Berliner Philharmoniker

Following his very Classicist “Symphony Nr. 1”, which premiered in 1948, Witold Lutosławski composed three further fascinatingly individual contributions to this genre over the following decades – 20th century symphonic milestones that feature in three Musikfest Berlin 2013 concerts. The first is Lutosławski’s “Symphony Nr. 2”, which was completed in 1967 and about which the composer wrote:
“In my spirit, I associate the very presence of two contrasting topics in one work, their execution, the reprisal and a coda much less with the word ‘symphony’ than the term, referring to a large-scale orchestral form, would suggest. The essential feature of such a form is the presence of a series of sections whose function not only lies in expressing musical ideas but also in structuring the relationship of such ideas to other sections of the work or a completely different form.”

Forty years earlier, Leoš Janáček made an equally original contribution to Christian ecclesiastical music with his “Glagolitic Mass”. The work – which is based on texts in Old Church Slavonic, a language that emerged in the 9th century – will be performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker and a world-class international soloist ensemble under Simon Rattle. Arnold Schönberg’s adaptation of Gustav Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” (Songs of a Travelling Journeyman) completes the programme.