Berliner Philharmoniker II

“The listener must be gripped and […] absorbed by the flightpaths of the sounds without needing to be trained specially. The shock to his senses must be as striking as […] looking into a bottomless pit.” These are the words of Iannis Xenakis, whose orchestral piece “Empreintes” includes ancient fanfares resounding over fluctuating string surfaces. The Berlin Philharmonic and its Principal Conductor Kirill Petrenko have chosen to begin the evening with Xenakis’s noise-like and at times pulsating sonic sculpture. Next comes Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s “Symphony in One Movement”, which – “shaken by the apocalyptic storm” – was written after the Second World War: “in a time of collapse […], that seemed unlike any other” (Zimmermann). The programme then continues with a concert performance of Luigi Dallapiccola’s opera “Il prigioniero”. Based on Auguste de Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s story “La torture par l’espérance” (Torture Through Hope), it tells of a prisoner of the Spanish inquisition who is condemned to death but manages to escape. His joy, rising to ecstasy, at his unhoped-for freedom is short-lived, however, as the Grand Inquisitor re-captures him and leads him to the stake: hope has turned out to be the most extreme form of torture. The opera ends in the darkest disillusionment, with hollow drum rolls and echoing blows on the tam tam – and as a result it appeals even more profoundly in real life for the freedom and humanity that is denied on stage.