Guest performance

Ollikainen & Stoyanova

»The omnipotent corruptor of taste in Italy.« »Immaturity, tastelessness, and ugliness.« Quite some impudence, what Verdi heard from Wagner conductor Hans von Bülow in 1874. Another critic found: »After all, isn’t the Italian entitled to ask whether he is allowed to speak Italian with God?« And for Verdi, this is how speaking with God about death in Italian goes: happy for some theatrics, but the Mass should by no means sound »like an opera«. Whether he succeeded—everyone will have to judge for themselves.

Guest performance Sinfonia & Yearning

Guest performance

Emelyanychev & Müller

In 1851, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer sounds off in his essay »on women« that they do not really and truly have sense and sensitivity, »neither for music, nor poetry, nor fine arts«. In such surroundings, Emilie Mayer must have seemed like a provocation: the young woman from small-town Mecklenburg led a glorious life as a composer in Berlin, performed one symphony after the other, became the deputy head of the Berlin Opera Academy and an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society in Munich. It’s high time to rediscover her and her music!

Joshua Bell

He has played for three American presidents, the Supreme Court of the United States and has performed at the World Economic Forum—though thus far, at least, superstar Joshua Bell has not been invited to conduct the renowned political gathering. In Berlin, he’ll work as »playing conductor« with the 100-member DSO for the first time. Just one practical problem: what will he do with the Stradivarius violin, which is worth millions? »When I’m conducting, I keep the violin in one hand and conduct with my bow,« he laughs.

Guest performance

Guest performance

Daniel Barenboim conducts Mahler

Throughout the 60-year span of his collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim has never conducted the music of Gustav Mahler. Until now. Two late works can be heard, beginning with the expressive Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony. Painful melancholy prevails here, as it does in Das Lied von der Erde (Songs of the Earth), which looks back on the lost beauty of life. Formally located between a song cycle and a symphony, this work was, according to Mahler, “probably the most personal thing I have done so far”.

Daniel Barenboim conducts Mahler

Throughout the 60-year span of his collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim has never conducted the music of Gustav Mahler. Until now. Two late works can be heard, beginning with the expressive Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony. Painful melancholy prevails here, as it does in Das Lied von der Erde (Songs of the Earth), which looks back on the lost beauty of life. Formally located between a song cycle and a symphony, this work was, according to Mahler, “probably the most personal thing I have done so far”.

Daniel Barenboim conducts Mahler

Throughout the 60-year span of his collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim has never conducted the music of Gustav Mahler. Until now. Two late works can be heard, beginning with the expressive Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony. Painful melancholy prevails here, as it does in Das Lied von der Erde (Songs of the Earth), which looks back on the lost beauty of life. Formally located between a song cycle and a symphony, this work was, according to Mahler, “probably the most personal thing I have done so far”.

Guest performance

Guest performance

Kirill Petrenko with Mahler’s Ninth

The Ninth Symphony is Gustav Mahler’s last completed work – an expressive farewell and at the same time a visionary anticipation of musical modernism. Since Mahler did not live to see the premiere of his Ninth, he could not complete his customary final revisions of the instrumental balance. “This provides a special challenge for all those who interpret this musical testament when examining the musical text,” says Kirill Petrenko. He is joined in this delicate task by the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Kirill Petrenko with Mahler’s Ninth

The Ninth Symphony is Gustav Mahler’s last completed work – an expressive farewell and at the same time a visionary anticipation of musical modernism. Since Mahler did not live to see the premiere of his Ninth, he could not complete his customary final revisions of the instrumental balance. “This provides a special challenge for all those who interpret this musical testament when examining the musical text,” says Kirill Petrenko. He is joined in this delicate task by the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Bancroft & Goosby

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony from 1939 poses an exciting riddle, not least because the beginning and end are missing in this curious work. Instead, it begins with a long slow movement that revolves around its own axis like a giant, lonely planet in space. Followed by two very fast movements. This is how the composer himself imagined »spring, joy, youth«. It will most definitely be a splendid musical experience!

Vladimir Jurowski & Yunchan Lim

Concert broadcast: The concert will be broadcast live on radio 3 on May 18, 2025, at 8:03 PM.

Guest performance

Guest performance

Guest performance

Guest performance Casual Concert

After the concert: Casual Concert Lounge with Live Act and DJ

Honeck & Rana

Who’s the bigger star here: the composer or the interpreter? The Italian pianist Beatrice Rana has often entered into the competition with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Though his mentor Nikolai Rubinstein considered it »bad, trivial, vulgar«, for almost 150 years now, it is one of the most widely performed hits whatsoever. No wonder when you consider its ingredients: gripping virtuosity, catchy tunes, and melodies that are worked up into a never-ending rapture.

Guest performance

Romantic soundscapes: Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Raphaël Pichon

Diverse tonal colours, intense emotions: These qualities characterise the music of the Romantic period. This concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra shows just how broad an expressive spectrum could be encompassed by works from this period. Franz Schubert is featured, with his lyrical and intriguing “Unfinished” Symphony and melancholy “Lacrimoso son io”; also on the programme are Mendelssohn's liltingly lively “Scottish”’ Symphony and Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll: a tender declaration of love to his wife Cosima. Raphaël Pichon, best-known for his refreshing approach to early music, conducts.

Tarmo Peltokoski

16 hours of operatic drama condensed to 75 minutes: Lorin Maazel’s ›The Ring Without Words‹ is a sort of »Wagner to go« with all the orchestra hits and leitmotifs. For newbies and dyed-in-the-wool Wagnerians. At the Bayreuth premiere of the entire »Ring« in 1876, a magic lantern was even deployed. In Kaija Saariaho’s orchestral piece of the same name as well, everything revolves around light and music. The composer incorporated sensuous sounds and iridescent colours into the work.

Guest performance

Guest performance Beethoven & Beat

Guest performance

Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” and Respighi’s “Fontane di Roma”

Colourful, festive, refined – Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” surprises us not only with its unexpected use of the organ, but also with its delicate sound textures. Kazuki Yamada, chief conductor of the orchestras in Birmingham and Monte-Carlo, conducts the work in his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker; the organ part is played by Sebastian Heindl.The symphany will be preceded by two different kinds of water music: Ottorino Respighi’s gaudy, shimmering tone poem Fontane di Roma and Tōru Takemitsu’s mystical I Hear the Water Dreaming, featuring our solo flautist Emmanuel Pahud.