Enriching

Debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

(Photo: Heribert Schindler)

What could be more exciting than first encounters?  This is just as true in everyday life as it is on the concert stage when a conductor or soloist makes their debut. In the 2023/24 season, the Berliner Philharmoniker will be very open to new encounters and will welcome many new guests, including three young composers.

The soloists making their debuts come from France, Italy and the USA. What they have in common is that they all come from musical families, which gave them valuable inspiration along the way, and allowed them to grow artistically from an early age. The pianist Alexandre Kantorow, for example, won the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 22 – the first Frenchman ever to do so. He makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Franz Liszt’s virtuosic, intensely emotional Second Piano Concerto. His Italian colleague Beatrice Rana is considered an outstanding pianist of the young generation, whose playing impresses with sensitivity and creative power. For her debut, she presents the rarely heard Piano Concerto by the 16-year-old Clara Schumann, a work full of poetry and originality.

Antoine Tamestit delights audiences on the viola with his warm, richly coloured tone. In Jörg Widmann’s viola concerto, which is dedicated to Tamestit, the student of Tabea Zimmermann can show his instrument from a completely different tonal side – percussive, ferocious, and startling. A vocal soloist will also make her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker: the Arizona-born soprano Tamara Wilson, who boasts a voluminous, expressive soprano. This makes her ideally equipped for her guest appearance in Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung, a dramatic scene of almost boundless expressiveness.

Guests from the Far East and close to home

The South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her debut at the same time as Tamara Wilson. The former assistant to Kirill Petrenko especially enjoys acclaim at major opera houses from the New York Met to La Scala in Milan, and has been music director of San Francisco Opera since 2021. Fabio Luisi is also a distinguished opera conductor and a leading interpreter of the late Romantic repertoire. He presents us with two rarities from this era: Franz Schmidt’s subtly orchestrated Second Symphony and Alexander Scriabin’s passionate Piano Concerto with Yevgeny Kissin as the soloist.

A student of the legendary Jorma Panula and chief conductor of Finnish National Opera, the Finnish Hannu Lintu comes as a musical ambassador for his country when he presents Jean Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony and Kaija Saariaho’s orchestral piece Ciel d’hiver, among others. With conductor Riccardo Minasi, who comes from the field of historical performance practice, you can look forward to an all-Mozart programme, including the famous, dark-toned Symphony No. 40.

Eun-Sun Kim
(Photo: Nikolaj Lund)

There will also be a visitor from nearby: Robin Ticciati, chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, will appear with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time conducting Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and works by Antonín Dvořák and Ondřej Adámek. The start to all these conducting debuts is reserved for Jörg Widmann, who is also making his debut with the orchestra as Composer in Residence and clarinettist, immediately after the start of the season.

Hannu Lintu
(Photo: Veikko Kähkönen)

New works by the young generation

It is not only practising musicians who are making their debuts this season. Three young composers have also been commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time and are opening up new worlds of sound: Márton Illés, a student of Detlev Müller-Siemens and Wolfgang Rihm, already caused a sensation with his music at the age of 16. His trademark is a dense, perspective-spatial tonal language, but the gestures and rhythms of the language and folk music of his Hungarian homeland are also fundamental to him. “But not everything has Hungarian connotations,” he says, “I feel my musical syntax, for example, is very German. So I would see my compositions, not umlike Béla Bartók’s, as syntheses of multiple cultural resources.”

The Slovenian Vito Žuraj, also a student of Rihm and winner of the 2017 Claudio Abbado Composition Prize, creates compositions that often captivate with scenic elements and spatial sound concepts.  Time and again, they create puzzles that take up familiar works in a ingenious and alienating way. This has a thoroughly playful side, as Vito Žuraj explains: “Creativity means being the architect of your own playfulness. Because the core of playing is the exploration of limitless possibilities.”

The Serbian Milica Djordjević is also a winner of the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize. Her music sometimes seems raw and wild, deliberately refusing to sound beautiful and instead offering a directness and vitality that strikes at the heart. Milica Djordjević unleashes dramas full of verve in her pieces and hopes that this intensity is transmitted to the musicians and the audience.  “When you write something with passion,” she says, “you expect it to be played with passion and heard with passion.”

Debuts 2023/24

Saturday,

09 Sep 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: A – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 09 Sep 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Musikfest Berlin

Berliner Philharmoniker

Jörg Widmann conductor and clarinet

Carolin Widmann violin

Works by Jörg Widmann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Read more Watch online

Sunday,

10 Sep 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: B – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sun 10 Sep 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Musikfest Berlin

Berliner Philharmoniker

Jörg Widmann conductor and clarinet

Carolin Widmann violin

Works by Jörg Widmann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Read more

Thursday,

14 Sep 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: C – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 14 Sep 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Musikfest Berlin

Berliner Philharmoniker

Kirill Petrenko conductor

Christian Gerhaher baritone

Works by Iannis Xenakis, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Márton Illés and György Kurtág

Read more

Friday,

15 Sep 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: M – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 15 Sep 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Musikfest Berlin

Berliner Philharmoniker

Kirill Petrenko conductor

Christian Gerhaher baritone

Works by Iannis Xenakis, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Márton Illés and György Kurtág

Read more

Saturday,

16 Sep 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: D – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 16 Sep 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Musikfest Berlin

Berliner Philharmoniker

Kirill Petrenko conductor

Christian Gerhaher baritone

Works by Iannis Xenakis, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Márton Illés and György Kurtág

Read more Watch online

Thursday,

28 Sep 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: G – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 28 Sep 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Tugan Sokhiev conductor

