Proms 2026 Berlin Philharmonic Plays Elgar and Tchaikovsky

‘An artist lives a double life,’ Tchaikovsky wrote. The Berlin Philharmonic and Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko return to the Proms with a concert of concealed identities and confessions, musical secrets and hidden selves, explored in two Romantic orchestral classics. The secret theme concealed within Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations remains elusive, but the heart-on-sleeve appeal of the composer’s wistful, warmly personal musical sketches of his friends is anything but. The personal conflicts that lie beneath the tumultuous surface of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 are darker: Fate assails the listener before the music casts off its grip in a defiantly joyous finale.

Kirill Petrenko © Chris Christodoulou/BBC