As soon as she arrived, things really got going: Joana Mallwitz's enthusiasm for the first symphonies by Prokofiev, Weill and Mahler was transferred to our musicians - the collected energy of the play-free summer weeks could immediately be used for four intensive rehearsal days. During these days, orchestra members repeatedly told us how efficiently our new principal conductor used the short rehearsal time for three such different and demanding works and how much fun it was to rehearse with her. And we could not only hear it, but also see it!

Fotos: Marco Borggreve

Incredibly long applause, cheers, flowers from the orchestra and many hundred happy faces in the Große Saal, on the stage and behind it after Prokofjew, Weill und Mahler 1.

Joana Mallwitz and the Konzerthausorchester carried away our audience with their musicality, energy and precision in the two sold-out concerts at the start of the season. The new season could not have started better!

Now we are looking forward to the guest performance at the Musikfest Berlin with Artist in Residence Augustin Hadelich and to the concerts with Stravinsky's "Sacre", which also include Joanna Mallwitz's first Berlin "Expedition Concert".

Fotos: Simon Pauly

Music was, of course, the focus of the Open House Day at the end of our opening week. The programme in the halls ranged from the Konzerthausorchester with Joana Mallwitz and our Orchestra Academy with film music to children's concerts with the Schlagwerk Voermans, the participatory choir and the organ request concert. All the other activities were also very popular:  instruments for all to try, VR glasses to beam yourself digitally into a distant world of sound, professional make-up artists who turned children into crocodiles or butterflies, and the Konzerthaus photo wall to take a snapshot at the end. It was a good thing that one could rest comfortably in between with an ice cream or coffee to listen to relaxed swing and other music from the outdoor stage. The stage -- "everything remains different" -- was set up on Charlottenstraße this season because of the Gendarmenmarkt construction site. And of course there was dancing there, too.

Fotos: Pablo Castagnola