The concert by the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin at this year’s Musikfest Berlin is entitled “Jazz de Paris”. The programme includes music from a time when Juliette Gréco and Miles Davis crossed paths and the “grand dame de la chanson” and the superstar of American jazz became a dream team in post-war France. Paris, the city of music, radiates throughout the Musikfest Berlin 2025 in a series of French-themed programmes and guest performances by orchestras and ensembles based in the French capital: the Orchestre de Paris – Philharmonie with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla; the orchestra Les Siècles, which will be performing two concerts under its conductors Ustina Dubitsky and Franck Ollu; the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, established by Philippe Herreweghe, which is now based in Paris and Brussels and will be performing alongside the Collegium Vocale Gent; and the vocal ensemble Les Cris de Paris, which will be debuting at the Musikfest Berlin with its founder and director Geoffroy Jourdain.
In 2025, the international music world will be celebrating the centenary of the birth of Pierre Boulez, France’s greatest musical figure whose life spanned the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Montbrison on the Loire on 26 March 1925, he studied in Paris and subsequently exerted a lasting influence on the international music scene far beyond the confines of France as a composer, conductor and eloquent essayist who was also active within educational, organisational and music political fields and established a number of institutions.
The Musikfest Berlin links in with other programmes dedicated to Pierre Boulez in this anniversary year, including those in Paris, Lyon, Vienna, Baden-Baden, Lucerne and in the Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, by presenting three large-scale orchestral works from different creative periods in his career: The sweeping composition “Rituel” for eight orchestral groups together with the Berliner Philharmoniker; the five-movement lyrical song cycle entitled “Pli selon pli” for soprano and orchestra with the soloist Sarah Aristidou and the orchestra Les Siècles; finally the cantata “Le soleil des eaux” with the soloist Liv Redpath, the Netherlands Radio Choir and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. It is, not least, the initial activities of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s räsonanz – Donor Concerts that we have to thank for the two guest performances. New compositions by Robin de Raaff and Ondřej Adámek, which both pay homage to Pierre Boulez, will also be performed. The first will have its Germany premiere at the Musikfest Berlin, the second its world premiere.
In light of the international and epoch-spanning nature of Pierre Boulez’s oeuvre, this year’s Musikfest Berlin also presents a European programme of music from the Renaissance and the Classical period, Romantic and Impressionist music, as well as contemporary music. Pierre Boulez’s Italian fellow composer and friend Luciano Berio would likewise have celebrated his 100th birthday this year, which is why the Musikfest Berlin will be honouring his influential output with a total of eight concerts.
Arvo Pärt is steadily approaching his 90th birthday and the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin will be performing a range of a-cappella works exactly on his celebratory day on 11 September 2025. The Estonian composer was a long-term resident of Berlin. His music will be juxtaposed with the famous “Missa Papae Marcelli” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina who died 500 years ago. This mass was performed at each Papal coronation since its composition in 1562 until the tradition was discontinued by Pope John Paul I in 1978.
Like Arvo Pärt, Younghi Pagh-Paan draws on the spirituality of her Christian faith in her music, along with her deep connection with traditional Korean music. Born in 1945 in South Korea, Younghi Pagh-Paan has lived and worked in Germany since 1974, and has not only contributed a comprehensive body of work but has also influenced numerous composers through her teaching. The Musikfest Berlin will be honouring her with a guest performance by the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra under its chief conductor Seokwon Hong.
We also look forward to marking the 90th birthday of the grandmaster of musique concrète instrumentale, Helmut Lachenmann, who was recently awarded the Prix du Président de la République 2024 in honour of his epoch-making life’s work. His compositions are celebrated as modern classics, and at the Musikfest Berlin the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin will be doing the honours with Vladimir Jurowski, the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt with Matthias Herrmann, EnsembleKollektiv Berlin with Enno Poppe, Ensemble Modern with Sylvain Cambreling, the soloists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Mark Simpson and Jean-Guihen Queyras.
Yet what would these anniversaries and big birthdays be without those composers who are setting out to shape or are already shaping the music scene by pursuing their own interests, wishes and visions? At the Musikfest Berlin 2025 they include Ondřej Adámek, Mark Andre, Unsuk Chin, Pascal Dusapin, Toshio Hosokawa, Robin de Raaff, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lisa Streich and Francesca Verunelli. And we are happy to welcome the Ensemble Senza Sforzando from war-ridden Odessa with new works by Ukrainian composers.
Along with our French guest ensembles and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, which will be making its Berlin debut under its chief conductor Karina Canellakis, we also look forward to hearing the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the Netherlands, under Klaus Mäkelä, which is so beloved by audiences in Berlin. The Rome-based Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and its new chief conductor Daniel Harding will also be coming to Berlin. The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from Sweden under its chief conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens will be bringing us a genuine revelation: most likely the first and only Cubist Bauhaus opera “Parabola and Circula”, written in 1929/30 by the American composer Marc Blitzstein. Its concertante world premiere will be co-hosted by the Bauhaus Archive/Museum for Design and the Berliner Festspiele/Musikfest Berlin.
Together with our colleagues at Berliner Festspiele and the Musikfest Berlin team we would like to thank all the participating artists and institutions, our host and cooperation partner, the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation with its General Manager Andrea Zietzschmann, and our partner orchestras based in Berlin for their excellent collaboration, as well as the Korean Cultural Department at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and, finally, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media for funding the Berliner Festspiele’s Musikfest Berlin.
We hope you very much enjoy the Musikfest Berlin 2025.
Matthias Pees
Director Berliner Festspiele
Winrich Hopp
Artistic Director Musikfest Berlin
