Berliner Philharmoniker Stories
Discover all the background stories, interviews, portraits, essays and backstage stories about the Berliner Philharmoniker.
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The Misfit
Seeking Anton Bruckner
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With pomp and circumstance
The Baroque – an age of superlatives
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A magician with grey-green eyes
Composer Karol Szymanowski in portrait
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Between morbidity and life force
The fin de siècle
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Schoenberg’s Slap-in-the-Face Concert
A memorable Schoenberg performance in 1913
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A happy couple
A portrait of violist Antoine Tamestit
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Newly discovered
Henri Dutilleux's First Symphony is a masterpiece.
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Lightning-fast keyboard wizardry
Ludwig van Beethoven the pianist
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They prevent the worst from happening
Wagner’s female characters are the secret heroines of the opera plot.
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The “Don Juan” conflict
Richard Strauss owed practically everything to Hans von Bülow. Their mutual admiration seemed boundless, until a performance of Don Juan in Berlin.
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Portrait: Robin Ticciati
At the beginning of December, Robin Ticciati made his long-awaited debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
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It should never have worked
The genesis of Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra
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Mozart’s last three symphonies
In the jungle of myths
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The Fragility of Love
Gustav and Alma Mahler
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Dvořák’s path to fame
From orchestral musician to national composer – Antonín Dvořák had an unprecedented career. Thanks to his musical genius and his mentor.
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Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen”
An introduction
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What is actually... the ondes Martenot?
Interesting facts about a bizarre instrument
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Richard Strauss – a hero?
In »Ein Heldenleben« – A Hero’s Life – Strauss portrayed no one but himself. What was so heroic about him, however, the composer did not reveal. So, how heroic was he in real life?
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“Your friendship is as indispensable to me now as the air I breathe”
The remarkable friendship of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck
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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.
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The Man Who Knows No Fear
A portrait of the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä.
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If I were not a musician ...
Violist Martin von der Nahmer can really relax while cooking.
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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.
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If I were not a musician ...
The violinist could possibly have pursued a career as a professional athlete.
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The German California
An intellectual elite fled from the Nazis into American exile, including Arnold Schönberg, Thomas Mann and many others.
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In celebration of Hans Scharoun
A declaration of love to his most famous building: the Philharmonie Berlin.
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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.
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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.
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A classical “one-hit wonder”?
The French composer Paul Dukas
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People around Mahler
“Those who loved him became a part of his being.”
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“My angel, my all, my own self”
Who was Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”?
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If I were not a musician ...
Cellist Nikolaus Römisch has another team.
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“The rushing gale of our great epoch”
Mahler and the road to symphonic grandeur
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Yearningly successful
Antonín Dvořák in America
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If I weren’t a musician… Raphael Haeger
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A short piano lexicon
What is a prepared piano?
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Does God speak Italian?
Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” is a trial of strength between art and the Church.
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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?
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If I were not a musician...
With violinist Anna Mehlin, for whom perfection and dedication are important not only in music.
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Brightening up sleepless nights
The mysteries of the “Goldberg Variations”
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Triumph in Moscow
Shostakovich’s Tenth and the Berliner Philharmoniker
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Fleeing, pursuing, coming together
The fascinating world of the fugue
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If I were not a musician ...
with principal cellist Bruno Delepelaire
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Lord of the score
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Clara Schumann and the Berliner Philharmoniker
On the 200th birthday of the pianist and composer
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The Networkers
Russian composers between East and West
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A Finn in Berlin
Jean Sibelius and the Berliner Philharmoniker
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Into the realm of dreams
The medium of film and its music in the 1920s