| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 26-Apr-2013 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Hope in adversity: The Berlin Philharmonic and Radio Choir perform Tippett and Dean |
 Programming is a delicate art, and one which is difficult to get right. However, it is one of Simon Rattle’s fortes, and this was clearly evident in Friday night’s concert. Both works on the programme, Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time are large-scale oratorios dealing with difficult subject matter, and it is highly unusual to pair such works. But they both share one overarching theme: hope in the face of adversity. Though full of despair and sorrow, it is hope that draws both works to a close.Read full review... | |
| 15-Nov-2012 Oslo Opera House, Main Stage | A celebration of sound: The Berlin Philharmonic in the Oslo Opera House |
 How very fitting that the Berlin Philharmonic, an orchestra that claims to be made up of 128 soloists, should start Thursday’s concert and their European tour with perhaps one of the most soloistic orchestral pieces ever written: Ligeti’s Atmosphères.
Read full review... | |
| 31-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 64: Brahms and Lutosławski with the Berliner Philharmoniker |
 While the connections between Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2 and Lutosławski’s Symphony no. 3 may appear tenuous at first, there is a beautiful symmetry here. In 1878, Brahms had finally started writing symphonies, and though the first was long in gestation the second and third followed fluidly. It was in the midst of this that the second piano concerto was written, and it is something of a hybrid, being neither concerto nor symphony. There’s a sense of the concerto soloist competing for attention with the orchestra, who seem convinced they’re playing a symphony.Read full review... | |
| 30-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 63: Texture and atmosphere is all from the Berliner Philharmoniker |
 It was, truly, music from another world. Opening the concert with György Ligeti's 1961 Atmosphères, the Berliner Philharmoniker started with the gentlest of wafting string tones with clustered woodwind sounding almost organ-like, whereupon layer after layer piled in, an infinite variety of orchestral textures shifting and swirling. Mid way through this eight-minute piece, we jump from an ear-splitting, scary motif on the highest notes of a piccolo down to a thunderous passage on double basses, followed by the gentle swelling of strings, which morphs into a buzzing swarm.Read full review... | |
