The week of Thursday, October 1 through Sunday, October 4 has a clear anchor: three performances by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko at Philharmonie Berlin. The programme pairs Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, a large, deliberately physical coupling whose two halves ask for very different kinds of attention. The real present-tense element is at the piano. Víkingur Ólafsson has stepped in for Daniil Trifonov, who is unable to perform because of injury, and he will take the Brahms part with Petrenko for the Berlin dates before continuing with the orchestra on its October tour. That makes this a rare chance to hear an established programme reframed by a soloist change only weeks before the first performance.[1][2][4]

Brahms’s First Piano Concerto is an apt work for that frame. It began life through several forms, including a two-piano sonata and a projected symphony, and still carries that orchestral weight in its opening movement. The piano emerges inside a broad, often turbulent orchestral argument; its role has force, but it also depends on close exchanges with individual instrumental lines. The Berliner Philharmoniker’s own programme material gives the work a running time of about 51 minutes, and traces a range from huge sonic pressure to unusually tender passages. Ólafsson’s work has often moved between close-grained keyboard repertoire and large concert-hall projects, so this appearance offers a useful opportunity to hear his clarity applied to Brahms on symphonic scale.[3][4]

After the interval, Strauss changes the room’s perspective. Also sprach Zarathustra starts with its celebrated sunrise gesture and expands into a sequence of sharply contrasted orchestral scenes, drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel. It is music with a public profile far beyond the concert hall, yet its interest here lies in the detail that follows the opening: shifting weight across brass, strings, organ and percussion, then passages where colour and balance carry the argument. Paired with Brahms, the Strauss gives Petrenko and the orchestra a route from compressed dialogue to panoramic orchestral architecture. This is the strongest reason to make the trip: one evening built around the pianist’s direct encounter with the ensemble, followed by an orchestra-sized statement of sound and space.[1][3]

Three evenings, one programme, a live change of focus

Choose Thursday, October 1 or Friday, October 2 for an 8:00 PM start, or Saturday, October 3 for the 7:00 PM performance. Each concert is scheduled for roughly two hours including a 20-minute interval; Thursday also has a 7:15 PM introduction. The official listing places all three in the Main Auditorium of Philharmonie Berlin, with the same Petrenko–Ólafsson–Berliner Philharmoniker lineup and the same Brahms–Strauss sequence. With the soloist substitution central to the week’s story, check the Berliner Philharmoniker’s official concert page again before travelling for current ticket and visitor information.[1][2]

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Why Ólafsson is the week’s draw

Ólafsson’s October calendar puts these Berlin performances at the opening of a run of Brahms First Concerto dates with the Berliner Philharmoniker in New York, Bogotá, São Paulo and Buenos Aires. Berlin therefore hears the partnership at its starting point, in the orchestra’s home hall and under its chief conductor. The substitution keeps the programme intact while changing its human centre; that combination of continuity and immediacy gives the three-night stand its particular pull.[2][4]

Practical details for October 1–3

The Berliner Philharmoniker play at Philharmonie Berlin on Thursday, October 1 at 8:00 PM, Friday, October 2 at 8:00 PM, and Saturday, October 3 at 7:00 PM. Kirill Petrenko conducts; Víkingur Ólafsson plays Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, followed by Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. Recheck the official pages for tickets, access details, start times and any further programme updates.[1][2]

Sources

  1. Kirill Petrenko and Víkingur Ólafsson with Brahms and Strauss — Berliner Philharmoniker
  2. Daniil Trifonov has to cancel October concerts — Berliner Philharmoniker
  3. Programme Note: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in D minor, op. 15 — Berliner Philharmoniker
  4. Víkingur Ólafsson – Overview — Deutsche Grammophon