Kirill Petrenko starts with the Berliner Philharmoniker

0
505

He is in hot demand: Kirill Petrenko, the Russian-born conductor, takes on Simon rattle’s successor at the Berlin Philharmonic. With Beethoven’s “ninth” go for it.

13 years ago, in the spring of 2006, walked I with Kirill Petrenko in Berlin, after “Don Giovanni” at the Komische Oper. We were both the same age and both born in Russia. It was late, but my partner in conversation had sufficient time for an Interview, even though he had just conducted a brilliant Mozart evening. We spoke Russian. “Music is not there for the fun of it,” he said, among other things, “but that we are constantly working on us, the Tragic life and therefore, possibly, better people.” The music is finally the highest Form of humanity, so Petrenko.

“I never want to pass back an Opera house, you waste too much time with the administrative stuff that goes at the expense of the music,” said he, before we said goodbye. And: You will make surely soon to a bigger Interview, that was a nice conversation. Both promises he kept: 2013 Petrenko was General music Director of the Bavarian state Opera and Interviews was the “great Silent”, the music world was becoming less and less and finally not as good as even more. “The Maestro wants to concentrate solely on his work as a conductor”, is it always the justification.

The perfectionist, with heart and mind

And does Petrenko, actually: Whether in its Munich-based Conductor, or in Bayreuth, where he gave his “Ring”Interpretation of the ailing Festival for a while shiny and new, and the Wagner-Fans in a lucky wobble offset. The singers on the Green hill raved about his selfless perfection, so, but also that of the Maestro is almost too meticulously. Hours studied Petrenko Wagner’s score in the Original, with him each semiquaver must sit on the most accurate. But above all, the orchestral sound Petrenko showed his true strength: to combine analytical transparency and structure, with a sometimes overwhelming, emotional impact. Faithful is for Petrenko, never an end in itself, but there is always a way.

The Perfectionist: Kirill Petrenko

“Sibiryak” with Vienna school

Kirill Petrenko was born in the Siberian town of Omsk. Of his Childhood in the chilly city, he thinks back, particularly to the hockey Play, that was there from October to March in your own yard is possible. The music child is taught by his parents and also comes in the enjoyment of the excellent Russian training system. The summer holiday he spends in Lviv, the Western Ukrainian metropolis, with his grandparents. As a small tribute to the Ukraine would, perhaps, suggest that he makes the young West Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv to be his assistant in Munich and the former Head of the Opera house of Odessa, a way to a great international career opened up.

With 11 years of Petrenko makes his debut as a Pianist, accompanied by the Omsk Symphony orchestra. Kirill is 18, as Perestroika begins, and his parents, like thousands of cultural workers in Russia to their existence, need not fear. His father, Gari Petrenko, an excellent Violinist and a conductor, gets a job in the orchestra of the Austrian Vorarlberg, the family travels from 1990.

A few years later, Cyril started as a “conductor-boy wonder”: 25, he is Kapellmeister at the Vienna Volksoper, with 30 he makes in Meiningen with his “Ring”Marathon on four consecutive days in the music world. In the following years, Petrenko shows no Shyness in front of a Repertoire that is sometimes as bulky: it is the “Khovanshchina” by Modest Mussorgsky, or Hans pfitzner’s “Palestrina”.

“Habemus Maestro”: Berliner Philharmoniker announce on the 22.June 2015 the name of the new chief conductor

The Uncompromising compromise

As you know, the Berlin Philharmonic, this is not some unique music democracy, in may 2015 in the first ballot on a new boss could be. They suspected a clash of different interest groups and ideas about the future of the orchestra, the names of unsuccessful candidates and reasons for their Failure have been exaggerated. One guard, however, clear that the compromise was loose Petrenko for the Berlin obviously, but the compromise figure. This compromise has proven itself in the past few years, the orchestra musicians and the audience alike rave about the new Chef.

That a musician with a Russian-Ukrainian-Russian-Jewish roots, is the successor not only of Simon Rattle, but also of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan, is also symbolic, as historically justified.