A Forest Idyll

Berlin’s Waldbühne may be one of the most pleasant spots in town. Located in a forest at the city’s western edge, the sense of vast scale in this 20,000 capacity amphitheatre is matched by an unexpected feeling of intimacy and seclusion. It is such an ideal place to spend a summer evening watching an orchestra that you hardly even notice you’re sitting in a sporting-event sized crowd. The Waldbühne hosts a number of events during the course of the summer – including a late-August appearance by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and, this year, an open-air performance of Die Zauberflöte from the Deutsche Oper – but few are as celebrated as the Berlin Philharmonic’s annual concert, which acts as an unofficial boundary between the regular season and the festivals of summer. Indeed the concert is as much a social institution as a musical…