Alexandre Kantorow piano

Works by Franz Liszt and Dmitri Shostakovich

Read more

Friday,

29 Sep 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: H – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 29 Sep 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Tugan Sokhiev conductor

Alexandre Kantorow piano

Works by Franz Liszt and Dmitri Shostakovich

Read more

Saturday,

30 Sep 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: I – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 30 Sep 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Tugan Sokhiev conductor

Alexandre Kantorow piano

Works by Franz Liszt and Dmitri Shostakovich

Read more Watch online

Friday,

06 Oct 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: K – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 06 Oct 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Fabio Luisi conductor

Evgeny Kissin piano

Works by Marianna Martines, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schmidt

Read more

Saturday,

07 Oct 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: L – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 07 Oct 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Fabio Luisi conductor

Evgeny Kissin piano

Works by Marianna Martines, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schmidt

Read more Watch online

Sunday,

08 Oct 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: A – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sun 08 Oct 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Fabio Luisi conductor

Evgeny Kissin piano

Works by Marianna Martines, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schmidt

Read more

Thursday,

19 Oct 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: G – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 19 Oct 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Zubin Mehta conductor

Works by Boris Blacher, Milica Djordjević and Gustav Mahler

Read more

Friday,

20 Oct 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: M – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 20 Oct 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Zubin Mehta conductor

Works by Boris Blacher, Milica Djordjević and Gustav Mahler

Read more

Saturday,

21 Oct 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: E – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 21 Oct 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Zubin Mehta conductor

Works by Boris Blacher, Milica Djordjević and Gustav Mahler

Read more Watch online

Thursday,

26 Oct 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: I – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 26 Oct 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Riccardo Minasi conductor

Noah Bendix-Balgley violin

Thomas Timm violin

Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Read more

Friday,

27 Oct 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: H – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 27 Oct 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Riccardo Minasi conductor

Noah Bendix-Balgley violin

Thomas Timm violin

Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Read more

Saturday,

28 Oct 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: N – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 28 Oct 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Riccardo Minasi conductor

Noah Bendix-Balgley violin

Thomas Timm violin

Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Read more Watch online

Thursday,

07 Dec 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: A – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 07 Dec 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Robin Ticciati conductor

Elsa Benoit soprano

Works by Antonín Dvořák, Ondřej Adámek and Gustav Mahler

Read more

Friday,

08 Dec 2023,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: B – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 08 Dec 2023, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Robin Ticciati conductor

Elsa Benoit soprano

Works by Antonín Dvořák, Ondřej Adámek and Gustav Mahler

Read more

Saturday,

09 Dec 2023,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: F – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 09 Dec 2023, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Robin Ticciati conductor

Elsa Benoit soprano

Works by Antonín Dvořák, Ondřej Adámek and Gustav Mahler

Read more Watch online

Thursday,

18 Jan 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: L – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 18 Jan 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Daniel Harding conductor

Antoine Tamestit viola

Works by Jörg Widmann and Anton Bruckner

Read more

Friday,

19 Jan 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: K – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 19 Jan 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Daniel Harding conductor

Antoine Tamestit viola

Works by Jörg Widmann and Anton Bruckner

Read more

Saturday,

20 Jan 2024,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: A – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 20 Jan 2024, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Daniel Harding conductor

Antoine Tamestit viola

Works by Jörg Widmann and Anton Bruckner

Read more Watch online

Thursday,

11 Apr 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: B – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 11 Apr 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Hannu Lintu conductor

Vilde Frang violin

Works by Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, Kaija Saariaho and Jean Sibelius

Read more

Friday,

12 Apr 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: C – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 12 Apr 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Hannu Lintu conductor

Vilde Frang violin

Works by Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, Kaija Saariaho and Jean Sibelius

Read more

Saturday,

13 Apr 2024,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: D – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 13 Apr 2024, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Hannu Lintu conductor

Vilde Frang violin

Works by Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, Kaija Saariaho and Jean Sibelius

Read more Watch online

Thursday,

18 Apr 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: E – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 18 Apr 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Eun Sun Kim conductor

Tamara Wilson soprano

Works by Arnold Schoenberg and Sergei Rachmaninoff

Read more

Friday,

19 Apr 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: F – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 19 Apr 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Eun Sun Kim conductor

Tamara Wilson soprano

Works by Arnold Schoenberg and Sergei Rachmaninoff

Read more

Saturday,

20 Apr 2024,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: K – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 20 Apr 2024, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Eun Sun Kim conductor

Tamara Wilson soprano

Works by Arnold Schoenberg and Sergei Rachmaninoff

Read more Watch online

Saturday,

18 May 2024,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: L – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 18 May 2024, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

François-Xavier Roth conductor

Works by Vito Žuraj and Anton Bruckner

Read more Watch online

Sunday,

19 May 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: A – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sun 19 May 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

François-Xavier Roth conductor

Works by Vito Žuraj and Anton Bruckner

Read more

Thursday,

23 May 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: F – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Thu 23 May 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor

Beatrice Rana piano

Works by Clara Schumann and Dmitri Shostakovich

Read more

Friday,

24 May 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium

Series: E – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Fri 24 May 2024, 20:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor

Beatrice Rana piano

Works by Clara Schumann and Dmitri Shostakovich

Read more

Saturday,

25 May 2024,
19:00

Main Auditorium

Series: D – Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Sat 25 May 2024, 19:00
Main Auditorium

Berliner Philharmoniker

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor

Beatrice Rana piano

Works by Clara Schumann and Dmitri Shostakovich

Read more Watch online