Berliner Philharmoniker

The Berliner Philharmoniker is a German symphony orchestra of world fame that was founded in 1882 with Berlin as its base. Since 1887 the orchestra has officially been called Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester. On record and CD recordings it is called Berliner Philharmoniker. Internationally the abbreviation BPO (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) is also used.
The orchestra has 128 musicians, chief conductor is Kirill Petrenko and intendant is Andrea Zietzschmann
During the German division, which lasted from the end of the Second World War until 1989, the Berliner Philharmoniker was the orchestra of West Berlin. For East Berlin there were the Berliner Symphoniker and the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester (BSO).

The Berliner Philharmoniker originated in Berlin in 1882 when 54 orchestra members of the Bilsesche Kapelle left this orchestra and continued as Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle. The reason was that their conductor Benjamin Bilse told them they would receive fourth-class tickets for a train journey to a concert in Warsaw.
After a modest beginning, the orchestra took great strides under chief conductors Hans von Bülow and Arthur Nikisch. Hans Richter, Felix Weingartner and Richard Strauss frequently conducted the orchestra and composers such as Grieg, Tsjaikovski, Brahms and Mahler came to conduct their works there. Under Nikisch the Berliner Philharmoniker made in 1913 the first commercial recording of a complete symphony, the Fifth of Beethoven.
In 1923 the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler took office.