Berlin Philharmonic Goes Live Online

The renowned Berlin Philharmonic is going to start streaming its concerts live online for a fee and widen its audience into the millions.

The Berlin Philharmonic, one of the world’s great orchestras, is set to spearhead a movement in the classical music world by streaming its concerts live for a fee, the Guardian reports. That could turn audiences for a recital from the hundreds into the millions.

Marketed as Any Place, Any Time, people can pay around $15 for a single concert and receive 48 hours’ access to the performance, or $225 for an entire season of 30 concerts. There will also be an archive of previous performances. The first streamed performance will take place January 6, with the orchestra performing Brahms’s 1st Symphony and other works.

Oleg Maninger, the orchestra’s principal cellist, was the mover behind the project. He said:

"Our primary concern is to … record our concerts as authentically and vividly as possible."

"I’m fascinated by the idea of a music student in New York logging on with his laptop to see Anne-Sophie Mutter performing live from the Philharmonie in Berlin."