Conclusion of Musikfest Berlin 2024: Over 50,000 Visitors
Standing Ovations at the Musikfest Berlin 2024
© Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn
On 18 September, the 20th edition of Musikfest Berlin, hosted by Berliner Festspiele in co-operation with the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker, ended with the concert of RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin at the Philharmonie. On 26 days, starting from 24 August, the festival presented over 160 works by more than 80 composers. Over 50,000 visitors – an absolute record in the festival’s history – attended the extensive programme. The American focus corresponded with a panorama of European music: from the Renaissance to the classics of the major repertoire, to Gustav Mahler to Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich; from this year’s jubilarians – Anton Bruckner, Arnold Schönberg, Charles Ives and Luigi Nono – to composers of our times, to Isabel Mundry, whose work was showcased in a three-part concert portrait, to Tania León and Katherine Balch in the three-part portrait of Ruth Crawford Seeger created by Ensemble Modern, to Einojuhani Rautavaara and Wolfgang Rihm.
Some concerts can still be heard on the radio, and all radio broadcasts are available in the BerlinerFestspiele Media Library.
Musikfest Berlin 2025 will take place from 30 August to 23 September 2025.
During this year’s Musikfest Berlin, more than 50,000 visitors flocked to the Philharmonie and its Chamber Music Hall, to Konzerthaus Berlin and to St. Matthäus-Kirche. Many concerts were sold out and more than a few orchestras were rewarded with long cheers and standing ovations. The audience was particularly delighted with the project “Un mar de músicas“ by the Grand Seigneur of historical performance practise and expert in the field of cross-continent, global music history, Jordi Savall. With his two formations Tembembe Ensemble Continuo and La Capella Reial de Catalunya as well as guest musicians from Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Mali, Venezuela and Mexico, he presented a dialogue between European Baroque and the songs of slaves from between 1440 and 1880.
At the festival’s launch, the audience celebrated the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra with Thierry Fischer before the São Paulo Big Band and singer Paula Lima presented Brazil’s “música popular“ and communicated the nation’s unique attitude towards life. With Collegium Vocale Gent with Philippe Herreweghe and the Kansas City Symphony with Matthias Pintscher, two more concert highlights performed to nearly sold-out halls during the first festival week. Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic presented the audience with a memorable evening of music by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kaija Saariaho and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Sir Simon Rattle made his debut as Chief Conductor of his Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in front of a full house before ushering in the conclusion of Musikfest Berlin 2024 with Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan-Academy and Olivier Messiaen’s “Des Canyons aux étoiles…”. Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday was celebrated by performances of his works in several concerts. Beside interpretations by Kirill Petrenko with Berliner Philharmoniker, the audiences were thrilled by the concerts of Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Christian Thielemann, and the Akademie für Alte Musik with RIAS Kammerchor Berlin with Łukasz Borowicz.
Further participants in the festival programme of Musikfest Berlin 2024 included: Berliner Philharmoniker with a second concert programme conducted by Jonathan Nott and featuring a major work by this year’s jubliarian Charles Ives, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Antonello Manacorda, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Susanna Mälkki, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with conductor Kazuki Yamada, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with Chief Conductor Vladimir Jurowski, Joana Mallwitz with Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Sir Donald Runnicles with Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin and the Big Band of Deutsche Oper with an evening dedicated to Duke Ellington. Numerous international soloists were featured together with the orchestras and in chamber music concerts, including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Fola Dada, Isabelle Faust, the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Paula Lima, Lester Lynch, Verneri Pohjola, Anna Prohaska, Roman Simovic and Conrad Tao.
Press photos and press releases are available in the press section of Musikfest Berlin.
Musikfest Berlin on the Radio
A total of 14 festival concerts were recorded and broadcast live or at a later time by radio3 and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
Musikfest Berlin in the Media Library
The radio broadcasts of radio3 and Deutschlandfunk Kultur are now also available in the Media Library of Berliner Festspiele.
Musikfest Berlin is funded by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media.
Media partners: radio3 from rbb, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, arte, Dussmann das Kulturkaufhaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Monopol – Magazin für Kunst und Leben, Tagesspiegel, Wall und Yorck Kinogruppe.
Concerts featuring works from the 20th and 21st centuries are part of the Month of Contemporary Music of the initiative field notes.
Press Contact
Patricia Hofmann, Anna Hinz, Lina Pyrskalla
presse@berlinerfestspiele.de
+49 30 254 89 223 / 132 / 135