What: Berliner Philharmoniker Season Finale 2026
Who: Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko, Jonas Kaufmann
Where: Waldbühne, Berlin
When: 27 June 2026, 20:15 (Berlin) / 18:15 GMT
Live stream starts: 20:00 (Berlin) / 18:00 GMT
Programme: Leoncavallo, Verdi, Refice, Respighi, Mascagni, Cilea and Giordano
Platform: Digital Concert Hall
Cost: Paid streaming (subscription)
Disclaimer
This concert will be streamed live by the Digital Concert Hall on 27 June 2026. Access requires a paid subscription or concert ticket. Following the live broadcast, the performance will remain available in the platform’s video archive for on-demand viewing.
Every summer, the Berliner Philharmoniker concludes its season with a celebratory open-air concert at Berlin’s Waldbühne. For the 2026 edition, chief conductor Kirill Petrenko and star tenor Jonas Kaufmann invite audiences on a musical journey through Italy, combining some of opera’s most beloved arias with two of Ottorino Respighi’s most colourful orchestral showpieces.
Kaufmann, whose warm timbre and dramatic intensity have made him one of the defining tenors of his generation, takes centre stage in a programme featuring excerpts from Pagliacci, L’Arlesiana and Fedora, alongside Licinio Refice’s lyrical song Ombra di nube. Among the highlights are Canio’s famous “Vesti la giubba” from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and the passionate “Amor ti vieta” from Giordano’s Fedora.
Petrenko and the orchestra contribute a rich orchestral counterpart with Verdi’s La forza del destino Overture, Mascagni’s beloved Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana, and Respighi’s celebrated Roman tone poems Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma. Together, these works paint vivid musical portraits of the Eternal City, from the gardens of Villa Borghese to the splendour of Rome’s fountains and pine-lined avenues.
Recorded at one of Europe’s most iconic outdoor venues, this season-closing concert offers the combination of virtuoso orchestral playing, operatic star power and festive atmosphere that has made the Waldbühne concerts a cherished tradition for audiences around the world.
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