Staatskapelle Berlin

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Dates

December 5 – 6, 2023

Venue

Knight Concert Hall

Run Time

TBD

Parental Guide

Ages 8+

Due to the withdrawal of Maestro Barenboim because of health reasons, the Staatskapelle Berlin concerts originally scheduled for December 5 and 6, 2023 will not take place.

Daniel Barenboim: "It is with great regret that I need to withdraw from the Staatskapelle Berlin’s upcoming concert tour to Canada and the USA. I was very much looking forward to returning to this tour, but my health simply does not allow me to undertake the strenuous transatlantic travel and the many domestic trips required for this tour. I am thankful for everyone’s understanding and good wishes."

Ticket buyers have been notified via email.

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

December 5 Program:
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

December 6 Program:
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5

Led by the revered Daniel Barenboim, “a titan among the world’s conductors” (The New York Times), audiences will experience an orchestra “nurtured and honed in music it was born to play” (Gramophone).

In one of the most anticipated music events of 2023, Maestro Barenboim will lead the historic Staatskapelle Berlin in two evenings of monumental music: Brahms’ Symphonies 3 and 4 on December 5, followed the next evening by Beethoven’s Symphonies 5 and 6.

Beethoven’s Fifth boasts the most famous opening phrase of any symphony, four notes indelibly identified with Beethoven’s genius. That iconic musical signature launches us on an intense musical journey that leads us inexorably to a triumphant finale. The “Pastoral” Symphony, by contrast, is a radiant musical expression of Beethoven’s profound devotion to nature and his beloved countryside.

“I will never write a symphony!” Brahms promised. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to hear a giant treading behind you.” The giant was, of course, Beethoven, and, lucky for us, Brahms broke his promise and composed four.

Daniel Barenboim has spent most of his life on a concert stage, enthralling audiences with his masterful piano-playing and conducting some of the world’s most influential orchestras, including the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded, and Staatskapelle Berlin, the 450-year-old house ensemble of Berlin State Opera, which he directed for 30 years and which appointed him “conductor for life.”

PRESHOW CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS

One hour prior to this performance, join us in the Peacock Education Center for Classical Conversations, an exciting, behind-the scenes look at this performance. Dr. Rufus Jones Jr., principal conductor with the Florida Youth Orchestra, will provide insight into the musicians, composers and history that will be heard in the concert.

**SAVE* ON STAATSKAPELLE**

Buy tickets to both nights and save 10%** at checkout!

Knight Masterworks Classical Music subscribers enjoy 20% off as a subscriber benefit. Learn more at arshtcenter.org/classical.

Share your love of classical music with the child in your life! Receive a free*** child ticket with the purchase of a full-price ticket with promo code BERLINBOGO.

*Multiple offers cannot be combined.

**No promo code necessary. The discount will be applied at checkout. Offer excludes price level 1 tickets.

***BOGO tickets will be held at will-call. Child ticket valid for ages 8-18. Valid photo or student ID necessary for high school age children.

Tickets

Online ticket sales are no longer available for this performance. Tickets may still be available in person at the box office or by calling 305.949.6722.

Artists

Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim is one of today’s most outstanding artists. As a pianist and conductor, he has been active for decades in major cities across Europe and all around the world; as the initiator of several highly acclaimed projects, he has contributed decisively to international music life.

Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942. He gave his first public concert when he was seven. In 1952, he moved with his parents to Israel. At age eleven, Daniel Barenboim took part in conducting classes in Salzburg under Igor Markevitch. In 1955 and 1956, he studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Since the 1950s he has regularly toured Europe and the United States, but also South America, Australia, and the Far East.

Ever since his conducting debut in 1967 in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim has been in great demand with leading orchestras around the world. Between 1975 and 1989, he was chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. From 1991 until 2006, Daniel Barenboim was Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His debut as an opera conductor he gave at the Edinburgh Festival 1973. Over a period of eighteen years, from 1981 until 1999, he was active as conductor of the Bayreuth Festival.

