CrowdMateNext week, Thursday 10 September through Sunday 13 September, Philharmonie Berlin offers a compact orchestral arc built around return, authorship and scale. The first half belongs to Brett Dean: former Berliner Philharmoniker violist, current Composer in Residence, conductor of his own music, and the central figure in identical Thursday and Friday programmes with the orchestra. Sunday shifts the perspective outward, when the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Vladimir Jurowski bring a large vocal-orchestral programme culminating in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells. These are three separate dates, yet they make sense as one attentive visit to the same hall across the opening stretch of September.[1][2][3]
The useful thread is the way each concert puts a living relationship with sound at the centre. Dean’s two evenings are authored from the podium by a musician who spent fourteen years inside the Berliner Philharmoniker before concentrating on composition. The RSB concert, meanwhile, sets three composers and a full choral force in motion under Jurowski. For listeners choosing one room and a few deliberate hours, the weekend moves from a composer’s personal catalogue toward a programme whose final work expands to soprano, tenor, baritone, choir and orchestra.[1][2][3]
Thursday and Friday: Brett Dean at the podium
On Thursday 10 September at 20:00 and Friday 11 September at 20:00, the Berliner Philharmoniker perform Dean’s programme in the Main Auditorium of Philharmonie Berlin. Dean conducts, with soprano Jennifer France. The programme places Conversations with Schumann beside And once I played Ophelia, then moves after the interval through Colin Matthews’s orchestration of Debussy’s La Cathédrale engloutie to Dean’s Beggars and Angels. The pairing gives the evenings a strong internal logic: three works by the conductor-composer frame one familiar French landmark heard through another arranger’s orchestral ear.[1]
Dean’s return has a particular Berlin charge, though the concert page keeps the focus on the music itself. His history with the orchestra reaches back to his fourteen-year tenure as a violist; his career since then has included composing, conducting and performing as a violist. That background makes the billing unusually legible: the same musician directs the ensemble he once played in, opening his 2026/27 residency through works that carry literary titles and a vocal soloist. Jennifer France appears in And once I played Ophelia, giving the programme a human voice amid its orchestral writing.[1][3]
Choose Thursday if an early-week Musikfest Berlin appointment suits your calendar; choose Friday if the later end of the workweek leaves room for a 20:00 start. The musical content remains the same across the two candidate dates, so the decision can be practical. Each performance is listed at about 90 minutes including a 20-minute interval. An introduction with Dean and Dr. Nicole Restle is scheduled for 19:15 on both nights, a useful arrival point for listeners who want some context before the programme begins.[1]
See which of your friends are going, and find people to go with.
Get the app
Sunday: Jurowski, the RSB and Rachmaninoff’s choral scale
Sunday 13 September at 20:00 brings a markedly different proposition to Philharmonie Berlin. Vladimir Jurowski conducts the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with soprano Galina Cheplakova, tenor Anton Rositskiy, baritone Vladislav Sulimsky and Rundfunkchor Berlin. The programme begins with Edison Denisov’s Peinture for large orchestra and continues with Anatol Vieru’s Second Symphony before Sergei Rachmaninoff’s The Bells. The RSB’s season material presents the evening as its opening concert and connects Denisov’s title to correspondences between abstract painting and music.[2]
The close of that programme supplies the week’s widest frame: Rachmaninoff’s work sets Edgar Allan Poe for three soloists, chorus and orchestra. In an editorial sense, it makes a satisfying counterweight to Dean’s two-night residence launch. Thursday and Friday foreground an individual composer conducting a carefully shaped selection of his own works; Sunday gathers distinct musical languages, vocal soloists and chorus into a single long-form public event. Taken together, the dates show Philharmonie Berlin functioning as a meeting point for an orchestra’s returning insider and a radio orchestra’s season-opening statement.[1][2][3]
Practical route through the weekend
For this guide, start with the Berliner Philharmoniker on Thursday 10 September or Friday 11 September at 20:00, then return on Sunday 13 September at 20:00 for the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. All three selected concerts take place at Philharmonie Berlin. Dean’s Thursday and Friday dates list the Main Auditorium and ticket prices from €24 to €77; the RSB brochure lists Sunday ticket bands from €18 to €68. Recheck the official Philharmonie Berlin and RSB pages before travelling for current ticket availability, entry guidance and any schedule changes.[1][2]
These concerts happened on 10–13 September 2026
The next dates at these venues: Philharmonie Berlin
Sources
- Berliner Philharmoniker, Brett Dean and Jennifer France: 10–12 September 2026 — Berliner Philharmoniker
- RSB Season Brochure 2026/27 — Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
- Brett Dean biography — Boosey & Hawkes