When Berlin's winter is too gray, cold, and long, it might help to escape to our Great Hall for this concert: Greek conductor Constantinos Carydis is our guest with works inspired by warmer climes. With his 2025 work “Ode to Oedipus,” his compatriot Periklis Koukos delves deep into the mythical past of their homeland.

Ottorino Respighi's sun-filled visions of Rome's pine trees and fountains make the air shimmer with warmth, as does Claude Debussy's famous flute solo “Syrinx” with its rich tone colour, which takes us back to ancient Greece. There, in the midday heat, the god Pan is said to have dispelled his hurt at being rejected by a nymph of the same name by playing the syrinx, a shepherd's flute.

Franz Liszt devoted himself passionately to his Second Piano Concerto during a turbulent, travel-filled phase of his life, refining it again and again. However, it took a good 20 years before it could be premiered in 1857! It is one of the composer's most popular works and will be performed by the award-winning Chinese pianist Haochen Zang, who is an alumni of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music.