Berlin Philharmonic / Sir Simon Rattle

It goes without saying that Germany’s top orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic under its charismatic chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle, has to make an appearance at this star-studded opening season at the Elbphilharmonie. And they have come up with a pretty smart programme for the new concert hall: The evening starts with one of the short commissions that Rattle himself describes affectionately as »tapas«. Simon Holt’s »musical canapé« is intended to whet the audience’s appetite for the evening’s substantial main course, Bruckner’s Eighth, of which the composer’s contemporary and fellow Austrian Hugo Wolf enthused: »This symphony is the creation of a giant and surpasses all the master’s other symphonies in terms of intellectual depth, fertility and grandeur.«