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The Berliner Philharmoniker’s 2011/2012 season will be focusing on the 1890s. During these years of grandiloquent, ear-splitting music, universal historic validity was claimed for orchestral works like the powerful symphonic quadriga that can be experienced next season in the Philharmonie: Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” (1893), Mahler’s “Resurrection” (1895), as part of the complete cycle, Bruckner’s Ninth (1896) and Dvořák’s “New World”. But alongside such expansive works, the decade also produced quiet idylls of exquisite euphony, chamber-music masterpieces headed by the compositions of Johannes Brahms, who not only represented his age but also transcended it. Also typical of the period are the creations of Max Bruch, Hugo Wolf, Max Reger and August Klughardt.
The Berliner Philharmoniker’s focus on Berio pays homage to an outstanding, completely undogmatic creator of new music. His works reflect the Italian composer’s extensive and profound experience with his great musical forebears, especially with Gustav Mahler. Eight of his 14 Sequenzas – a cycle of solo works, some in orchestral versions – will be presented by members of the orchestra. The new Late Night series, which directly follows five concerts in the big auditorium, offers an ideal venue for the Berio pieces, which will be presented in context with other major examples of new music.
Soloists have been a permanent fixture of Philharmonic concerts since 1882. Current and former players have made solo appearances with the orchestra, as have touring virtuosi and famous artists who settled in Berlin. Along with internationally prominent guests, the 2011/2012 season is providing four musicians from the Philharmonic’s own ranks with grateful assignments. The trumpeter Gábor Tarkövi will be heard with percussionist Jan Schlichte in Wolfgang Rihm’s rhapsody Marsyas; Daniel Stabrawa will revive the Third Violin Concerto of the Hungarian Jenő Hubay; Guy Braunstein dedicates his virtuosity to the Violin Concerto by Brahms and Albrecht Mayer will bring his to bear on Richard Strauss’s late Oboe Concerto.
The world of vocal music embraces so much more than just a voice with piano accompaniment. The concert series Singers illuminates different facets of vocal delivery. Gerald Finley will be accompanied by a string quartet and a trio consisting of oboe, viola and piano, while Magdalena Kožená will be joined by Berlin’s Scharoun Ensemble. Of course, there will also be “classical” song recitals, though with exceptional programmes: Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Liszt, Fauré, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky; Jonas Kaufmann has chosen songs by Duparc, Mahler and Strauss; Sophie Karthäuser is juxtaposing Verlaine settings by Debussy, Foccroulle and Hahn; while Joyce DiDonato goes on a musical journey to Venice.
The quartet concert is the classical form of chamber performance, and thus the six evenings making up the series Quartet are cornerstones of the Philharmonic’s chamber music. Once again this season leading international ensembles will be coming to Berlin, including the Cuarteto Casals, the Vogler Quartet, the Fine Arts Quartet and the Emerson Quartet. The Philharmonie will also celebrate a major anniversary of one of its own ensembles: 25 years since the founding of the Philharmonia Quartet. In the Chamber Music Prism series, other formations – piano trio, wind quintet and brass ensemble – will present repertoire ranging from the early Baroque of Michael Praetorius to contemporary pieces.
The roster of artists who will be seating themselves at the Chamber Music Hall’s Steinway grand in the Piano series is highly international: along with familiar faces like the Italian Maurizio Pollini, the Chinese Lang Lang and New York-born Murray Perahia – this year’s Pianist in Residence – we welcome three Philharmonic debutants: the British Christian Blackshaw as well as the French Lise de la Salle and American Jonathan Biss, two outstanding talents of the young generation.
Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s closest and longest-standing musical partners. Again in the 2011/12 the chorus and the orchestra will join forces for exciting projects, among them the world premiere of Jonathan Harvey’s new Weltethos and performances of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. But other renowned choruses will also be collaborating with the Philharmonic: MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig (Mahler: Symphony No. 8), Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Beethoven: Missa Solemnis), RIAS Kammerchor (Debussy: Nocturnes) and the Boys of Berlin’s Staats- und Domchor (Mahler: Symphony No. 8).
