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Philharmonie Berlin, Main Auditorium (Berlin)
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As the nights grow longer during the dark season, we find joy in cozying up and dedicating time to our dreams. Accompanied by Robin Poell, we embark on musical adventures exploring nocturnal figures encountered in our dreams. The music evokes vivid dreams, twinkling stars, or lulls us gently to sleep – various night music experiences.
Continuing its close collaboration with the Pierre Boulez Saal, the Belcea Quartet returns to Berlin for two concerts. Following a performance of string quartets by Arnold Schoenberg and Ludwig van Beethoven, the four musicians will be joined by students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie two days later for the rousing String Octet by 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn.
Piano students from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music visited C. Bechstein.
When Felix Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny died unexpectedly in 1847, the composer confessed to feeling “the greatest emptiness and barrenness in my mind and heart.” He poured his grief into his F-minor String Quartet, which was to remain the last quartet he completed before passing away himself just a few months later. The Berlin Staatskapelle String Quartet combines this instrumental requiem with Gustav Mahler’s Rückert Songs—works that also talk about love and leave-taking—in an arrangement by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, with Mojca Erdmann as the soloist. The songs will be interspersed with the individual movements of Hefti’s Sixth String Quartet, Fünf Szenen für Gustav. Schubert’s youthful G-minor Quartet, written when the composer was just 18 years old, completes the program.
As the nights grow longer during the dark season, we find joy in cozying up and dedicating time to our dreams. Accompanied by Robin Poell, we embark on musical adventures exploring nocturnal figures encountered in our dreams. The music evokes vivid dreams, twinkling stars, or lulls us gently to sleep – various night music experiences.
Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Yevgeny Kissin, Cecilia Bartoli, Daniil Trifonov and many others presented themselves to a Berlin audience for the first time here: kicked off in 1959 under the title ›RIAS stellt vor‹ (RIAS presents), the ›Debüt im Deutschlandfunk Kultur‹ concert series presents the most interesting young musicians through the present day; they can be heard not only in the Berliner Philharmonie, but also on the radio all across Germany. Get to know tomorrow’s stars today alongside the DSO!
A matinee to celebrate the association's anniversary75 years ago, on 17 October 1949, our association was founded. Its aim was to build a new concert hall for the Berliner Philharmoniker, who had become homeless during World War II. The “Friends” formed a large citizens' initiative and, with their contributions and donation campaigns, made a significant impact on the opening of the Philharmonie, which was designed by Hans Scharoun, in 1963. But there was still a lot to do afterwards: The chamber music hall opened its doors in 1987, the orchestra received valuable instruments, and many major projects such as the Philharmoniker's Europakonzert were realised with our support. We want to celebrate this round birthday: with prominent guests and, of course, with great music played by members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Afterwards, we will celebrate the anniversary together in the foyer.
In Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the Berliner Philharmoniker can explore the full spectrum of music-making, from intimacy in chamber music passages to its characteristically powerful tutti sound. Like Bruckner’s work, Mendelssohn’s violin concerto also emerged from the Romantic period – yet it inhabits a completely different sound world, filled with light and radiance. Conductor Marek Janowski is particularly highly regarded for his work in this repertoire. Augustin Hadelich, celebrated for his wonderfully lyrical sound at his debut three years ago, returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist.
The Leonkoro Quartet has enjoyed a meteoric rise to success. Founded in 2019, the ensemble is already at home on international concert stages, making its celebrated Philharmonie debut in February 2024. “The Leonkoro Quartet’s risk-conscious power of intensity is legendary. Its virtuosity is unbelievably natural,” wrote the Tagesspiegel afterwards. The young musicians return this season – with an energetic string quartet by our composer in residence Wolfgang Rihm, who died in July of this year, a wonderfully melodic opus by Felix Mendelssohn, and a key work from Beethoven’ s late oeuvre.
In Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the Berliner Philharmoniker can explore the full spectrum of music-making, from intimacy in chamber music passages to its characteristically powerful tutti sound. Like Bruckner’s work, Mendelssohn’s violin concerto also emerged from the Romantic period – yet it inhabits a completely different sound world, filled with light and radiance. Conductor Marek Janowski is particularly highly regarded for his work in this repertoire. Augustin Hadelich, celebrated for his wonderfully lyrical sound at his debut three years ago, returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist.
In Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the Berliner Philharmoniker can explore the full spectrum of music-making, from intimacy in chamber music passages to its characteristically powerful tutti sound. Like Bruckner’s work, Mendelssohn’s violin concerto also emerged from the Romantic period – yet it inhabits a completely different sound world, filled with light and radiance. Conductor Marek Janowski is particularly highly regarded for his work in this repertoire. Augustin Hadelich, celebrated for his wonderfully lyrical sound at his debut three years ago, returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist.
Musik der Hoch- und Spätromantik, dazu ein Werk der Gegenwart. Christian Thielemann spannt in seinem ersten Konzert als neuer Generalmusikdirektor den Bogen von Mendelssohn über Schönberg bis zu dem jungen kanadischen Komponisten Samy Moussa, dessen farbenreiches Orchesterstück Elysium unter seiner Leitung 2021 in der Sagrada Familia in Barcelona zur Uraufführung gebracht worden ist. Igor Levit ist der Solist von Mendelssohns 1837 komponiertem 2. Klavierkonzert mit seinen ernsten wie lyrischen Tönen, während Schönbergs zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts nach dem Drama von Maurice Maeterlinck entstandene, opulent besetzte Tondichtung Pelleas und Melisande seine Verwurzelung in der spätromantischen Klang- und Ausdruckswelt demonstriert.
Not only as a big symphonic ensemble, but also as the Konzerthaus Chamber Orchestra our Konzerthausorchester musicians come together several times each season – this time under the direction of of our First Concertmaster Sayako Kusaka. They choose the pieces and instrumentation for their concerts themselves.
Tempestuous, spontaneous, subversive—and preferably barefoot. That describes Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. She hates perfection and polished surfaces. And she will go all out in Bartók’s 2nd Violin Concerto from 1939 as well. She shreds wildly with the bow on her valuable instrument, as can be seen in a YouTube video, grinning and asking herself: »Why the heck did I become a violinist?« Why indeed? Quite simply because she can play—sensationally well. Which means: her concert is not to be missed!
