Riccardo Chailly conducts Shostakovich, Respighi, Rota, and Lincke in Berlin

For more than 20 years, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s annual summer concert has taken place in Berlin’s Waldbühne amphitheater. The 2011 program featured favorite works by Shostakovich, Respighi, Rota, and Lincke under the baton of the great Riccardo Chailly.

The jam-packed evening opens with Shostakovich's Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2. Composed in 1938 for Russian violinist and conductor Victor Knushevitsky's State Jazz Orchestra, the piece was lost during World War II, then reconstructed by Gerard McBurney from a piano score discovered in 1999. The musicians then perform Nino Rota's La Strada Suite, a ballet suite based on his soundtrack for legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini's La Strada. Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome from Respighi's famous Roman tone poem trilogy from the early 20th century (the third is Roman Festivals) then pay homage to the summery atmosphere of the Waldbühne concert series. The Allegretto movement from Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Suite and the “Danza guerresca” from Respighi’s Belkis Suite follow. The festive evening closes with Paul Lincke’s Berliner Luft (“Berlin Air”), the city’s unofficial anthem originally composed as part of his operetta Frau Luna.

Photo: Riccardo Chailly at the 2011 Waldbühne concert