Berliner Philharmoniker Returns to Carnegie Hall

The Berliner Philharmoniker returns to Carnegie Hall in New York for the first time in four years. Their last appearance was in 2022, and once again, the orchestra will be led by chief conductor Kirill Petrenko.

October 9, 2026
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, Chief Conductor
Víkingur Ólafsson, Piano

Brahms — Piano Concerto No. 1
R. Strauss — Also sprach Zarathustra

October 10, 2026
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, Chief Conductor

Elgar — Enigma Variations
Tchaikovsky — Symphony No. 4

November 11, 2026
The same program as October 9.

The October 9 program brings together Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. Daniil Trifonov was originally scheduled to perform the Brahms, but he withdrew and was replaced by Víkingur Ólafsson. I had been looking forward to hearing Brahms performed by Trifonov and Kantorow in New York this season, so the cancellation came as a surprise.

From Brahms to Strauss: both belong to the German musical tradition of the 19th century, yet Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, inspired by Nietzsche’s philosophy, pushes that tradition toward the 20th century through its enormous orchestral forces and new harmonic language. It will be fascinating to hear how the Berliner Philharmoniker brings out both the sheer scale and the fine details of this music.

On October 10, the program pairs Elgar’s Enigma Variations with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. In Enigma Variations, Elgar portrays his wife and friends through fourteen variations, transforming intimate memories of people close to him into music.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 takes a very different direction. The brass motif representing “Fate” appears at the beginning and returns throughout the symphony, gradually driving the entire orchestra.

From intimate portraits of individuals to the enormous energy of the symphony, I want to hear how the Berliner Philharmoniker and Petrenko reveal both the fine