From the end of 1991 until January 2023, Daniel Barenboim was General Music Director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In 2000, the Staatskapelle Berlin voted him chief-conductor-for-life. Both, in the opera as well as on the concert stage, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin have acquired a large repertoire, especially great work cycles which they presented in Berlin and worldwide. Beside the great classic-romantic repertoire, they continue to focus on modern and contemporary music. A constantly growing number of CD and DVD recordings document this close artistic partnership.

In 1999, Daniel Barenboim founded together with the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said the West-Eastern Divan Workshop, which brings together young musicians from Israel and the Arab countries to play music together. Since this time the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has developed into a celebrated ensemble with performances in many musical centres in Europe and the world. Since 2015, talented young musicians from the Middle East also study at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, another initiative founded by Daniel Barenboim. In 2016, this university for Music and the Humanities started enrolling up to 90 students in a four-year bachelor program. Also housed in the same building as the academy is the Frank Gehry-designed Pierre Boulez Hall that enrichs Berlin’s musical life since 2017.

Daniel Barenboim was honoured with numerous important international prizes and has published several books.
Staatskapelle Berlin

With a tradition of more than 450 years, Staatskapelle Berlin is one of the oldest orchestras in the world. Originally founded as court orchestra by Prince-Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg in 1570 the ensemble expanded its activities with the founding of the Royal Court Opera in 1742 by Frederick the Great. Ever since then, the orchestra has been closely tied to Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Many important musicians have conducted the orchestra, both in the opera and in the regular concert series that have been held since 1842, among them Gaspare Spontini, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Felix von Weingartner, Richard Strauss, Erich Kleiber, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Franz Konwitschny, and Otmar Suitner.

From the end of 1991 until January 2023, Daniel Barenboim (born 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) has served as the orchestra’s general music director. At numerous guest appearances that have brought the orchestra to the great European music centers, to Israel, the Far East, North and South America, the international top position of the orchestra has proved. The performance of all symphonies and piano concertos of Beethoven in Vienna, Paris, London, New York and Tokyo, and the cycles of symphonies of Schumann and Brahms, the ten-part cycle of all important stage works by Wagner, and the performance of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle in Japan 2002 are some of the most outstanding events. 2007 the symphonies and orchestral songs of Gustav Mahler were performed under the batons of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez at Philharmonie Berlin. This ten-part cycle was also performed at Vienna’s Musikverein as well as New York’s Carnegie Hall. Highlights in recent time were a nine-part cycle with symphonies by Anton Bruckner in Vienna (June 2012) and concert performances of Wagner’s “Ring” during the Proms in London (Summer 2013). The celebrated Bruckner cycle was 2016 and 2017 presented again in Suntory Hall Tokyo as well in Carnegie Hall New York and in Philharmonie Paris.

A constantly growing number of recordings in both the operatic and symphonic repertoires documents the work of Staatskapelle Berlin. Most recently, recordings of all nine Bruckner symphonies, of the piano concertos by Chopin, Liszt and Brahms as well as large symphonic works by Strauss and Elgar were released. In addition several opera productions were produced among them Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”, “Parsifal” and “Tristan and Isolde”, Verdi’s “Il trovatore” and “Falstaff”, Berg’s “Lulu”, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tsar’s Bride”, Schumann’s “Scenes from Goethe‘s Faust” (all under the baton of Daniel Barenboim) as well as Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier” (with Zubin Mehta conducting). On the occation of the 450th birthday of Staatskapelle Berlin a CD edition with “Great Recordings” under the batons of important conductors was published as well a book and an exhibtion promoting the long and rich history of the orchestra.

During the current season 2022-23 Staatskapelle Berlin will give guest concerts in Japan and South Korea as well as in Denmark, Vienna and Paris. The tour to Asia took place under the direction of Christian Thielemann who also conducted two cycles of Wagner’s “Ring” in October and November 2022 at Staatsoper Unter den Linden.