Konzerthaus Berlin

To Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s magnificent classical buildings also belongs the 1821 erected playhouse at the Gendarmenmarkt. Up until the house’s destruction in the 2nd World War, performances took place here in the “royal playhouse”—later the “Prussian State Theatre”. Only beginning in the 1980’s did the building receive its today’s appointment as concert house.

To this, the interior was completely redesigned, however, visually furnished within the style of classicism. The previous stage and audience member area is today the large concert hall with 1600 seats and a large organ with around 80 registers and a total of 581 pipes. Next to it arose a small concert hall with 400 seats, a music club with 80 seats, the orchestra practice hall as well as, since 2003, the Werner-Otto Hall. The façade was able to almost completely be restored after the plans of Schinkel.

The 1952 East Berlin founded Berliner Symphonisches Orchester opened the new playhouse in 1994 with a gala concert. A number of years ago, with the house’s very own orchestra, the concert house ensemble was joined with the name of the building and changed to Konzerthaus Orchester. In the first years of the BSO, the Chief Conductor Kurt Sanderling and later Günter Herbig succeeded to guide it to international recognition even without set performances venues. Since 2006, Lothar Zagrosek is the Chief Conductor of the Berliner Konzerthaus Orchester.

The rich tradition of the playhouse has lived through numerous high-points of Berlin cultural life, including, in 1881, the legendary world premiere of Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischütz“, the Berliner premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphony No. 9, as well as in December of 1989, the famous performance of Beethoven’s No. 9 Symphony with the “Ode an die Freiheit” under the direction of Leonard Bernstein.

Infos for school classes

The orchestra invites school classes to free visits for rehearsals, where the pupils will gain an insight into the work of a symphony orchestra. The musicians will be available for discussions with the pupils both before and after the rehearsal. Upper school classes can attend dress rehearsals. The teachers will be sent concert programmes 14 days before the visit. Register at: probenbesuchkonzerthaus [dot] de