Year's End Premieres

The Europakonzert 2017 takes the Berliner Philharmoniker to one of the most mythical places it has ever performed in: Paphos, birthplace of Greek love goddess Aphrodite. Soloist is clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer with his interpretation of Carl Maria von Weber‘s highly elaborate Clarinet Concerto. The first part of the program continues with Antonín Dvořák‘s unusually optimistic and light-hearted Symphony No. 8, before the concert concludes with Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5. The Berliner Philharmoniker is conducted by Mariss Jansons, who was a close associate of the orchestra for decades.

“Everything about Mariss Jansons exudes joy and sovereignty” raved Süddeutsche Zeitung in January 2018, when the celebrated conductor celebrated his 75th birthday at Munich's Philharmonie am Gasteig with a concert program that centered around the music of Stravinsky, Hummel and Beethoven. This thrilling, varied concert from with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra demonstrates the close relationship which has developed between conductor and orchestra over the past 15 years. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements was written in 1942–45, inspired in part by the Second World War and the “abhorrent pictures” of the war he saw in newsreel footage. Albeit in a very different way, Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto also sparkles. Written in 1803, the concerto is a brilliantly crafted showpiece for the recently invented keyed trumpet. Here the trumpeter is Martin Angerer, Principal Trumpet of the BRSO in warm rapport with Jansons and the orchestra. Beethoven, one of Jansons's dearest composers, rounds out the concert. Although Beethoven's Mass in C, written in 1807, was his first Mass setting, it is a work of clear ambition.

For this truly unique, historic occasion, Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins conducts The World Orchestra for Peace and around 2,000 singers from nearly 30 countries to Sing for Peace at the Berlin's Mercedes Benz Arena on November 2, 2018. Soloists are vocalists Leah-Marian Jones, Yumeji Matsufuji, Pauline Rathmann, Amir Aziz, violinist Krzysztof Wisniewski and cellist Valentino Worlitzsch. The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is the most performed work by any living composer. This performance is the largest ever staged, and was uniquely performed in synchronization with a specially commissioned war-archive film that reinforces the narrative of the work – the build up to war, war itself, and the consequences of war. Projected on to five giant screens, the film delivers a poignant backdrop to the moving musical narration providing the audience with a powerful and emotional multimedia experience.

Sir Roger Norrington conducts the Camerata Salzburg in a performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 83 in G minor, nicknamed La Poule ("The Hen") and Symphony No. 84 in E♭ major. The two works are part Haydn's famous Paris symphonies, a group of six symphonies written by Joseph Haydn and commissioned by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, music director of the orchestra the Concert de la Loge Olympique. Recorded at the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt in 2000.