Vienna to Berlin

The festivals of Salzburg and Baden-Baden will undoubtedly lure music lovers from all over Europe, but the Staatsoper’s Festtage – a week-long Easter festival that normally mixes high-profile opera performances with recitals and orchestral concerts – offer many compelling reasons to remain in Berlin. This year’s programme, which also includes an unmissable Tannhäuser, got underway with a visit from the Vienna Philharmonic who, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, delivered consummate performances of Mozart’s final three symphonies.

The symphonies, composed within weeks of one another during the summer of 1788, make for a highly satisfying concert – the Berlin Philharmonic offered an identical programme as their season opener this year – and seem to offer a source of inexhaustible delight to orchestras and audiences alike. On this…