Fingal’s Cave (photo, Kenny Lam)

Saturday, February 28, 2026

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

Last night the Bavarians ended with Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony. This evening the Berliners opened with a further example of the composer being ‘north of the border’, The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), which Tugan Sokhiev eased in with a gentle current, with suggestions of a storm getting nearer, calmed by very romantic time-taken clarinets, before the tempest made its fullest impact in a well-charted rendition.

Berlioz’s five-movement fantastique – of waltzes, scaffolds and witches – was from the off a storybook account, restless reveries in the introduction (featuring wonderfully liquid quiet horn contributions) led to pliable passions, Sokhiev driving the music on (omitting the repeat in the process) yet with leeway, and then ‘Un bal’, measured and curvy, elegant, too, but always with an appreciation of an unspoken narration. Cor anglais and (distant ) oboe were nicely lyrical in their countryside exchanges, fervour simmering then unleashed, Sokhiev going on to indulge the bars that may reference Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’, timpani then sounding ominous thunder, cueing the brazen ‘March’ as the opium-sated chronicler is dragged to the guillotine on a diverting course of Sokhiev-designed tempo changes with Berlin brass infallible, and then the Witches enter, to warning bells and the ‘Dies irae’, to have a ball, Sokhiev increasing the hedonism by speeding to the final page with shrieking piccolos and into a long and loud ovation that matched the freshness of the performance. Anyone new to Berlioz’s Symphonie was fortunate indeed.

Brahms’s final work involving the orchestra – the Concerto in A-minor for Violin & Cello, Opus 102 – with Philharmoniker principals who are also seasoned soloists – received a magnificent performance, Noah Bendix-Balgley and Bruno Delepelaire, individually expressive and duetting with fraternity, a flexible reading fully supported by their colleagues and Sokhiev, chamber music writ large symphonically presented and developed, digging into the music’s emotional potential. The slow movement flowed as if a song without words – intimate, nostalgic – and the (here attacca) Finale had an irresistible zest and expansive allure – some Hungarian pointing, too – the latter anticipating Dance No.19 from Brahms’s set of twenty-one, here arranged for the two instruments by their respective players and given as an encore with exuberant relish.