Musikfest Berlin 2024: A Strong Beginning and More Highlights to Come over the Next Three Weeks

Until 18 September, Musikfest Berlin (in co-operation with the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker) will present international guest orchestras and Berlin’s major orchestras with music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods via Mahler and Bruckner to the music of our present time. After a strong start with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and the São Paulo Big Band on 24 August and the performances by the Cleveland Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony and Collegium Vocale Gent (several met with standing ovations), the audience may expect equally renowned artists during the second half of the festival. Conductor Klaus Mäkelä will visit Musikfest Berlin with the Oslo Philharmonic. And there will be two opportunities to experience Sir Simon Rattle: In a concert as new Chief Conductor of Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and with the Karajan-Academy of Berliner Philharmoniker. The focus on CharlesIves’ 150th birthday will be continued by pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Furthermore the two composers IsabelMundry and RuthCrawford Seeger will be honoured with a three-part showcase of their respective work. The festival concerts broadcast on the radio are already accessible in the BerlinerFestspiele Media Library.

­­Olivier Messiaen’s “Des Canyons aux étoiles”… is a birthday present to the US and at the same time a spiritual hymn on the interconnectedness of the divine with nature, with the voices of the birds and the hues of the rainbow. With this piece, Sir Simon Rattle and the Karajan-Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker will round off the festival and its focus on America in a special way on 17 September. Earlier, on 3 September, he will give his first concert in Berlin as Chief Conductor of Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, with works including Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, which has recently been released on CD, and Alexander von Zemlinsky’s “Symphonische Gesänge”, with Lester Lynch as soloist.

The programme of the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Klaus Mäkelä on 1 September will feature the Arctic bird voices in the famous “Cantus Arcticus” by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. It will also include the piece “Vista” by composer Kaija Saariaho, who passed away last summer. Staatskapelle Berlin will present her final completed work: Unfortunately, the composer is no longer alive to hear the world premiere of her trumpet concert “Hush”, performed by jazz musician Verneri Pohjola.

The programme of Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Susanna Mälkki, also features Gustav Mahler’s “Lied von der Erde“, which was composed immediately after the death of his daughter. Antonello Manacorda and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra will explore seven early songs by Mahler, with Anna Prohaska as soloist. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conducted by Kazuki Yamada, will present “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” with tenor Julian Prégardien, and Konzerthausorchester Berlin with Joana Mallwitz will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.

Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday is on 4 September and his music will be featured in as many as four concerts. In the concert by the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 will be the grand finale. Kirill Petrenko and his Berliner Philharmoniker will present Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, while Wiener Philharmoniker and Christian Thielemann will explore his Symphony No. 1. In a historically informed performance practice, RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, conducted by Łukasz Borowicz, will present Bruckner’s Mass No. 1 in D minor.

WolfgangRihm passed away on 27 July of this year and the musical world has lost “one of the most expressive musicians and eloquent thinkers of our time” (Jan Brachmann, FAZ).  Distinguished as this year’s Composer in Residence by Berliner Philharmoniker, three major compositions from various creative periods of Wolfgang Rihm’s work will be presented at Musikfest Berlin. After the celebrated concert of Filarmonica della Scala with Rihm’s “Dis-Kontur” from the year 1974, Berliner Philharmoniker will perform one of his masterpieces, “IN-SCHRIFT” (1995/2012) with their Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko. On another evening, they will present “4 Studien zu einem Klarinettenquintett” (2002) in chamber music orchestration and in combination with Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major.

In a three-part showcase, Ensemble Musikfabrik (7 September), Ensemble Resonanz (8 September) and Ensemble PHACE together with the vocal group EXAUDI (12 September) will explore the compositions of Isabel Mundry. Like an archaeologist, Mundry carves contemporary music from historical material, creating new fields of tension between Then and Now. Composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901 – 1953) was far ahead of her time and belonged to the ultra-modernist movement in the US. Musikfest Berlin pays long-overdue homage to her work with a three-part concert portrait (13, 14 and 15 September), sparking a dialogue between her complete oeuvre and works by her contemporary Johanna Magdalena Beyer as well as the present-day composers Tania León and Katherine Balch.

Press photos and press releases are available in the press section of Musikfest Berlin.