Business as Usual

If the season opening concert of the Berlin Philharmonic has traditionally marked the end of summer and the beginning of the new season in Berlin, the concerts of the past few years have been coloured by varying degrees of pandemic-related uncertainty: between reduced capacity, mask policies and pre-concert tests, recent seasons have opened with a sense of living in extraordinary times. This year, however, felt curiously normal. There was no one scanning vaccine passports at the door, most of the audience had (alas) dispensed with their masks, and when the orchestra took the stage they were greeted with applause from a conspicuously full house. For the first time in three years, it felt like business as usual.

The evening’s programme consisted of a single work, Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, the same piece chosen by Sir Simon Rattle for the…