New Year’s Eve Concert 2020 of the Berliner Philharmoniker on 31 December conducted
by Kirill Petrenko with guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas as soloist. Live in the Digital Concert
Hall and live time-delayed on arte.
Two concert changes in January 2021
The Berliner Philharmoniker’s traditional New Year’s Eve concert will be streamed live from the
Philharmonie Berlin in the Digital Concert Hall (18:00) and in a time-delayed live broadcast on arte
(18:35). Radio station rbbKultur will present the concert live at 18:00. Under the baton of chief conductor
Kirill Petrenko, the Spanish-themed programme features ballet music by Manuel de Falla and Joaquín
Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas as the soloist. Other works include
Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas brasileiras No. 4 and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol.
The evening opens with the Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, op. 72, once again in the context of the
250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, although here too the action takes place in Spain.
Andrea Zietzschmann, general manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation: “We all look back on
a challenging 2020, which has tested our resilience and has taken its toll on us. More than ever, we have
become aware of how much culture is one of the foundations of our society and how important face-to-face encounters in the concert hall are. We are grateful that, despite the impact of the pandemic, we have
maintained contact with our audiences in Berlin and around the world, with our friends and supporters,
with the artists, and with our partners. They have constantly motivated us to fight for the visibility of culture
in this crisis. So we are delighted to come to your home this year with our traditional and festive New
Year’s Eve concert, and in doing so, giving culture a strong voice as the year draws to its close.”
Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker: “Our New Year’s Eve concert this year
takes place at a time when we look with hope and trepidation at our society and the whole world. We are
infinitely grateful to all those who are now fighting for us on the front line against the pandemic. In this
concert, we would like to reflect on this time, offer some consolation and hope, and once again make it
emphatically clear that art and music are indispensable, even – and especially – in such a situation.”
Stanley Dodds and Olaf Maninger, media representatives: “We are delighted to be able to play for you
once again at the end of this difficult year. Our gratitude also goes to our long-standing media partners
from Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, arte and EuroArts, who, together with the team from our Digital
Concert Hall, will be broadcasting this year’s New Year’s Eve concert in time-honoured fashion.”
This concert is possible through regular corona testing of the orchestra and venue staff. A trusted sponsor
and partner has been found in the Rostock-based pharmaceutical technology company Centogene, which
is responsible for the testing and laboratory analysis.
The Philharmonie Berlin will be closed from 1-10 January 2021. The concert planned for 9 January 2021
under the baton of Semyon Bychkov with violinist Lisa Batiashvili as soloist has been rescheduled for
11 March 2021 without any changes to the programme or line-up.
At the invitation of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the National Youth Orchestra of Germany was
scheduled to perform on 13 January 2021 under the direction of Francesco Angelico with soloist
Christian Tetzlaff. Josef Suk’s Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G minor op. 24 and Dmitri
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major op. 70 were programmed. Since the rehearsal period of
the National Youth Orchestra of Germany has been cancelled, this concert must unfortunately be
cancelled without an alternative date.
31 December 2020, 18:00, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas guitar
Ludwig van Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, op. 72
Manuel de Falla El amor brujo. Introduction and “Ritual Fire Dance”
Joaquín Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas guitar
Anonymous Spanish Romance
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas guitar
Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. 4
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Capriccio espagnol, op. 34
Dmitri Shostakovich The Gadfly Suite op. 97a No. 3. Folk Feast