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Sir Simon Rattle leads the Berlin Philharmonic.

(© Berlin Philharmonic)

The Berliner Philharmoniker have just opened their 2009-10 season – the first full season that the orchestra will broadcast on the Internet. The video platform is called the Digital Concert Hall, and has been broadcasting all the Berlin concerts of this world-famous orchestra live since January 2009.

This project, the first of its kind worldwide, was inspired partly by the Berlin Philharmonic's international tours. Olaf Maninger, cello soloist and media spokesperson for the orchestra, says the seeds for the Digital Concert Hall were planted in Taiwan. “Our concert in Taipeh in 2005 was a very important experience for me personally,” says Maninger. “On that occasion the concert was shown on a large screen in front of the concert hall. Over 30,000 people came to watch the concert and the reception they gave us after the concert was overwhelming. At that point I thought to myself: there must be a way to reach our fans all over the world more regularly using audio-visual technology.”

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State-of-the-art equipment delivers a high-definition video and CD-quality sound direct from the Berlin Philharmonic.

(© Berlin Philharmonic)

Before this vision could become a reality, there were several technical hurdles. Chief among them was the installation of state-of-the-art camera and studio technology in the Philharmonie, which was complicated by the fact that the building is under protection as a historical monument.  Deutsche Bank came on board as a corporate sponser to fund the necessary technology investments, and now music lovers from Texas to Tokyo can experience the concerts of the Berliner Philharmoniker in their own homes with high-definition image and CD-quality sound.

Over thirty concerts per season are broadcast live at www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/dch. If subscribers happen to miss a performance, they can watch it later at any time in the video archive. Many big names already grace the archive: first and foremost the orchestra’s artistic director, Sir Simon Rattle, but also guest conductors of the highest order such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Christian Thielemann and many others. There is also a concert by the new principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert.

A single ticket for a live webcast or for a concert from the archive costs 9.90 euros ($14.60). With a season subscription for 149 euros ($220) classical fans can watch all the live broadcasts until August 2010 and all recordings from the current and previous season, a total of almost 70 concerts.