The Waldbühne in Berlin is one of Europe’s ideal outdoor amphitheatres. It is home to the Berlin Philharmonic’s summer concerts, which are among the most popular classical events in the world, attracting audiences of 20,000 or more people.
In July 2011 the orchestra, under the ebullient direction of Riccardo Chailly, presented this concert of effervescent works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Nino Rota and Ottorino Respighi.
All three composers possessed an unerring instinct for composing music that is guaranteed to please the ear of the listener. In their own individual ways, each of them powerfully demonstrates a phenomenal handling of tone colour. Their music sparkles with light one moment and lurks in the shadows the next.
Riccardo Chailly is famous for having one of the broadest repertoires in the business, ranging from the orchestral highways of Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner through to the 20th century byways via Bach, the core operatic repertoire and almost anything else – he is an omnivore, with the brilliance to match.