Controversial!
The 2025/26 Season of the Berliner Philharmoniker at a Glance
At a time when controversies are increasingly perceived as nothing more than fighting over irreconcilable differences, with this season’s theme Controversial!the Berliner Philharmoniker want to ask how productive ideas can also result. The impression that we are living in an increasingly polarized world is widespread. Discussions escalate quickly, contradiction comes unexpectedly, and even seemingly trivial topics lead to strong reactions. The Berliner Philharmoniker will take up this dynamic and demonstrate that music history was never free of conflicts either. On the contrary – it is full of passionate but productive disputes as well. It was more than a question of taste – it was about attitude, one’s own understanding of the world and art. The chamber concerts by the ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker will thus focus 2025/26 on composers who opposed each other artistically – such as Mozart and Salieri, Brahms and Liszt. The Baroque festival also explores the season’s theme, including in a programme of jealousy arias interpreted by Philippe Jaroussky. Another approach to this theme will be works that caused controversies at their premieres, such as Le Sacre du Printemps by Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, which Kirill Petrenko will conduct.
Kirill Petrenko continues his programming focus this season. The opening concert will be a typical programme of the chief conductor: Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Oboe Concerto, with Albrecht Mayer as soloist, and Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony, featuring both a rarity of the repertoire and a work from the Berliner Philharmonikers’ programmatic DNA.
A highlight of the season will be the return of the Berliner Philharmoniker to the Easter Festival in Salzburg. The centrepiece of the Festival will be Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold in a production by Kirill Serebrennikov, conducted by Kirill Petrenko. For the first time in 15 years, the Berliner Philharmoniker will play Gustav Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony again, also with their chief conductor.
Kirill Petrenko’s programmes during this season will also include works by Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Janáček, Scriabin and the contemporary composer Pascal Dusapin.
This season’s Artist in Residence is a musician whose intense interpretations suit the orchestra perfectly: the outstanding Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, who has enjoyed a close relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker since her debut at the Waldbühne Concert in 2006. She will appear in concerts with the orchestra under both Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor, Sir Simon Rattle.
An artist who has influenced the musical scene for decades will enhance the season: Jordi Savall. The recipient of many awards as conductor, gambist and musicologist, he has achieved the extraordinary. He will present two programmes with his own ensemble, make his debut conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker and appear as a passionate teacher in a programme with the Karajan Academy.
Four other conductors make their debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker this season: Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Thomas Guggeis, Petr Popelka and Raphaël Pichon.
Many conductors who are closely connected with the orchestra will return to the podium, including Emmanuelle Haïm, Gustavo Dudamel, Klaus Mäkelä, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Barenboim, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniele Gatti, Semyon Bychkov, Jakub Hrůša and Paavo Järvi. Internationally renowned soloists will also appear, such as violinists Hilary Hahn and Julia Fischer, pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Lang Lang and Víkingur Ólafsson and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.
During the 2025/2026 season, the orchestra will present 121 concerts and opera performances, 47 of which will be conducted by the chief conductor. As important ambassadors of the cultural capital of Berlin and Germany, the Berliner Philharmoniker and their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko will present 29 concerts in important concert halls throughout the world, thus reaching their large international fan community directly.
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/konzerte/saisonhighlights/saisonbroschuere/25-26