Kirill Petrenko
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko are very grateful that despite difficult circumstances, the
traditional New Year’s Eve concert was able to be broadcast on arte, in the Digital Concert Hall and on
the radio station Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, and would like to thank their audiences for their
tremendous interest and encouragement. The live broadcasts on television and in the Digital Concert Hall
reached a total of over 1.2 million viewers on New Year’s Eve; the recording of the concert can still be
viewed in the arte media library and, from the end of January, in the Digital Concert Hall archive.
Following the rulings of the German federal and state governments of 5 January, both halls of the
Philharmonie Berlin (the main auditorium and the chamber music hall) will remain closed in January. In
addition to the events of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, all guest events are also affected. The
daily guided tours of the Philharmonie and the free lunch concerts will also not take place during this time.
The Berliner Philharmoniker will continue to present their concerts as weekly live streams in the Digital
Concert Hall. Tickets already purchased for the chamber music recitals by Anna Vinnitskaya (18 January)
and the ensemble Made in Berlin (31 January) will be refunded; information is available on our website.
The Digital Concert Hall opens 2021 with a historical retrospective: the three-part film series “The
Philharmoniker – Our Story” by Eric Schulz will be shown from 8 January. Part 1 of the series produced
exclusively for the Berliner Philharmoniker’s streaming portal looks at the orchestra’s early years, at the
performances under the batons of Arthur Nikisch and, in particular, Wilhelm Furtwängler. Parts 2 and 3
will be available from 22 January and 5 February respectively.
On 16 January, the Berliner Philharmoniker will present a Russian programme at 19:00 under the baton
of their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko. In addition to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s orchestral fantasy
Francesca da Rimini and his fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet, the programme includes Sergei
Rachmaninov’s symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead.
Daniele Gatti will be the guest conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker on 23 January with Igor
Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. The concert can be heard
in the Digital Concert Hall at 19:00.
On 29 January at 20:00, the Digital Concert Hall is the setting for a world premiere: Anna
Thorvaldsdóttir’s CATAMORPHOSIS. This is a work commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker
Foundation together with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with the support of the Friends of the Berliner Philharmoniker. The
soloist of the evening, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, is Daniil Trifonov with Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto
for Piano and Orchestra No. 1. The evening closes with Josef Suk’s symphonic poem Pohádka léta (A
Summer’s Tale), which forms part of Kirill Petrenko’s major season-long Suk focus.
16 January 2021, 19:00, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture after Shakespeare
Sergei Rachmaninov The Isle of the Dead, Symphonic Poem op. 29
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini, Fantasy for Orchestra op. 32
23 January 2021, 19:00, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Daniele Gatti conductor
Igor Stravinsky Apollon musagète (revised version from 1947)
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor op. 47
29 January 2021, 20:00, Philharmonie Berlin, main auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Daniil Trifonov piano
Anna Thorvaldsdóttir CATAMORPHOSIS (world premiere) commissioned jointly by the Berliner
Philharmoniker together with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the City
of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – supported by the Friends of the Berliner Philharmoniker e. V.
Sergei Prokofiev Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in D flat major op. 10
Josef Suk Pohádka léta (A summer’s Tale), Symphonic Poem op. 29
digitalconcerthall.com