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Welcome

to Concert Management Prof. Victor Hohenfels

Sit back and enjoy a few hours of assured relaxation and harmony listening to the ever popular masterpieces of famous composers in the splendidly festive atmosphere of a full house.“ Read more …
Eva-Maria Hohenfels

This has always been the key motivation behind the series of POPULAR CONCERTS founded by Prof. Victor Hohenfels and his wife Eva-Maria 60 years ago.
From the very beginning, these concerts have always attracted such large audiences that it has been possible to stage them without any subsidies or grants whatsoever over the past 60 years. Today these popular concerts presented in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall contribute in no small part to making the German capital the major centre for the performing arts that it is. Over 3,5 million concertgoers from Berlin and the whole world have attended these concerts over the past six decades.
The name of the series is simple and self-explanatory – in a subscription series of seven concerts a bill of fare of the most famous and popular works from the world of classical music is presented to the audience, grouped around themes such as „Symphonies of the World“, „Composer Portraits“ or „Classic and Romantic Masterpieces“.
The traditional concerts held over the Christmas season and Easter include such well loved evergreens as Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Beethoven’s Eroica, and Ravel’s Boléro, while New Year’s Day is reserved for Beethoven’s Ninth with its Ode to Joy final movement.
Berlin Symphony Orchestra with its Principal Conductor Stanley Dodds and all its other famous conductors and solists have performed since the very beginning in the marvelous auditorium of the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, one of the world’s most beautiful concert halls with its unrivalled superb acoustic.
So why not come along yourself and experience the sheer magic our Popular Concerts have to offer.
We would be delighted to see you!

KONZERTDIREKTION PROF. VICTOR HOHENFELS
Bogdan Sikora and staff
Berlin Symphony Orchestra

News

Dear concertgoers,

we are delighted to invite you to our concert season 2024-2025 in Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall, as always according to the motto:

„Sit back and enjoy a few hours of assured relaxation and harmony listening to the ever popular masterpieces of famous composers in the splendidly festive atmosphere of a full house.“

Once again, we would like to thank you, dear public, for your loyalty and for attending our concerts in such large numbers. In fact up to today over 3.5 million guests from Berlin, as well as from every corner of the world, have been our guests at CLASSICS FOR EVERYONE.
We are incredibly grateful to the BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER (and since more recently also to the Wiener Philharmoniker) for the ongoing cooperation between members of this incredible orchestra and Hohenfels Concert Management. To have such excellent artists as soloists and conductors in our concerts represents for us an honour and privilege
We hope the new program meets your expectations and we wish you unforgettable hours in Berlin Philharmonic Hall with our POPULAR CONCERTS!

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Let’s now have a look at 2025!

A special appointment will follow on March 8, one dedicated to all women and some of the greatest and most romantic masterpieces by Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven.

Not the Enchanted Flute but rather the Enchanted Horn will follow on March 22 with the young Israeli horn soloist Bar Zemach. In addition to the immortal notes of Mozart, this concert will include a new composition in honour of  the “ancestor of the horn”, the shofar. “Niggun David-fantasy” will have its world premiere on this special evening, which will be introduced by Berliner Philharmonie “house poet” Klaus Wallendorf.

Our Opera Gala on Easter will take place on April 20 and will include some of the greatest highlights in the Italian operatic repertoire. This event cannot be missed by all music and opera lovers in town!

Finally, our intense and special concert season will end on May 25 with the Closing Concert, under the baton of Principal Conductor Stanley Dodds. The program will not disappoint, including some of the greatest works of all time, such as Tschaikowsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Adagio from Chatschaturjan’s Spartakus and Schumann’s Concert pieces for four horns and orchestra, not to mention our traditional Boléro!

We hope the new program meets your expectations and we wish you unforgettable hours in Berlin Philharmonic Hall with our POPULAR CONCERTS! 

 

Yours,

Concert Management Prof. Victor Hohenfels

Next concerts

SAT | 08.03.25 | 8:00 pmROMANTIC CONCERT INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAYPHILHARMONIE | Kleiner Saal

Ticket Order & Details

SAT | 22.03.25 | 8:00 pmTHE ENCHANTED HORN OF MOZARTPHILHARMONIE | Kleiner Saal

Ticket Order & Details

2024/2025 (PDF)

Concerts

CONCERT CALENDAR

ROMANTIC CONCERT INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

PHILHARMONIE | Kleiner Saal

SAT | 08.03.25 | 8:00 pm

Schubert: Die Zauberharfe, D.644 overture

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.10 in E-flat major, K.365 for two pianos and orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

 

