May morning in Oxford, and the Berliner Philharmoniker join in the celebratory mood abroad in the university city's medieval streets with this concert in Sir Christopher Wren's glorious Sheldonian Theatre. For 20 years, the Philharmoniker have given a May Day concert in one of Europe's great historic cities, and here, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, the Berlin players thrill the Oxford audience with the sonorous Prelude to Act III of Wagner's Die Meistersinger, a deeply-felt account of Elgar's autumnal Cello Concerto by the young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and a rousing performance of Brahms's life-affirming First Symphony.
Europakonzert 2009, Nápoles
London Philharmonic Orchestra