Kirill Petrenko reflected on the challenge of leading the Berlin Philharmonic, perhaps the greatest orchestra in the world. “One hundred musicians have 100 opinions and 100 expectations – 100 different expectations,” said the conductor. Stefan Dohrthe principal horn, felt that forming a unified performance is even more arduous. “I think everyone has more than one opinion,” he clarified.
In his sixth season as lead director, Petrenko He led the orchestra on its 25th US tour and second in three years. He gave eight presentations in Washington, DC; New York; Boston; Ann Arbor, Michigan and Chicago. The program included The island of the deadof Rachmaninoff; he Violin Concertoof Corn gold and the Seventh Symphonyof Dvorak. The other is dedicated to Fifth Symphony of Brucknera lengthy work of about 80 minutes (131 kilometers) played to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth in September.
“I’m 52 now,” he said. Petrenko. “Maybe my previous 10, 20 years were more connected to Mahleralso because of my Jewish heritage, perhaps because I am also a kind of outsider – homeless here, homeless there. But maybe that will change and now I have worked very intensively with this Bruckner”.
The concerts of Carnegie Hall from New York showed impressive emotional depth and clarity. Petrenko He punctuated poignant pauses with head nods and cathartic crescendos with sharply swept arm movements like backhands in tennis. He is the latest in the orchestra’s distinguished line of principal conductors that includes Hans von Bülow, Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado y Simon Rattle.
In an era of widespread audio and video streaming, live performances remain an unparalleled experience. The US is the second largest market behind Germany for the orchestra’s digital concert hall, launched in 2008-09. “The tour is really important because we meet our audience,” said the orchestra’s general manager. Andrea Zietzschmann. “We are artists, and we have a strong ambassadorial role.”
Thirty-four nations They are represented among the 130 members of the orchestra. There are five Americans, including Noah Bendix-Balgleyone of the three concertmasters.
Petrenko He was born in Omsk, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1972 and moved to Austria as a teenager. He came to Berlin after serving as general musical director of the Theater Meininger (1999-02), the Berlin Comic Opera (2002-07) and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (2013-20). His presence on the podium in Berlin has matured with familiarity.
“I can trust, and I can’t mention it too much in the essay,” he said. Petrenko. “Maybe just take a quick look sometimes, don’t stop the rehearsal, don’t stop the music.” Your opinion about Bruckner has evolved.
“Originally, I came from Russia. Bruckner For me it was absolutely – I couldn’t even touch it. “I didn’t know how to do it,” he said. “Then I came to Austria and had, so to speak, my second childhood in Austria, since I was 18, and of course, there I heard a lot Bruckner. I saw many mountains, high mountains. I visited many special Austrian cuisines and sausage house and, yes, I began to understand a little.”
Berlin opened its season with Bruckner on August 23 and before heading to the US he played it three more times in the Philharmonic from Berlin, as well as on tour in Salzburg, Austria; London; Lucerne, Switzerland; and Frankfurt, Germany. To prepare, Petrenko listened to a 1942 recording of the orchestra conducted by Furtwängler.
“We can be brilliant. We can be perfect. “We can be fantastic performers,” he said. Petrenko“but there is an authentic side to a piece that, today after having lost many traditions, is very, very difficult to achieve, and historical recordings are helping us.”
For the Ninth Symphony of Mahlerlisten to the interpretations of Bruno Walter. To rose knightof Straussson Erich Kleiber y Clemens Krauss.
“Absolutely unattainable. “You can’t do it like that today,” he said. Petrenko. “It needs to be restored – step by step you need to go back as much as you can, to go to the source of this tradition.”
That thought and preparation are perceived by the orchestra. “We are now approaching the moment when we understand what Kirill Petrenko “he wants without him explaining it most of the time,” he said. Dorn.
Source: AP
(Photos: Berliner Philharmoniker press; Stefan Cohen/Carnegie Hall via AP)
