The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert

On New Year’s Eve the Berliner Philharmoniker put on their annual gala, inviting a guest soloist to help close out one year and welcome the next. The 2019 concert, led by Kirill Petrenko with soprano Diana Damrau as the featured soloist, captures that live celebration in a single performance. The program strings together orchestral showpieces and beloved musical theatre numbers, from Gershwin overtures to songs from West Side Story and Carousel, plus standards like "Over the Rainbow" and "Send in the Clowns." The film records the music, the hall atmosphere and audience reactions, keeping the focus on performance rather than any backstage story.

Filmed and released in 2019, this installment is part of the Berliner Philharmoniker's long-running New Year’s Eve series, conducted by Kirill Petrenko and spotlighting Diana Damrau, later made available as a concert film and in broadcast editions.

The concert sits within a familiar holiday ritual for classical audiences in Germany and beyond, often screened on TV and online. This edition's emphasis on American composers and musical theatre added a sunny, celebratory flavor, and several moments from the program have been shared widely by fans and clips online.

Viewer response has been positive, reflected by an 8.0/10 user score on this site. Critics and audiences tend to highlight the orchestra's precision and Damrau's vocal warmth, noting how the program blends symphonic power with theatrical lyricism. The film underlines ritual, festive spirit and repertoire crossover rather than narrative drama.

There are no prominent box office figures for this type of concert film, since its distribution leans toward live broadcast, television and home video rather than wide theatrical release. It functions more as a recorded event for the orchestra's seasonal audience than a commercial cinema release.