Every year in May, the Berliner Philharmoniker celebrates its founding in 1882 with the Europakonzert, a gala concert in an iconic European city. The 1992 concert took place near Madrid, in the Basilica of the historic Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo De El Escorial. Under the direction of the brilliant conductor Daniel Barenboim, the Berliner Philharmoniker began the evening with selections from Verdi operas: the Overture to La Forza del Destino, and a recitative and aria from Don Carlo in which the legendary tenor Plácido Domingo took the stage.

Excerpts from Berlioz's genre-defying La Damnation de Faust came next, followed by the two movements of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony No. 8 in B minor. The rest of the evening was devoted to works by Wagner: the Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger was followed by Domingo's performance of Sigmund's aria from Die Walküre, and the concert closed with orchestral excerpts from Gotterdämmerung.