Berliner Philharmoniker live in cinemas

14 JUNE 2024: A feast for the eyes and ears – the Berliner Philharmoniker live on the big screen with star conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

The Berliner Philharmoniker will once again be performing live in around 165 cinemas in German-speaking countries and many other European countries on Friday, 14 June from 19:30. The orchestra will perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

In this work, the composer demonstrates his unique creative power as he weaves an overabundance of ideas and soundscapes into a single great symphonic arc from the first to the last note. Often referred to as the “Tragic”, the symphony is famous not least for the two visually impressive hammer blows in the last movement of the symphony, which Gustav Mahler notes in the score as short, powerful but dull, echoing blows “of a non-metallic character (like an axe blow)”. A third hammer blow was supposedly removed from the score for superstitious reasons.

Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time in 2008 at the end-of-season concert at the Berlin Waldbühne, an evening that “may well go down as the most thrilling conducting debut in the orchestra’s history”, as a critic of the Tagesspiegel wrote. Since then, Dudamel has been a regular guest of the orchestra. He won the 1st Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg back in 2004 and has since developed into a proven specialist in the composer’s music. He has already performed Mahler symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker on several occasions. This concert marks Gustavo Dudamel’s third cinema broadcast.

Orchestra / Band Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel
Composer Gustav Mahler
English title of music work Symphony No. 6
Recording location Philharmonie Berlin