The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has for many years been one of the premier orchestras of the world, its name synonymous with technical virtuosity, musical insight, extraordinary range and sonorous tone. At regular concerts in Berlin, where it has been the center of the city's cultural life for over 100 years, as well as in the major venues across the world, the orchestra never fails to astonish listeners with its high standards of execution and musicianship. The orchestra has made a number of recordings for Sony Classical, many of which have been released in the last ten years with Claudio Abbado directing. The repertoire has been varied, from operas -- including Boris Godunov (S3K 58977) and Il viaggio a Reims (S2K 53336) -- and symphonies -- including Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (SK 62634) and Mozart's Symphony No. 36 "Linz" (SK 66859) -- to other lesser-known repertoire, such as Schumann's Faust Scenes (SK 66308) and the complete St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky (SK 62034). Most recently, Sony Classical released a new live recording of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3, featuring pianist Arcadi Volodos, with James Levine conducting the orchestra. Other recent Sony Classical recordings with the orchestra include Schumann's Piano Concerto, with Murray Perahia as soloist, and a disc of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich Violin Concertos, with Midori as soloist (SK 68338).
The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1882 by some fifty ambitious musicians who decided to break from the main orchestra of the town, run by the autocratic and parsimonious Benjamin Bilse. At first the new orchestra struggled, beset by financial problems and weak leadership.
In 1887 the concert agent Hermann Wolf took over the management and immediately improved the situation by engaging Hans von Bülow, one of the most progressive and uncompromising conductors of his day. Bülow transformed the orchestra within five years, at the end of which time the group regularly engaged the foremost musicians, including Hermann Levi, Hans Richter, Felix Mottl, Felix von Weingartner, Ernst von Schuch, the composers Brahms and Grieg and the composer-conductors Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Hans Pfitzner
In 1895 the baton passed to Arthur Nikisch, a conductor of quiet, economic gestures who maintained the standards established by Bülow and enlarged the orchestra's repertoire considerably. Over his 27 years at the helm he was a vehement advocate of Bruckner and promoted the works of Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Liszt and the then-modern works of Strauss and Mahler. Among the soloists Nikisch engaged were Ferruccio Busoni, Wilhelm Backhaus, Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaut, Carl Flesch, Bronislav Huberman, Jascha Heifetz and Adolf Busch, Pablo Casals, Maria Ivogün and Heinrich Schlusnus.
In 1922 Nikisch was succeeded by Wilhelm Furtwängler, then a young conductor distinguished by his temperament, passion, style of interpretation, and unusual conducting technique. Furtwängler brought the orchestra's focus back to music of the classical and romantic composers.
He was the interpreter of Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner, and among his contemporaries he was closer to the late romantic composers than to the composers of the new school. At the same time, he still programmed works by Hindemith, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Schönberg. His leadership lasted until 1954, with a break at the end of the Second World War.
After the end of the war, musical life in Berlin, a destroyed city, began again almost immediately. The Philharmonic, which had given its last pre-surrender concert in April of 1945, was performing again in May under Leo Borchard with most of the same personnel. Borchard's tenure was cut short by his untimely death, and Sergiu Celibidache, an unknown and fresh 33-year-old Romanian conductor, took the post, leading with fire and fanaticism. His concerts -- in a community hall in Zehlendorf, in the Titania-Palast, and later in the Musikhochschule -- bore the stamp of the unusual. Under Celibidache the orchestra was reintegrated into international cultural life after years of isolation during the war, and internationally known artists began to perform in Berlin again. The orchestra began to tour internationally as well.
Furtwängler returned to the podium in 1946 and became Principal Conductor again in 1952. After his death in 1954, the members of the Philharmonic voted Herbert von Karajan to the post of Permanent Conductor and Artistic Director, which he assumed in 1955. During his tenure of over three decades, Karajan transformed the orchestral sound and raised the level of ensemble and orchestral virtuosity to new heights. Concerts, tours, and innumerable recordings -- in which the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra "turned into" the Berliner Philharmoniker -- brought the fruits of the collaboration before an increasingly international public. Also under Karajan's leadership the orchestra gained a new home: the Philharmonie on Kemperplatz, designed by Hans Scharoun and finished in 1963. In 1987 a chamber music hall was added.
In 1989 Karajan stepped down, having guided the Philharmonic to the forefront of the world's orchestras in an age of internationalism and unparalleled orchestral virtuosity. He died in Salzburg later that year, and Claudio Abbado was voted to take over, only the fifth Artistic Director in the orchestra's history. Abbado gave music of the twentieth century a larger role in the orchestra's repetoire, alongside the traditional classical and romantic works. He also began to program the season around themes, like "Music inspired by the poetry of Hölderlin", "Faust", "The Greek Tragedy (Oedipus, Elektra, Medea)", Shakespeare", "Berg/Büchner", and "The Wanderer". And he began to give concert performances of operas in the Philharmonie for the first time, including Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Richard Strauss' Elektra, Verdi's Otello, Berg's Wozzeck, Schubert's Fierrabras, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and recently Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.
Abbado will step down in 2002, to be succeeded by Sir Simon Rattle.
The Berlin Philharmonic continues to be a democratic organization as it was in the beginning. Although employed by the City of Berlin, the musicians form what Furtwängler called a "free orchestral republic", run by representative government that is controlled by the musicians and protecting them with powerful rights.
