Berliner Philharmonie tickets 23 September 2026 - Berlin Music Festival: IAS Chamber Choir Berlin / German Symphony Orchestra Berlin | GoComGo.com

Berlin Music Festival: IAS Chamber Choir Berlin / German Symphony Orchestra Berlin

Berliner Philharmonie, Main Auditorium, Berlin, Germany
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8 PM
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US$ 99

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 20:00

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Programme
Maurice Duruflé: Requiem op. 9 (1941–47) for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra
Alfred Schnittke: Requiem (1974/75) for soloists, mixed choir and instruments from the music to Friedrich Schiller’s drama Don Carlos
Overview

Maurice Duruflé’s ethereal Requiem blends allusions to Gregorian chant with an enchanting play of timbres whose delicate musical texture is reminiscent of the skilled instrumentation of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. This all comes together to form a paradisiacal vision of heaven presented by the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and conductor Justin Doyle at the Musikfest Berlin. The second half of the programme features Alfred Schnittke’s Requiem, a polystylistic fresco of sound, oscillating between humanism and the force of spiritual faith. Unlike many of the famous masses for the dead, the work largely dispenses with dramatic contrasts: the choir does not rejoice in glowing terms over God’s greatness but meditates quietly on the words it sings in lines that sound improvised.

Maurice Duruflé commented that he had composed the Requiem on “the basis of Gregorian themes from the funeral mass […]. In certain places, the musical text has been adopted in full and the orchestral part provides support and a commentary; in other places, I have merely allowed myself to be inspired by this music.” At the same time, the French composer dispensed with the drama of the Dies irae and focused in his impressionistic and shimmering orchestral colouring on angels with their “heavenly” harps and the depiction of Paradise illustrated by the sounds of the celesta and organ.

Alfred Schnittke also created an overtly introverted setting of the timeless funeral mass text, although the score shows no sign of impressionistic tonal effects. Strangely enough, the composer developed the work out of incidental music for Friedrich Schiller’s Don Carlos while still based in the Soviet Union. This music was created in 1975 “in the form of a requiem” (Schnittke) for a production at the Moscow Mossovet Theatre which was to be performed against the background of Catholic ecclesiastical music. Echoing the deeply tragic plot of Schiller’s drama, this incidental music developed into an incomparable requiem setting – not merely due to its unusual orchestral forces which include organ, piano, celesta, vibraphone, bells, gong, flexatone, timpani, trumpet, trombone and two electric guitars. Tentative sections in piano and whispering choral passages in the style of a litany are juxtaposed by solo coloraturas and organ clusters built up stepwise throughout the fourteen movements in which the consistently spectral sounds of Schnittke’s polystylistic method are ever-present.

Venue Info

Berliner Philharmonie - Berlin
Location   Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1

The Berliner Philharmonie is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, named for the orchestra's longest-serving principal conductor. The building forms part of the Kulturforum complex of cultural institutions close to Potsdamer Platz.

The Philharmonie consists of two venues, the Grand Hall (Großer Saal) with 2,440 seats and the Chamber Music Hall (Kammermusiksaal) with 1,180 seats. Though conceived together, the smaller hall was opened in the 1980s, some twenty years after the main building.

Hans Scharoun designed the building, which was constructed over the years 1960–1963. It opened on 15 October 1963 with Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony. It was built to replace the old Philharmonie, destroyed by British bombers on 30 January 1944, the eleventh anniversary of Hitler becoming Chancellor. The hall is a singular building, asymmetrical and tentlike, with the main concert hall in the shape of a pentagon. The height of the rows of seats increases irregularly with distance from the stage. The stage is at the centre of the hall, surrounded by seating on all sides. The so-called vineyard-style seating arrangement (with terraces rising around a central orchestral platform) was pioneered by this building, and became a model for other concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House (1973), Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall (1978), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1981), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and the Philharmonie de Paris (2014).

Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet recorded three live performances at the hall; Dave Brubeck in Berlin (1964), Live at the Berlin Philharmonie (1970), and We're All Together Again for the First Time (1973). Miles Davis's 1969 live performance at the hall has also been released on DVD.

On 20 May 2008 a fire broke out at the hall. A quarter of the roof suffered considerable damage as firefighters cut openings to reach the flames beneath the roof. The hall interior sustained water damage but was otherwise "generally unharmed". Firefighters limited damage using foam. The cause of the fire was attributed to welding work, and no serious damage was caused either to the structure or interior of the building. Performances resumed, as scheduled, on 1 June 2008 with a concert by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The main organ was built by Karl Schuke, Berlin, in 1965, and renovated in 1992, 2012 and 2016. It has four manuals and 91 stops. The pipes of the choir organs and the Tuba 16' and Tuba 8' stops are not assigned to any group and can be played from all four manuals and the pedals.

Important Info
Type: Classical Concert
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 20:00
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