Diamanda Galás In Concert

The 2008 New Year’s Eve gala from Berlin features the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton or Sir Simon Rattle, plus world-class singers Thomas Quasthoff and Pauline Malefane in an outstanding all-American program ranging from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and “An American in Paris” to Copland’s “Old American Songs”.

It is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin - and beyond: On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. In 2015, the orchestra has invited German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Together, they performed works by Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Ravel, Poulenc and Chabrier.

A joyful celebration welcoming the New Year, this Gala from Berlin presents the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in Carl Orff’s famous Carmina Burana, an intensely dramatic cantata that remains one of the most widely performed works from the twentieth century. With an exceptional vocal line-up – soprano Sally Matthews, tenor Lawrence Brownlee and baritone Christian Gerhaher – this is an energetic and thrilling performance. Beethoven’s Leonore No. 3 overture and Handel’s supreme ‘Hallelujah’ Chorus are also included.

New Year’s Eve Concert 1997 – A Tribute to Carmen The program of the Berlin Philharmonic bore the title «Dances of Life, Love, and Death», and it was hardly coincidental that it was meant as an homage to Carmen. The recording of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s traditional New Year’s Eve Concert, conducted by Claudio Abbado, offers not only a cross section of worldfamous melodies from George Bizet’s opera, but also famous dance music that was intensely or subtly influenced by it. With: Anne Sofie von Otter, Bryn Terfel, Roberto Alagna, Gil Shaham, Mikhail Pletnev.

New Year’s Eve Concert 1998 – Songs of Love and Desire Love was the theme of the 1998 New Year’s Eve Concert. And who wrote better music about love than Mozart and Verdi? Maestro Claudio Abbado has chosen two of the best Mozart interpreters, Christine Schäfer and Simon Keenlyside, for this traditionally meaningful event. Marcelo Álvarez from Argentina interprets highlights of the tenor repertoire, and Italian Primadonna Mirella Freni tops the occasion with a breathtaking performance of the Letter Scene of Tchaikovsky’s Eugen Onegin.

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve concert 2018 is conducted by Daniel Barenboim, who looks back on a close artistic partnership with the Berliner Philharmoniker spanning over five decades. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s festive Piano Concerto in D Major, a work of sparkling beauty and nuanced expression opens the concert. The glamourous evening also includes four famous works by Maurice Ravel, which create an impressive synthesis of elegance and originality, with the breathtaking Boléro as the final highlight.

"What a Wonderful Town" was the motto of the traditional New Year's Eve Concert at the Berlin Philharmonie. The Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle along with some of the most sought-after singers in this field including Thomas Hampson, Kim Criswell, Simone Sauphanor and Karl Daymond perform Leonard Bernstein's 'Wonderful Town'. 'Wonderful Town' was the second of Bernstein's trio of 'New York' musicals begun in 1944 with 'On The Town' and completed with 1957's 'West Side Story' and is a love letter to New York in the '30's. Bernstein's score combines witty pastiches of various popular musical styles of the 30s - Conga!, Swing! - and some of his most winning ballads. The program also includes George Gershwin’s songs ‘My Man’s Gone Now’, ‘Ask Me Again’ and ‘Fascinatin’ Rhythm’.

During Claudio Abbado’s time as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the great symphonic repertoire naturally formed the core of his artistic work, and it was almost forgotten just what an important role the music theatre of his Italian homeland played in his life – after all, he had led La Scala in Milan from 1968 to 1986. Just how special the works of Verdi were to him could be heard in the New Year’s Eve Concert from 2000 which, with famous scenes and arias, rang in the Verdi year 2001 when the music world commemorated the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death.

To celebrate their traditional New Year's Eve Concert, Daniel Barenboim and the Berliner Philharmoniker encouraged the audience to dance. The result was a lively whirl of catchy and melodious numbers selected from over 300 years of music history - a heady cocktail of old and new that put a spring in the steps of both connoisseurs of brilliant orchestral miniatures and lovers of Latin American rhythms.