Berliner Philharmoniker I

The first concert given by the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Musikfest Berlin 2025 is a tribute to the French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez who would have been celebrating his 100th birthday this year. The orchestra is divided into eight independent groups for Boulez’ extensive and spectacular composition “Rituel – in memoriam Bruno Maderna” featuring the contrasts of order and freedom, narrowness and openness and monumentality and intimacy. The dynamism of these opposing principles is also explored by Ondřej Adámek in his “Between Five Columns”, a homage to Boulez. Boulez additionally set new benchmarks in his interpretations of Igor Stravinsky’s music: in the moments in which the entire orchestra appears to become transformed into a single rhythm machine, the elementary forces and energy of Stravinsky’s legendary ballet score “Le sacre du printemps” dating from 1913 come especially to the fore.