Musikfest Berlin Part 1: A Lesson in Chemistry

Berlin’s annual Musikfest – three weeks of orchestral concerts, chamber music and solo recitals, imaginatively curated by the Berliner Festspiele – is currently in its tenth year, and it is only showing signs of getting better with age. This year’s festival, loosely but intriguingly organised around the theme of the horn, will feature appearances from some of the world’s leading orchestras and soloists, alongside the six Berlin orchestras who form the stable core of the event. In addition to central works of later romanticism from Schumann, Brahms and Bruckner, and a handful of concerts paying tribute to the 150th birthday of Strauss, the festival will also offer a chance to hear works by living composers such as Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm and Georg Friedrich Haas. As in previous years, Musikfest has made September an exciting time to…