Europakonzert 2002 from Palermo – with Claudio Abbado & Gil Shaham

The 2002 Europakonzert saw the Berliner Philharmoniker travel to the Sicilian capital Palermo, performing a programme built around three works central to its repertoire in the city's Teatro Massimo – the largest opera house in Italy. Beethoven's brooding "Egmont" Overture opens the concert, before American violinist Gil Shaham joins the orchestra as soloist in Brahms's expansive violin concerto. Dvořák's ever-popular "New World" Symphony follows, instilled with an exciting sense of drama in Claudio Abbado's interpretation, before the conductor leads a thrilling performance of a work well suited to the occasion: Verdi's Overture to I vespri siciliani.