Conductor: Andreas Wittmann

Piano: Silver-Garburg Piano Duo

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THE ENCHANTED HORN OF MOZART

PHILHARMONIE | Kleiner Saal

SAT | 22.03.25 | 8:00 pm

Shpilman: „Niggun David“, fantasy for Shofar and orchestra (First Performance)

Mozart: Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K.407

Mozart: Horn Concerto in D major, K.412

Mozart: Divertimento in D major, K.131 (Minuetto)

Mozart: Symphony No.19 in E-flat major, K.132 (Allegro)

Mozart: Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550

 

Condcutor: Igor Budinstein

Horn: Bar Zemach

Moderator: Klaus Wallendorf

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OPERA GALA

PHILHARMONIE | Großer Saal

SUN | 20.04.25 | 3:30 pm

Aida – Rigoletto – La Bohème – Gianni Schicchi – La Traviata and more

 

Condcutor: Svetoslav Borisov

Singers: to be announced

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CLOSING CONCERT

PHILHARMONIE | Großer Saal

SUN | 25.05.25 | 3:30 pm

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (overture)

Tschaikowsky: Piano Concerto No.1, Op.23

Tschaikowsky: Capriccio Italien

Chatschaturjan: Adagio from „Spartakus“

Ravel: Boléro

 

Condcutor: Stanley DoddsPrincipal Conductor

Piano: Özgür Aydin

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Berlin Symphony Orchestra

Berlin Symphony Orchestra presents its Popular Classics concerts since more than 6o years. The intent remains the same since founder and manager Prof. Victor Hohenfels started to offer to large audiences masterpieces composed by the greatest composers of all time. The orchestra’s home is the Berliner Philharmonie and is well established in the national musical scene, thanks to its incredible artistical work and amount of concerts per season.

Berlin Symphony Orchestra’s concert season comprises 25 to 30 concerts, both in the main and in the chamber music hall. Grouped in thematic series, such as “Greatest symphonies of all time”, “Opera, operetta and ballet” or “Masterpieces from the classic and romantic eras”, the best-known works in musical history are presented to the public. The events called “Most famous film music” offers masterpieces composed by the greatest film music composers.

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Principal Conductor Stanley Dodds

During the 2014-2015 concert season Stanley Dodds became Principal Conductor of the orchestra. He plays since 1994 the violin as one of members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and studied at the Karajan Academy. The German-Australian musician had studied violin and conduction before in Linz and Lucerne. He has won several competitions and had a remarkable career both as soloist and as conductor. In this role he assisted Sir Simon Rattle several times.

Stanley Dodds‘ experience is beneficial to the artistic presence of the orchestra: his target is in fact to lead each musician to the maximum of their expressive possibilities, making them fully show his qualities. He is capable of transforming each concert into a real event: he knows how to create a connection between the public and the orchestra, as his interpretation of works such as Beethoven’s Eroica or Ravel’s Boléro clearly show.

The orchestra

Our programs are very demanding: masterpieces from the best classic, romantic and barock composers, such as Tschaikowski, Beethoven, Brahms und Dvorak impose top-level conductors, soloists and orchestras.

Berlin Symphony Orchestra is an excellent orchestra, capable of presenting these works with the highest standards, a target only achievable through an amount of incredibly well prepared members. Among them, many have previous experience in Berlin’s best musical ensembles. Others work since several years with Berlin Symphony Orchestra. This combination leads to full artistic and instrumental realization of the most exigent and popular works in music history.

Soloists and guest conductors

Members of world-leading orchestras such as the Berliner and the Wiener Philharmoniker or the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin are often invited to play with Berlin Symphony Orchestra. All these artists are indeed incredible soloists, with some of them possessing a solid education in conducting. They love working with our orchestra often and enthusiastically, because here they have the possibility to reach as conductors their own artistic milestone, while at the same time presenting to a joyful, also enthusiastic public the most famous masterpieces in music, in the incomparable atmosphere of Berlin’s philharmonic music halls.

The cooperation with Principal Conductor Stanley Dodds and all other guest conductors and soloists enables Berlin Symphony Orchestra to achieve artistic standards while not losing its creative evolution and openness to new inspiration. The orchestra remains true to itself: according to Eva-Maria’s motto, through joy and passion we aim to effer an emotional experience to the public and several hours of relaxation and inner harmony.

Principal Conductor Stanley Dodds

Principal Conductor Stanley Dodds

Stanley Dodds is the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the newly founded Cavatina Philharmonic Orchestra, resident in Cavatina Hall in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. In the inaugural season 2024/2025 he will conduct 20 programs with the city’s first ever full-time professional orchestra.

