Musikfest 4: Notable Firsts

As the weeks of Musikfest Berlin neared their conclusion, the Vienna Philharmonic made a welcome visit to the stage of the Philharmonie with Christian Thielemann as conductor. While the programme, which paired the first (numbered) symphonies of Schumann and Bruckner, offered none of the neglected masterworks, obscure composers or twentieth-century rarities that often make Musikfest concerts so memorable, the performances on this evening served as an eloquent reminder that sometimes the best concerts can arise from the simple combination of familiar works, a superlative orchestra, and a conductor with a strong vision for how the music should sound.

Certainly Schumann’s symphonies are as familiar as it gets: along with Beethoven and Brahms, Schumann’s symphonic output stands at the very centre of the nineteenth-century European…