Berlin Orchestra Confirms Tour, Including O.C. Dates

The Berlin Philharmonic has voted to tour the United States despite musicians’ concerns about security on international flights after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The famed orchestra will play Oct. 15 and 16 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa as part of the Eclectic Orange Festival.

In another change, the Philharmonic Society and Italian pianist Marino Formenti will drop four pieces by Karlheinz Stockhausen originally planned for a private recital Oct. 5 at the Orange County Museum of Art. The decision was a protest of the composer’s recent remark (later retracted) that the terrorist attacks were “the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos.”