiety and emotional complexity over long stretches. But an astounding inner force is able to find its way out of the initial darkness and into the ever brightening light. Like Beethoven wrote in one of his conversation books, which he used because of his deafness and in which he also collected essential ideas: »With music I have transformed my suffering into hope«.

Guest performance at the Wiener Musikverein

"Women, you angels of the earth! Heaven's loveliest creation! You are the sole ray that illuminates our lives." (Alphonse de Lamartine) We start with the meaning-laden Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, inspired in 1901 by his blossoming love for his future wife Alma. A musical marriage proposal with strings and harp, it is a beguilingly beautiful work, albeit shot through with hauntingly world-weary and nostalgic tones. Like many great composers, Richard Strauss had a strong woman at his side – the singer Pauline, for whom he composed many of his vocal works. His lush "Four Last Songs" strike a tone of farewell. These settings of texts by Hesse and Eichendorff were written in 1948, when Strauss’ world had been shattered by the war and he was growing “weary of wandering”, to quote the final line of the last song. While profound grief can often stifle creativity, it sometimes can also awaken new creative energies – as proven by our programme’s emotional final piece, a "work of superhuman strength" written by Josef Suk, who had close personal ties with Dvořák. He became not only the latter’s master student, but also his friend and son-in-law as well, falling in love with Dvořák’s daughter Otylka. But this happiness was abruptly destroyed by Dvořák’s demise in 1904 and the tragically early death of Otylka a mere fourteen months later. Suk wrote the moving symphony "Asrael" to overcome this trauma and in memory of his loved ones, saying: "Such misfortune either destroys a person or brings all the forces lying dormant in them to the surface. Music saved me."

Mahler Chamber Orchestra: Music from the New World

Antonello Manacorda and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra open our International Chamber Orchestra series with music from the “New World”. Anton Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony, written in New York, clearly expresses the influences of both indigenous and African American melodies – although the work is also unmistakably Bohemian in colour. 2024 marks the 150th birthday of the brilliant Charles Ives, the first American composer to gain truly global recognition. Anna Prohaska sings selected songs by Ives, juxtaposed with songs by Gustav Mahler, his European contemporary.

Discourse in the Philharmonie “Between the election of Donald Trump and the forthcoming Bundestag elections: What does the new year hold for Germany?”

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election will change the country: democracy is in danger, observers believe, and society could become more divided. However, Germany is also facing major changes following the collapse of the “traffic light coalition”. A new federal parliament is due to be elected in February 2025. What will both events mean for German politics? The long-serving Governing Mayor of Berlin and current SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Müller and playwright and director Patty Kim Hamilton discuss this with Christiane Florin.

Live-Concert broadcast to the Zeiss-Grossplanetarium – New Year’s Concert