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Austrian percussionist Martin Grubinger delivers a memorable performance at Berlin's Staatsoper with a programme featuring Peter Eötvös and Tan Dun, under the baton of Gustavo Gimeno.

Zubin Mehta and the Berlin Philharmonic have an extraordinary relationship lasting over five decades. In three performances in the Philharmonie, Mehta paired a piece from the core of his romantic repertoire with a new percussion concerto.

A percussion concerto tribute to natural disasters and a dark snapshot of post-Stalinist Russia make for a compelling programme from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Krzysztof Urbański and soloist Martin Grubinger. 

The Percussive Planet Ensemble was founded seven years ago, when the then 22-year-old Martin Grubinger first performed his Percussive Planet (twelve percussion pieces from around the world) at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

Martin Grubinger may be regarded as one of the world’s most exciting percussion virtuosi, but for my money his greatest strengths are pianistic: the rich density of timbre he gets from his instruments (which are mainly the marimba and xylophone), the gift for turning an eloquent phrase, and the seamless legato that comes from sensitive touch and a finely-tuned ear for decay.