Berliner Philharmoniker 
Backstage-Storys

Portrait of the conductor Joana Mallwitz

She would like “to carry the audience along” with her from the very first note to the last whenever she stands on the conductor’s podium, says Joana Mallwitz. This attitude has already helped her to carve out a brilliant career for herself.

“I walked in the forest and come back with a song”

On the occasion of the premiere of her new piece “Day Night Day” Outi Tarkiainen talks about why she became a composer and how nature informs her music.

Gustav Holst’s “Planets”: A brief profile

In his best-known work, “The Planets”, Holst set the alleged astrological characteristics of seven celestial bodies in our solar system to music. The result is a planetary character study that also captures human traits in sound.

»Becoming an artist is one of humanity’s greatest challenges«

For nearly 30 years, violist Matthew Hunter has been a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker. During what is likely to be his final tour as an official member, we spoke with him about his rather unusual career, his plans for the upcoming retirement, and a bit of philosophy.

Consistent at every phase of his life

Gustav Holst was a modest man who accepted success rather than striving for it. Yet he refused to compromise when it came to implementing his artistic ideals.

The case of Francesca da Rimini

Francesca di Rimini is a pivotal figure in art history; slain by her husband for an adulterous relationship with his brother, she inspired first Dante, then countless other artists to portray her in many different forms. Learn more about her here.

A scherzo with a fatal conclusion

Richard Strauss’ opera Salome bears a reputation for scandal (even today). No wonder, as it was censored at times and the soprano at the premiere initially refused to take part.

Not of this world

Fate dealt Lili Boulanger a cruel hand. The first woman to win the coveted Prix de Rome, she was only nineteen when she effortlessly outclassed every male entrant in the 1913 competition; but within a mere five years, she was dead.

How composers celebrated Christmas

Have you ever wondered how composers might have spent Christmas? We looked into this question, and discovered a wealth of anecdotes. One is added every Advent Sunday.

Variants and versions of Bruckner’s symphonies

Anton Bruckner did not make it easy for his contemporaries – nor for future generations. He worked on his symphonies again and again, revising and shortening them. Performers are spoilt for choice.

Between the Wall and the Philharmonie

Renate Werwigk has been a fan of the Berliner Philharmoniker since her early years. To mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Berliner shares her memories of the famous “Fall of the Wall Concert” in 1989.

Portrait of Martha Argerich

Pianist Martha Argerich has been an artistic companion of the Berliner Philharmoniker for many years – like Daniel Barenboim, her childhood friend.

Composing and networking

In the eighteenth century, Freemasonry combined mysterious rituals with Enlightenment ideals. Mozart was a member of this secretive society.

The Cosmopolitan

Fatma Said is a musical cosmopolitan who slips into the most varied roles and who sings in five different languages.

Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni

The pianist, teacher and composer Ferruccio Busoni is an altogether unique phenomenon in the history of music – and yet he leads only the most shadowy of existences in concert life today. The reasons for this are many and varied.

The age of symbolism

This artistic movement offered the harsh, brutal reality of the late 19th century a fascinating alternative world. It was full of poetic beauty, mystical allusions and sensory dreams.

Princess or wallflower?

In the 1920s, Germaine Tailleferre stirred up the musical life of France as a member of the composers’ collective “Les Six”, yet she still fell into neglect. Here is a portrait of her turbulent life.

The Misfit

Anton Bruckner was always an outsider in Vienna’s polite society. Who was this “mifit” and what motivated him? In search of the evidence.

I’d like to take people with me on a journey

Composer and conductor Peter Eötvös died in March of this year at the age of eighty. When the Berliner Philharmoniker give the German premiere of his piano concerto “Cziffra Psodia” this September, the orchestra pays homage to a passionate musician who was a close associate for decades.

Reposing by a Lake, Riding a Camel in the Desert

Where and How Composers Went on Holiday? The simple answer: not at all. Because when they went travelling, they always took the score or at least a sketchbook with them. There was plenty of inspiration.

