Paradise lost? – The threat to nature
Third Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 13 February to 1 March 2025
Nature and its destruction is a topic that concerns everyone. In their three-week Biennale entitled Paradise Lost, the Berliner Philharmoniker will be exploring this topic from a musical perspective – in special concert formats and programmes as well as exhibitions and talks with guests from the world of science. The festival celebrates the beauty of our world with music ranging from classical to world music, dance, performances, art and literature – but it also asks: “What is going wrong on our planet? What can we do?”
A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary programme takes a closer look at the environmental crises and opportunities, and invites us to consider the question of how art and science can contribute to raising awareness of climate protection.
From 13 February to 1 March 2025, the Berliner Philharmoniker with their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko and two conductors making their debuts, Marin Alsop and Dalia Stasevska, will be joined by Iris Berben, climate researcher Antje Boetius and science journalist Harald Lesch, among others, at the Philharmonie Berlin and at neighbouring institutions at the Kulturforum. Further programmes will take place at the Naturkundemuseum (Natural History Museum), Deutsche Bank’s PalaisPopulaire, and Radialsystem.
In the first concert programme of the festival from 13 to 15 February, Kirill Petrenko conducts Ludwig van Beethoven’s Pastoral, plus the German premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s Superorganisms and Edgard Varèse’s Arcana. While the latter deals with the relationship between the earth and the other planets, the new work by Miroslav Srnka focuses on the intriguing question of whether humans are evolving from individual beings to networked elements within a larger group. On 16 February, the music and subject matter of the Pastoral is the theme of a family concert, also conducted by Kirill Petrenko.
Marin Alsop has chosen a special, continent-spanning programme for her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker on 20-22 February. The world premiere of Day Night Day by Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen refers musically to the songs of the Sami, the indigenous people of northern Finland. Thematically, it revolves around the northern lights and the ice that covers and protects the local landscape. On the other side of the world, the devastating “Black Saturday” bushfires in Australia in 2009 were the impulse behind Brett Dean’s composition Fire Music. The Appalachian Mountains, which cross the eastern United States, inspired Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, while the birdsong of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil formed the basis of a popular piece for choir and orchestra, Choros No. 10, by Heitor Villa-Lobos.
The second conductor to make their debut is the Finn Dalia Stasevska, who combines musical works from Northern Europe with Claude Debussy’s La Mer from 27 February to 1 March. The programme also includes Jean Sibelius’ tone poem Pohjola’s Daughter, in which the hero of the Nordic saga Kalevala fails in his attempt to win over the Daughter of the North, who sits on a rainbow, and Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Jean-Frederic Neuburger as the soloist, who is also making his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Orion, on the other hand, a work by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died in 2023, is about the mortal son of the sea god Neptune, and forms the ideal transition to La Mer.
Two late-night concerts take different approaches to the Biennale’s theme: on 15 February, Lucas Dorado and his ensemble explore the sounds and rhythms of Latin America’s landscapes in a concert entitled Cantando hacia el Sur. This will take place in the St. Matthäus-Kirche and in cooperation with the Ibero-American Institute.
The second late-night concert on 22 February focuses on the self-destruction of humans through synthetic drugs, a theme American photographer Nan Goldin has explored on numerous occasions. In the exhibition of her works at the Neue Nationalgalerie, members of the Berliner Philharmoniker will play the music accompanying the documentary film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which deals with Nan Goldin’s life and her fight against the opioid crisis.
In some of his piano works, Alexander Scriabin also dealt with the destructive power of fire. Pianist Alexander Melnikov juxtaposes these pieces with works in which German Romantic composers describe such things as the forest and nature spirits in his recital on 18 February,
On 24 February, a special chamber concert followed by an open bar takes place at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin: in the Sauriersaal, there will be a lecture recital with works for double bass, played by Martin Heinze, and contrabassoon, played by Václav Vonášek, plus reports on the fascinating world of snails by the research couple Katharina and Parm von Oheimb.
