Berliner Philharmoniker – David Robertson conducts Varèse’s Arcana, Miroslav Srnka’s Superorganisms, and Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. Live Digital Concert Hall webcast.

Screenshot from webcast

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin

With Kirill Petrenko continuing to be indisposed, David Robertson took on the advertised demanding programme, opening with Arcana, at once stellar and blockbuster, the score prefaced by the following inscription:

“One star exists, higher than all the rest. This is the apocalyptic star. The second star is that of the ascendant. The third star is that of the elements—of these there are four, so that six stars are established. Besides these there is still another star, imagination, which begets a new star and a new heaven.“— Paracelsus

Robertson and an outsize Philharmoniker gave a brilliant performance – fantastic playing – as the multi-dimensional music flew by with unstoppable momentum and force, a seismic orchestral display that served this Stravinsky-linked score (The Rite and with allusions to Firebird) by a science-fascinated composer compellingly.

There followed another twenty-minute opus, Miroslav Srnka’s Superorganisms (given its German premiere two evenings ago), large forces, including pairs of accordions and harps, and a piano, yet subtle blends of sounds, the creation of distances, reminding at times of Morton Feldman’s Coptic Light, if ending with an intimidating crescendo of dissonance that might be heard as catastrophic. Robertson had conducted the piece with the Czech Philharmonic, his current Berlin collaborators assured (numerous independent lines among the strings), the Prague-born Srnka delighted.

Following the interval a rather wonderful Beethoven Six – detailed and dynamic, buoyant rhythms, joyous, played freshly and lovingly – indeed it was like hearing the music for the first time – ‘modern’ in approach, repeats observed, a whiplashing ‘Storm’, and a final ‘Thanksgiving’, spaciously moulded, that transcended the everyday.

1. Edgard Varèse Arcana for large orchestra (revised version from 1960)
2. Miroslav Srnka Superorganisms – commissioned by Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic
3. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastoral”

Berliner Philharmoniker: David Robertson takes over from Kirill Petrenko.

Berliner Philharmoniker: Paradise lost? – The threat to nature.