| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Apr-2013 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Hope in adversity: The Berlin Philharmonic and Radio Choir perform Tippett and Dean | Matthew Lynch |
 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 | Aksel Tollåli |
 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.
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| 31-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 64: Brahms and Lutosławski with the Berliner Philharmoniker | Matthew Lynch |
 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 | David Karlin |
 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... | ||
| 23-Feb-2012 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic study musical portraiture | Zerbinetta |
 The composers Debussy, Dvořák, Schoenberg and Elgar and aren’t often associated with each other, but they featured together in the first of three concerts in Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. The works on the program, it turned out, all dated from the 1890s and all were program music. But Rattle and the orchestra, while technically flawless, only seemed to connect with the material at some points.
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| 15-Feb-2012 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Poetry in motion with the Berlin Philharmonic | Katherine Dixson, katherinedixson.co.uk |
 Outside, it was as cold as Narnia. But as a lone flute piped the haunting opening phrases of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, we were transported to the warmth of a dreamy afternoon. We were off on a journey around European folk-tales and legends at the end of the 19th century. Debussy’s work was based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, in which, through a stream of imagery, he describes a mythical creature’s post-slumber pursuit of nymphs in forest glades, before succumbing to intoxicating sleep once more.Read full review... | ||
| 9-Feb-2012 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Rattle & Berlin Philharmonic present Bruckner's Ninth with Finale | Ken Ward, Editor, The Bruckner Journal |
 Mat Henneck EMI.jpg) The Adagio of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony differs in several ways from its predecessors, one being that its climax is built on its most grief-stricken and agonised theme. The rising D major trumpet motive that might have delivered a glorious vision at the summit seems forgotten, and instead the wrenching leap of a ninth that opens the movement is piled up into a massive dissonance. In these performances by the Berlin Philharmonic it goes without saying that the orchestral sound was totally overwhelming.Read full review... | ||
| 7-Apr-2011 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Purcell and Mahler at the Berlin Philharmonie | David Karlin |
 Last night was my first ever visit to the Berlin Philharmonie, and it couldn't have been more eagerly awaited: if you'd asked me to name the work I most wanted to see here, it would have been Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker in Mahler 5. But I settled into my seat with slight trepidation: after all that anticipation, what would I write if it wasn't up to standard?
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