Berliner Philharmoniker Stories

What is actually... the ondes Martenot?

Interesting facts about a bizarre instrument

More than just Sibelius

A brief history of Finnish music

The Springtime of Love

For Robert Schumann, the early years of his marriage to Clara Wieck were a time of happiness and exuberant creativity. Some of his finest works date from this period.

The Man Who Knows No Fear

A portrait of the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä.

If I were not a musician ...

Violist Martin von der Nahmer can really relax while cooking.

“It’s never enough, it can never be too much”

Emmanuelle Haïm in portrait

The calligraphy of sounds

A portrait of the composer Toshio Hosokawa

Clocks and clouds

On the 100th birthday of composer György Ligeti.

Arnold Schönerg: Premiere op. 31

Schönberg’s Variations for Orchestra are among the most demanding works ever composed for a large symphony orchestra. The premiere, however, turned into a fiasco.

“Composing is a slow burn”

A conversation with Esa-Pekka Salonen

Who was Elijah?

If I were not a musician ...

The violinist could possibly have pursued a career as a professional athlete.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Ballet

Tchaikovsky is rightly considered the maestro of ballet music. He defended it against contemporaries who classified it as mere incidental music. A love story.

The German California

An intellectual elite fled from the Nazis into American exile, including Arnold Schönberg, Thomas Mann and many others.

In memory of Hans Scharoun

A declaration of love to his most famous building: the Philharmonie Berlin.

Korngold and the Berliner Philharmoniker

What a start! Erich Wolfgang Korngold was just 15 years young when the Berliner Philharmoniker performed his Schauspiel Overture op. 4 in December 1912.

Christoph Hartmann: If I were not a musician ...

In this section, we introduce members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and their extramusical passions. Today: Christoph Hartmann, who designs bicycles.

Modern Mozart

Double portrait of Sabine Devieilhe and Maxim Emelyanychev

A classical “one-hit wonder”?

The French composer Paul Dukas

Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra”

Five questions about the famous work

“My angel, my all, my own self”

Who was Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”?

If I were not a musician ...

Cellist Nikolaus Römisch has another team.

People around Mahler

“Those who loved him became a part of his being.”

“The rushing gale of our great epoch”

Mahler and the road to symphonic grandeur

Of burnt kettles and intoxicating bass concerts

Solo bassist Matthew McDonald in conversation

Yearningly successful

Antonín Dvořák in America

Fifty Years of the Karajan Academy

A success story: the Karajan Academy has been training young orchestral talent since 1972

Richard Strauss and the Berliner Philharmoniker

On the 70th anniversary of the composer’s death

Bizarre, ingenious, forgotten

The Danish composer Rued Langgaard was an eccentric who for the most part found himself at odds with his fellow human beings.

If I weren’t a musician… Raphael Haeger

A short piano lexicon

What is a prepared piano?

Does God speak Italian?

Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” is a trial of strength between art and the Church.

With pomp and circumstance

The Baroque – an age of superlatives

9 Facts you (perhaps) didn't know about Verdi

You can hum along to “La donna è mobile” in your sleep, but did you know that Verdi was a vintner, a member of parliament and a keen foodie?

Jesper Busk Sørensen

If I were not a musician ...

If I were not a musician...

With violinist Anna Mehlin, for whom perfection and dedication are important not only in music.

And the Pain Remains Forever

A portrait of Mieczysław Weinberg

Brightening up sleepless nights

The mysteries of the “Goldberg Variations”

Triumph in Moscow

Shostakovich’s Tenth and the Berliner Philharmoniker

Boards that mean the world

A new stage floor for the Philharmonie

Fleeing, pursuing, coming together

The fascinating world of the fugue

“Ask Augustin”

Portrait of violinist Augustin Hadelich

If I were not a musician ...

with principal cellist Bruno Delepelaire

Lord of the score

Clara Schumann and the Berliner Philharmoniker

On the 200th birthday of the pianist and composer

The Networkers

Russian composers between East and West

A Finn in Berlin

Jean Sibelius and the Berliner Philharmoniker

Into the realm of dreams

The medium of film and its music in the 1920s