He is the Principal Conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra since 2014, resident in the Philharmonie Berlin. Annual season highlights include the New Year’s Day concert with Beethoven’s ninth symphony, an opera gala, themed symphony concerts and showcase concerts featuring instrumental concertos. This popular series is now in its seventh decade and plays consistently to a full house in the Philharmonie.

In 2024 he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Sydney Youth Orchestra, and has been artistic director of the State Youth Orchestra of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania since 2014.

His passion for contemporary music led him to found the ZeMu! Ensemble in 2021, which gave its inaugural performances at the Singapore International Arts Festival the following year premiering the multimedia work “The Once and Future”, with further performances at the New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong in 2023. His recordings of works by Wolfgang Rihm with musicians of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were nominated in the category “Conductor of the Year” in Germany’s 2022 Opus Classic Awards. Further important performances and recordings include Martón Illés Violin Concerto with Patricia Kopatschinskaya and the Karajan-Academy Orchestra, a “Baltic Roots” project with Baiba Skride, the world premiere of “Alavò” by Vito Žuraj and works by Esa-Pekka Salonen with members of the Berlin Philharmoniker.

He has conducted opera productions of Mozart “Cosi fan tutte”, Bizet “Carmen”, Viardot “Cendrillon”, Weill “Mahagonny Songspiel” and Hindemith “Lehrstück”, Offenbach “The Princess of Trapezunt”, Haydn “Il mondo della luna”, Mozart/Tarkmann “Die Zauberflöte” and Albrecht “Ritter Parceval”.

When the Berliner Philharmoniker cancelled live performances during the shutdown from March until July 2020 Stanley Dodds created and produced “The Berlin Phil Series”, an eleven episode series of weekly online concerts for the Digital Concert Hall, where members of the Berliner Philharmoniker played and presented thematically conceived programs, complemented with selections from the Digital Concert Hall archive.

A highlight of the 2016 season was the invitation to conduct a concert with the Australian World Orchestra in the Sydney Opera House. Inaugurated in 2011 the orchestra annually brings together Australia’s successful classical musicians from around the world, including members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others. Previous conductors have been Simone Young, Alexander Briger, Zubin Mehta and Sir Simon Rattle.

Past guest conductor appearances include the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Halle, Hamburger Symphoniker, Sendai Philharmonic, Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique Luxembourg,  Jena Philharmonic, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicale Milano, ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Karajan-Academy Orchestra and the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin. He appears at major Festivals in Salzburg and Baden-Baden, at the Musikfest and MaerzMusik in Berlin, Musica Viva in Munich and the Summer Festival in Mecklenburg Western Pomerania.

Stanley Chia-Ming Dodds was born in Canada, grew up in Australia and as a dual German-Australian citizen is now based in Berlin. He began playing violin and piano in Adelaide at age four, attended the Bruckner Conservatorium and Musik High School in Linz before studying at Lucerne Conservatorium. He continued violin studies at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic before receiving tenure as a violinist in the orchestra in 1994. In 2024 he left the orchestra after 30 years to focus solely on conducting. 

He studied conducting in Australia, Switzerland and Germany, his most important mentor being the acclaimed Finnish professor Jorma Panula. Other important influences on his conducting career have been the chief conductors of the Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle and Kirill Petrenko.

Stanley Dodds is dedicated to youth music and orchestral pedagogy. From 2013-2018 he directed the Young Concerts Festival for youth orchestras in Neubrandenburg. For the Berliner Philharmoniker he led for many years the Schools Orchestra Concert and Youth Composition Workshop. On the occasion of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s annual 2017 European concert in Pafos he initiated a bi-communal orchestra project, conducting young musicians from the entire island of Cyprus together with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, in a gesture of the universal language of music.

Interview with Stanley Dodds on “concerti”

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„Kleine Philharmonie“

Wer Philharmonie sagt, meint in der Regel den Großen Konzertsaal in dem 1963 nach den Plänen von Hans Scharoun eröffneten Gebäude am Kemperplatz – einen immer noch ungewöhnlichen und einmaligen ...

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Autor: Dr. Helge GrünewaldVerfasst am 19. February 2016

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Zwei Leben für die Bühne

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Die Populären Konzerte in der Berliner Philharmonie

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Season 2024/2025

Tickets & Information: +49 (0)30 - 882 76 22 // +49 (0)30 - 479 97 431
Online-Tickets: Eventim // Ticketmaster // Classictic

KONZERTDIREKTION PROF. VICTOR HOHENFELS
Kurfürstendamm 225
10719 Berlin

TEL.: +49 (0) 30 - 882 76 22 / 23