Concert information
Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Tickets
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Nature, its beauty, its endangerment: These are the themes of our Biennale and of this concert, which takes us around the world. It begins with a new work by Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen, whose work is strongly inspired by her native Lapland. Brett Dean’s Fire Music in turn refers to a devastating bushfire in Australia in 2009. Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring takes us on to North America, while Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Chôros No. 10 echoes the birdsong of the Amazon. Marin Alsop makes her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Marin Alsop conductor
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Gijs Leenaars chorus master
Programme
Outi Tarkiainen
Day Night Day, commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Première)
Brett Dean
Fire Music for orchestra (German premiere)
Interval
Aaron Copland
Appalachian Spring Suite (1945)
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Chôros No. 10 ‟Rasga o coraçãoˮ for orchestra and mixed choir
Rundfunkchor Berlin, Gijs Leenaars chorus master
Main Auditorium
26 to 82 €
Introduction
19:15
Series G: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Also available as Biennale package
Main Auditorium
26 to 82 €
Introduction
19:15
Series M: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Also available as Biennale package
Main Auditorium
26 to 82 €
Introduction
18:15
Series K: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Also available as Biennale package
“Is what we’re doing enough?”
The conductor Marin Alsop
Titled “Paradise lost?”, the 2025 Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker takes the beauty of nature and the threat to which it is exposed as its starting point. Four depictions of nature from four different continents will be presented by Marin Alsop, a conductor who has broken down many barriers in the course of her unique career; this is her debut with the orchestra.
“I walked in the forest and come back with a song”
Interview with the Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen
Her spectral, evocative sounds have a seductive pull. In her works, Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen deals with nature and the threats it faces in a gentle but haunting way. At the Paradise lost? biennial, the Berliner Philharmoniker will present the world premiere of her new work Day Night Day. In this inverview, Outi Tarkiainen talks about why she became a composer and how nature and the traditions of the Sámi, the indigenous people of Finland inform her music.
Biographies
Marin Alsop
“When I started, there were really very few female conductors. And everyone said that it was extremely difficult. But neither gender nor nationality ever played a role for me.” Marin Alsop, Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio, is celebrated worldwide for her inspiring interpretations – as well as for her innovative programmes and her commitment to audiences of all ages. In 2021, New York-born Marin Alsop was named Honorary Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra – a fitting honour after her 14-year tenure as Music Director.
Alsop, who studied at Yale University and the Juilliard School and was sponsored by Leonard Bernstein, founded “Orchkids” in Baltimore – a music programme for disadvantaged children inspired by the Venezuelan “El Sistema”. She was also the first woman to receive the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize at Tanglewood. Alsop is a regular guest conductor with leading international orchestras and is also principal conductor and curator of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, where she leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer residencies. In 2002, she founded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship to promote the careers of female conductors.
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Brilliant, flexible, transparent, versatile, precise – critics have used all these words to describe the sound of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. "There is probably no other choir that does so many different things so well and that can deal with such a broad repertoire and such different formats,” says Gijs Leenaars, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director since the start of the 2015/16 season. Programmes range from large-scale choral symphonies and a cappella concerts to interdisciplinary projects that break up the classical concert format and allow choral music to be experienced in a new way. In “sing-along concerts”, enthusiastic amateurs are invited to sing with the choir.
The Rundfunkchor Berlin, founded in 1925, frequently performs as a partner of major orchestras and conductors. The choir has performed regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker since the early 1990s, and has taken part in performances of Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat mater, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet and György Ligeti’s Requiem. Collaborative semi- and fully-staged productions have included widely-acclaimed performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion with Sir Simon Rattle and director Peter Sellars. The collaboration continues under chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, with works such as Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah, Arnold Schoenberg’s oratorio The Jacob’s Ladder and Richard Strauss’ Elektra.
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