The intimate strangers

Bruckner and Mahler were titans. Both men were symphonists whose works were unprecedented in their length. They had neither predecessors nor successors. They were close and simultaneously distant. A closer look at the lives of these two disparate symphonists.

Fanning the flames

Today, concerts featuring Bruckner’s symphonies are among the Berliner Philharmoniker’s seasonal highlights, but this was not always the case. On the Bruckner tradition of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Kotowa Machida: If I were not a musician ...

For violinist Kotowa Machida cooking is pure relaxation.

Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro”: 7 facts about the world-famous work

A masterpiece, “unfortunately without music” was Ravel’s own judgement of his work. Discover 7 entertaining facts about the piece.

A short piano lexicon

Prélude, nocturne, sonata and étude – in our short piano lexicon, we introduce you to the major genres of piano music one at a time.

The woman of the century

Although she is often remembered chiefly as the wife of the composer Robert Schumann, in her own day, Clara Schumann led a high-profile life as a pianist, composer and teacher.

Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim

Without the violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms would probably never have written his Violin Concerto. The work is the result and the expression of a long-standing friendship.

Paradox on the Podium

Conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Franz Schubert: Music like an Infinity Symbol

His music can suspend all sense of time, as if, while exploring the streets of a large city, you gradually lose yourself in the moment.

The sound of crime and retribution

It always be considered Richard Strauss’ most modern work. He set the most intense and most complex emotions to music - revenge, guilt, madness, painful memories and the struggle for what is just.

Bertold Stecher: If I were not a musician …

Trumpeter Bertold Stecher likes to create symphonies of colours.

Ludwig van Beethoven the pianist

Ludwig van Beethoven was a piano prodigy; he enjoyed the greatest successes of his early career as a pianist. However, as his hearing deteriorated, this changed.

Gustav and Alma Mahler

Should she really accept his offer of marriage? At twenty-two, Alma was an extraordinarily beautiful and charismatic woman. Mahler was a social climber from the provinces.

Jonathan Kelly: If I were not a musician ...

In this section, we introduce members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and their extramusical passions. Today: Jonathan Kelly has a green thumb.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Berliner Philharmoniker

Art is sometimes a step ahead of politics. On 8 February 1888, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stood at the podium of the Berliner Philharmoniker as the conductor of his own works.

Arnold Schoenberg in exile

In the 1940s, composers, writers, visual artists and other intellectuals who had fled the Nazis gathered in Los Angeles.

Martin von der Nahmer: If I were not a musician ...

In this series, we introduce members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and their extramusical passions. Today: Violist Martin von der Nahmer cooks up a storm.

Brightening up sleepless nights

The mysteries of the “Goldberg Variations”

Verdi’s Messa da Requiem

Fear of death and the end of the world in Italian. Verdi's Messa da Requiem is a showdown between art and the church.

Schoenberg’s Slap-in-the-Face Concert

A memorable Schoenberg performance in 1913

Between morbidity and life force

The fin de siècle

The storm in music

Especially with thunder and lightning, composers can impressively let their creativity and feeling for striking sound effects run free.

Matthew McDonald: If I were not a musician ...

Double bass player Matthew McDonald loves poetry – and not only in music.

The composer Marianna Martines

Composing child prodigy, harpsichord virtuoso and singer: in 17th century Vienna, her domestic academies were musical hotspots.

Martin Heinze: If I were not a musician ...

Double bass player Martin Heinze likes to rise above things.

In celebration of Hans Scharoun

A declaration of love to his most famous building: the Philharmonie Berlin.

Mysterious symphonies

Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 39 to 41 are regarded as the pinnacle of his instrumental oeuvre - and are at the same time shrouded in mystery.

Who was Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”?

Beethoven dedicated the first print of his Seventh Symphony to Antonie Brentano. Was she perhaps his “Immortal Beloved”? To this day, the mystery has not been completely resolved.

Yearningly successful

His two-and-a-half-year stay in America was an ambivalent time for Antonín Dvořák – characterized by triumphs, enthusiasm about new impressions, but also yearning for his Bohemian homeland.

Vincent Vogel: If I were not a musician …

Percussionist Vincent Vogel loves catching the waves.