Gregor Mayrhofer’s Tipping Points. Fourteen ways to describe climate change takes as its basis the key stages that will bring this about. The composer, a former conducting stipendiary of the Karajan Academy, conducts the world premiere himself with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker on 25 February. There will also be thematically related pieces by Hanns Eisler, Franz Liszt and Olivier Messiaen. Physicist and science journalist Harald Lesch will host the evening.
Another world premiere is Alexander Schubert’s Terminal Infinity, which will be performed as part of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s education programme on 23 February in collaboration with Radialsystem. The theme is the transition of mankind into a more technological world. Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Karajan Academy, the ensemble Dance On, and the youth dance company of Sasha Waltz & Guests will play music and perform under the direction of the composer. The two performances are supported by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation.
Two film screenings complete the programme: on 15 February, the Curt-Sachs-Saal of the Musikinstrumenten-Museum will be showing Suiten für eine verwundete Welt. Tanja Tetzlaff spielt J. S. Bach. In the presence of the cellist, who is also the director of the film, there will be a discussion afterwards with the musicologist Heinz von Loesch about the idea for this film, in which Tanja Tetzlaff played in a wide variety of locations threatened by climate change. On 23 February, a hORA church service on the topic of “Paradise Lost” will take place in the St. Matthäus-Kirche. This will be followed by a screening of the film Geographies of Solitude, which follows the ecologist Zoe Lucas to Sable Island.
On 19 February, Discourse at the Philharmonie hosts marine biologist and climate researcher Antje Boetius and sociologist Steffen Mau discuss the topic “Is climate change disappearing from the political agenda?”.
In the Otto-Braun-Saal of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin on 26 February, actress Iris Berben reads from works by Max Frisch, Narvid Kermani, Wilhelm von Humboldt and others that open up literary perspectives on climate change. Directly before the reading, the audience has the opportunity to visit a pop-up exhibition entitled “Paradises on paper: is art our salvation?” in the study room of the Kupferstichkabinett.
Three guest orchestras that regularly perform at the Philharmonie Berlin will also be thematically integrated into the Biennale. On 16 February, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester performs works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Jean Sibelius, Thomas Adès and Igor Stravinsky under the direction of Nicholas Collon and with the violinist Pekka Kuusisto. A particular highlight of the programme is Geysir by Jon Leifs – a work that takes as its subject the geysers in Iceland.
This will be followed on 17 February by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Gottfried von der Goltz, which dedicates its programme entirely to Antonio Vivaldi’s view of nature.
The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė, presents the German premiere of Tebogo Monnakgotla’s violin concerto, which depicts the journey of a dragonfly from India to Africa. The soloist is violinist Johan Delane. The programme also includes Robert Schumann’s Spring Symphony and Heliosis by Hannah Eisendle.
The Biennale features a total of four exhibitions at the Philharmonie Berlin and Deutsche Bank’s PalaisPopulaire. In the green room of the Philharmonie, for example, a selection of works from the Deutsche Bank collection by the artist Gabriel Orozco will be shown with the title “Asterisms”.
In the foyer of the main auditorium, an exhibition by the UN Refugee Agency entitled “Climate Change and Displacement” sheds light on how natural disasters destroy livelihoods and lead to migration.
In its exhibition in the upper foyer, the Naturschutzbund Deutschland NABU (The Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union) focuses on showing what can be done by politicians, companies and individuals to stop the global exploitation of raw materials.
“Borrowed Light” by Rohini Devasher will be presented at Deutsche Bank’s PalaisPopulaire. The amateur astronomer and 2024 “Artist of the Year” provides an insight into the world of the stars and helps us gain a more conscious perception of our planet. The exhibitions in the Philharmonie can be viewed free of charge at the time of the concerts.
Detailed programme information and information on purchasing individual tickets and special Biennale packages can be found on the website.