Can classical music be humorous? Absolutely! The Berliner Philharmoniker and their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko will demonstrate this at the 2026 New Year’s Eve Concert: in his sparkling Symphonie classique, Sergei Prokofiev parodies the music of Haydn and Mozart. Dmitri Shostakovich also had the First Viennese School in mind when he wrote his witty Double Concerto for Piano and Trumpet. In this performance, pianist Alexander Malofeev, born in 2001, makes his debut alongside principal trumpeter David Guerrier. Kirill Petrenko also sets off a fireworks display of mischief with Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.
