Concert information
Info
Acclaimed for his distinctive and imaginative interpretations, Víkingur Ólafsson joins the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko at short notice, stepping in for the indisposed Daniil Trifonov as soloist in Johannes Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. Written when Brahms was still in his twenties, the concerto combines symphonic scale and power with moments of intimate dialogue between piano and orchestra. The concert’s second half features Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. Opening with a hymn-like sunrise, the work traces the philosopher Zarathustra’s journey to humanity: dramatic, mystical and splendorous in sound.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Víkingur Ólafsson piano (replacing Daniil Trifonov)
Programme
Johannes Brahms
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in D minor, op. 15
Víkingur Ólafsson piano (replacing Daniil Trifonov)
Interval
Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus spoke Zarathustra), op. 30
Additional information
Duration ca. 2 hours (incl. 20 minutes interval)
Dates and tickets
Main Auditorium
50 to 161 €
Introduction
19:15
with Dr. Kerstin Schüssler-Bach
Series F: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
50 to 161 €
Introduction
19:15
with Dr. Kerstin Schüssler-Bach
Series K: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
50 to 161 €
Introduction
18:15
with Dr. Kerstin Schüssler-Bach
Series N: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Background
Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra”
Five questions about the famous work
We all know them: the first five notes of Richard Strauss’ tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra. Loosely based on the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s novel of the same name published fifteen years earlier, the work is now one of the best known in the classical repertoire, not least thanks to its almost excessive use in film and television. But who was Zarathustra? Why has the work achieved such cult status? And what is the connection between it and the Berliner Philharmoniker? We have compiled answers to five such questions for you.
Biography
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 Staatstheater Meiningen 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, most notably with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony when he took up his post. Unjustly forgotten composers such as Josef Suk and Bernd Alois Zimmermann are another of Kirill Petrenko’s interests. In opera performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Richard Strauss’ Elektra and Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly have recently attracted attention.
Víkingur Ólafsson
The Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has become one of the most distinctive musical voices of his generation. Gramophone named him Artist of the Year in 2019; further honours include the 2022 Rolf Schock Prize, two Opus Klassik awards for solo recording and a Grammy Award in 2025 for his recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. His wide-ranging discography includes music by Philip Glass, Claude Debussy, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach.
A graduate of the Juilliard School in New York, Víkingur Ólafsson performs regularly with orchestras including the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Czech Philharmonic. He made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in December 2022 as soloist in John Adams’s Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? Alongside his work as a performer, Ólafsson is also known for his ability to communicate music to broad audiences through radio and television projects. During the coronavirus lockdown, he served as Artist in Residence for the BBC’s classical music programming, appearing for three months on Front Row from Reykjavík’s empty Harpa Concert Hall and introducing audiences around the world to music especially close to him.
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