With the Opéra Royal in Versailles, the Berliner Philharmoniker found a particularly beautiful and historically significant setting to host its 1997 European Concert. It was at this glorious small theatre that the French Republic was proclaimed in 1875. As the chateaus management feared that use of spotlights could endanger the buildings wooden-beam construction, the task of obtaining filming permission was not an easy one for the concert organisers. In the event, negotiations had to continue right up to the last minute when, having satisfied all official safety requirements, the go-ahead was finally given for filming to start. The Versailles concert was conducted by Daniel Barenboim, whose close acquaintance with the Berliner Philharmoniker goes back many years. The Programme began with Maurice Ravels Le tombeau de Couperin, in honour of the celebrated French Baroque musician François Couperin le Grand. Daniel Barenboim not only conducted the next piece, namely Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts piano concerto in C major K. 415, but also played the piano solo and closed the concert with an electrifying interpretation of Beethoven"s "Eroica", which was topped only by the thunderous applause of the delighted Versailles audience.