Series Q
Berliner Philharmoniker Ensembles Series Q Berliner Philharmoniker Ensembles

Series Q

Included: six concerts
Prices: 90 to 156 €

The great works of classical music are celebrated in concert halls around the world. This makes it all the easier to forget that many of them were highly controversial in their time. The season focus Kontrovers! (Controversial!) explores the strikingly different concepts various composers brought to the table. Our series, performed by ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker, offers a chamber music perspective on these artistic rivalries.

Ever since the film Amadeus, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri have been regarded as the most famous adversaries in music history. The film’s master stroke is its portrayal of Salieri as a composer tormented by Mozart’s genius, while simultaneously enjoying greater public success. A programme dedicated to this rivalry features Mozart’s Horn Quintet, a rarely heard gem.

It is a curious case: Brahms and Bruckner were both devoted to the late-Romantic symphony – yet they stood in stark opposition to each other. Here, they meet in works for string quintet. Falling into obscurity was a real risk for those who refused to take sides in the bitterly divided musical landscape of the time, as illustrated by the fate of Joachim Raff, almost forgotten today. His Sinfonietta for Winds, with its exquisite melodies, is a fascinating discovery.

Another work by Brahms sheds light on the Parisian music scene, where French composers at the turn of the 20th century struggled to assert themselves against the dominance of German repertoire. It was only with the rise of young talents like Maurice Ravel that a powerful counter-movement emerged.

Conflicts also shaped the modern music scene. Dmitri Shostakovich, a master of unfiltered expressivity, dismissed Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique as “narrow-minded dogmatism.” Two concerts in the series highlight not only the stark differences in their musical languages, but also a surprising similarity: both composers wrote personal, biographically influenced music. Schoenberg’s String Trio, inspired by a near-death experience, and Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet, reflecting on war and Stalinism, offer striking examples of this shared introspective approach.