The Philharmonic Wind Quintet of Berlin
was founded in 1988, in the era of Herbert von Karajan. The ensemble has constantly received musical inspiration and stimulation from the Berlin Philharmoniker’s exceptionally productive and influential musical partnerships, with Karajan and his successors as principal conductor, Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle. As members of the orchestra, they have naturally also benefited from collaboration with the other great conductors of this period, from Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber and Sir John Barbirolli, by way of Günter Wand, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Muti, to James Levine and Daniel Barenboim, to mention only a few.

Audiences worldwide are constantly astonished by the Philharmonic Wind Quintet’s variety of expression, its spectrum of tonal colours, and the stylistic assurance of its interpretations. Listeners and critics agree that the ensemble has succeeded in virtually redefining the sound of the classical wind quintet. Along with the entire breadth of the quintet literature, the ensemble’s repertoire includes works for augmented forces, for example the sextets by Janáček and Reinicke and the septets by Hindemith and Koechlin. In recent years, its collaborations with the pianists Stephen Hough, Jon Nakamatsu, Lars Vogt and Lilya Zilberstein have assumed increasing importance.