Concert information
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For a long time, Johannes Brahms struggled with his First Symphony; yet the piece would ultimately establish him as the leading symphonist of his era. Dark, full of tension and yet deeply heartfelt, his First is regarded as the epitome of the late Romantic symphony. Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker open the 2025/26 season with this masterpiece. The evening begins with Robert Schumann’s passionate Manfred Overture. A striking contrast comes with Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s virtuosic Oboe Concerto, with the solo part performed by Albrecht Mayer, principal oboist of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Albrecht Mayer oboe
Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Programme
Robert Schumann
Manfred Overture, op. 115
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko conductor
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko conductor, Albrecht Mayer oboe
Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko conductor
Additional information
Duration ca. 2 hours (incl. 20 minutes interval)
Season opening concert in partnership with Deutsche Bank
Main Auditorium
49 to 156 €
Introduction
18:15
To fresh woods, and pastures new
Brahms’s long road to the symphony
Every Romantic composer was faced with the question of how they could continue to write symphonies when Beethoven had already said all that there was to say on the subject. Their answers were many and varied. Several continued, undaunted, to write works based on traditional models, but most of these symphonies have now been forgotten. Brahms, for his part, chose a more laborious route: He reinvented the symphony.
Biographies
Kirill Petrenko
Kirill Petrenko has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since the 2019/20 season. Born in Omsk in Siberia, he received his training first in his home town and later in Austria. He established his conducting career in opera with positions at the Meininger Theater and the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2013 to 2020, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also made guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses, including Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden in London, the Opéra national in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Bayreuth Festival.
Moreover, he has conducted the major international symphony orchestras – in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Chicago, Cleveland and Israel. Since his debut in 2006, a variety of programmatic themes have emerged in his work together with the Berliner Philharmoniker. These include work on the orchestra’s core Classical-Romantic repertoire, for example with symphonies by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Unjustly forgotten composers such as Josef Suk and Erich Wolfgang Korngold are another of Kirill Petrenko’s interests. Russian works are also highlighted, with performances of Tchaikovsky’s operas Mazeppa, Iolanta and The Queen of Spades attracting particular attention recently.
Albrecht Mayer
Albrecht Mayer, principal oboist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, is one of the most sought-after oboists in the world. His sound ideal is inspired by the Baroque oboe, which, as he says, serves as an “instrumental ‘vox humana’ across all registers, offering a wonderfully warm tone.” Mayer draws inspiration both from singers like Fritz Wunderlich and from instrumentalists like Daniel Barenboim ("when he plays a Mozart piano concerto"). As a child, Mayer received piano and recorder lessons as well as vocal training, before beginning the oboe at the age of ten. His professional career began in 1990 as principal oboist of the Bamberg Symphony, and in 1992 he joined the Berliner Philharmoniker.
To fully realise his artistic vision, Mayer, who has won multiple Echo Awards, founded the ensemble New Seasons. His CD On Mozart’s Trail remained in the German classical charts for months, while the album New Seasons, featuring Handel transcriptions, even reached the German pop charts. As a soloist, Albrecht Mayer has collaborated with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He is also an enthusiastic chamber musician, having performed with partners such as Hélène Grimaud, Leif Ove Andsnes, and the late Lars Vogt.
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