Live at the Brandenburg Gate: Kirill Petrenko conducts Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker welcome you to this special concert in front of the wonderful backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate – and you are certain to be looking forward to getting to know the orchestra’s new chief conductor. So share in the magic of this unique moment, and together with Kirill Petrenko and the musicians, experience the captivating power of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, from the first mysterious notes to the grand finale with the final chorus of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”. The enthusiasm with which Kirill Petrenko and the Philharmoniker embark on their future together cannot be expressed more vividly.

We hope that tonight you feel part of a community connected by music, and that you will want to continue accompanying the conductor and orchestra on their journey together. The 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth will be commemorated around the world in 2020, and his music is to be an important focus of our concerts in the Philharmonie and on tour – but not the only one: Kirill Petrenko shows many different artistic facets in his first season, and you can find out more about these in detail in our season preview (available free of charge at the Philharmonie shop stand) and here on our website. You can also find out more about Kirill Petrenko on our special page (www.petrenko-live.de/en) where you can listen to excerpts from his concerts, read an article about the man and his career, take note of his performance dates with the Berliner Philharmoniker and order his first CD release with the orchestra: Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, which was recorded in March 2017 and was highly praised and acclaimed by the press. If you would like to take this CD home with you, the Philharmonie shop has a stall on the open-air site where you can buy not only Petrenko’s first CD with the Berliner Philharmoniker, but also other orchestra-related articles.

You can view this concert, which is being broadcast live on rbb television, later when you are at home in the Digital Concert Hall, the virtual concert hall of the Berliner Philharmoniker (www.digitalconcerthall.com). There you will not only find Kirill Petrenko’s inaugural concert, which he gave yesterday in the Philharmonie, and today’s open-air concert, but almost of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s concerts since 2009. Especially if you do not live in Berlin and are a visitor in the city today to participate in this event, the Digital Concert Hall offers the ideal opportunity to continue following the world of the Berliner Philharmoniker. There are many ways to accompany the orchestra and Kirill Petrenko on their journey together: on our website, in the Digital Concert Hall, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. However, the most beautiful thing is – and will be – to experience the concerts live, just like tonight.