Concert information
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Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony has long been one of the composer’s underrated works. According to Sir Simon Rattle, this is because it doesn’t offer what people usually expect of a Bruckner symphony. It is shorter, more transparent and less solemn than usual, “a piece full of humour and daring”. Bruckner himself seems to have seen it that way, for he whimsically declared the Sixth to be his “boldest”. To open the programme, Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto written by Jörg Widmann, this season’s Composer-in-Residence, for our principal horn-player Stefan Dohr.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle conductor
Stefan Dohr french horn
Programme
Jörg Widmann
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (Premiere) commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation
Stefan Dohr french horn
Interval
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 6 in A major
Main Auditorium
37 to 103 €
Introduction
19:15
Series C: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
37 to 103 €
Introduction
19:15
Series B: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
37 to 103 €
Introduction
18:15
Series I: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
”Let there be sound”
Jörg Widmann has written a horn concerto for Stefan Dohr
Widmann and Dohr in conversation
“At least at the beginning, the piece could also be called ‘Let there be sound’,” reveals Jörg Widmann. The horn concerto, which he wrote for principal horn-player Stefan Dohr, will be premiered this week at the Philharmonie Berlin under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. In this video, Widmann and Dohr tell us more about the genesis of the composition.
The Misfit
Seeking Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was a God-fearing Catholic from a simple family background. Brought up in the Austrian provinces, he was always an outsider in Vienna’s polite society. The many anecdotes about his strange behaviour make it hard to assess his character objectively. Who was Bruckner and what motivated him? In search of the evidence.
Biographies
Sir Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle was obsessed with music from an early age. He began learning the drums at the age of four, later adding piano and violin, and at the age of 16 he was already studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His collaboration with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - first as principal conductor and artistic advisor, then as music director - made the Liverpool-born conductor famous. At his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1987, he impressed with his energetic conducting style, his unconditional enthusiasm for the music, and his artistic vision. He became chief conductor of the orchestra in 2002.
During his 16-year tenure, he and the musicians set the course for the future: the education programme, the Digital Concert Hall and the Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings label were founded, The orchestra's repertoire grew considerably with the addition of new works. In addition to symphonic cycles by Sibelius, Mahler, Brahms, Schumann and Beethoven, artistic highlights of the collaboration included the performances of Bach's St Matthew and St John Passion staged by Peter Sellars and the introduction of the Late Night Concerts. Even after the end of his tenure, Sir Simon Rattle - Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2017 to 2023 and Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra since 2023/24 - remains closely associated with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Stefan Dohr
Stefan Dohr has a ‘thunderous tone that resounds throughout the valley’, according to the Berliner Zeitung, as well as a ‘delicate piano that sounds as if from afar’ (Badische Zeitung). As a celebrated soloist, chamber musician and as principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he is a permanent fixture on the international horn scene. As a solo horn player, he is, in his own words, ‘a kind of mediator between the instrumental groups, but also a soloist in Mahler or Bruckner symphonies, for example’.
In addition to the classical and romantic repertoire, Stefan Dohr loves contemporary music. His technical abililities and hunger for discovery have repeatedly inspired composers to write works for him, exploring the possibilities of the horn in new ways. He has also performed in several world premieres with the Berliner Philharmoniker, most recently with Toshio Hosokawa's Moment of Blossoming and Hans Abrahamsen's Horn Concerto. Born in Münster, he studied in Essen and Cologne and was principal horn in the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1993. He has taught at the Karajan Academy, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and the Royal College of Music in London.
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