White Ghosts

The Film shows how people living in one of the most chaotic cities in the world have managed to forge one of the most complex systems of human cooperation ever invented: a symphony orchestra. It is a film about the Congo, about the people of Kinshasa and about music.

Two classical superstars and two of the most remarkable pianists of their generation join forces: Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson come together at the Philharmonie in Berlin for what promises to be an unmissable meeting of musical minds. As part of an extended tour that sees them performing together for the first time, they present a programme built around two classics of the four-hand repertoire – Schubert's haunting Fantasie in F Minor and the two-piano version of Rachmaninoff's powerful Symphonic Dances – alongside John Adams's 1996 masterpiece Hallelujah Junction and further works by Adams, John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow and Arvo Pärt. Filmed on 30 October 2024.

Since time immemorial, we have used images to form a picture of the world. But never before has there been as much filming and photography as there is currently. But how do people deal with it when the world and its image merge? The filmmakers Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer show how quickly and profoundly the way we deal with images is changing. Will we eventually move into a world in which reality and image can no longer be distinguished from each other?

French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays pieces from Olivier Messiaen's "Catalogue d'oiseaux" in Berlin's St Canisius Church.

On June 8, 2024, Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake), conducted by Alan Gilbert, performed at the Berliner Philharmonie in Berlin, Germany and broadcast live on Digital Concert Hall, the online concert hall of the Berliner Philharmonie. In the oratorio, Joan of Arc looks back on her life, her visions, and her successes during a show trial in which she is sentenced to be burned at the stake.