Four years ago, Petrenko was elected the chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Now he gave his first concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker. The audience thanked him with a Standing ovation.
What makes a successful conductor? Charisma? Stage presence? Authority? Technical Can? Hard Work? Such questions were those that the first official appearance of Kirill Petrenko as the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra on may 23. August saw. And you were answered.
The Berlin Philharmonic shook with the performance of Beethoven’s ninth Symphony, formally, you might feel up to Bonn: There, the author of these lines followed the concert live in a cinema transmission. It was not possible for him to get hold of a ticket for the performance in Berlin, which was subsequently even as a stroke of luck, because the cinema transmission possible to keep track of the musical creation process even better.
Concerts with rarity value
Prior to his election as chief conductor in 2015, there had been only a few joint concerts with Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and in the four years after that, the future chief conductor only four times in front of the orchestra. In the upcoming season, only six joint appearances on the game plan again. Quite different than the ubiquitous predecessor Simon Rattle. The Reason For This? Petrenko is mounted to the end of the season 2020 the Bavarian state Opera in the contract and will be commuting between Munich and Berlin.
All the more it was looking forward to his concert date. It all started with the Symphonic pieces from the Opera “Lulu” by Alban Berg. A stunning, ultra-modern, is the international work from the year 1934.
It’s one hundred highly motivated musicians were on the stage, and one had the impression that the conductor was working harder than all the others counted together. The veins stood out on his forehead, and for a long time in front of the main work of the Evening, he comes into a sweat.
Petrenko and the orchestra in Black, a soloist wore red
With modest means to make music
Petrenkos Approach? “We need to look at what we can achieve with our modest means,” he says in the Interview in the preliminary program. The Berlin Philharmonic is one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world, some even say: the most prestigious of all.
Thus, the conductor did not want to play the sound of the body or the performance of its members, diminish. On the contrary: “There is only 130 musicians not to sit,” says the first Cellist Olaf Maninger. “Because the whole history of the orchestra sits. And this respect, this respect that he brings to his office.”
With the remark to the “modest resources” shows Petrenko, what is it all about him: the musical work as something that you only approach, but never fully able to tap.
Beethoven’s Ninth brand new
All the more so in the case of a well-known work such as the Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven, that was for Petrenkos predecessor, Hans von Bülow, Artur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle important. When conducting this work, each nerve seems to be every fiber in Kirill Petrenkos body musically clocked. With sweeping, energetic Gestures, he drives the musicians, seems to conduct, but especially with his eyes. In the close-UPS of the cinema transmission, you can keep track of every emotion, every Blink is exactly that: desperate to jubilierend, from wild to insane – and again, an ecstatic Smile burst out of him.
On several occasions, it appears, as Petrenko wanted to beg the musicians with his Gesture formally. Again and again he acts even when he is standing in front of the abyss, and as if only the last contingent of his forces and that of his fellow musicians could prevent the crash. The efforts are reflected in the faces of its musicians Also play, as hanging your existence of it.
Passion and modesty
Members of the Philharmonic to confirm this wild, uncompromising approach: “He turned completely,” said the horn player Sarah Willis and meant the passion, the put Petrenko in a concert on the day. “He hit like a Meteor,” said the violist Matthew Hunter. “It was a highly explosive experience.”
Taken and exhausted: Petrenko with soloists included kwangchul Yun (right)
Here, the conductor acts in a personal conversation – for example, in an Interview with the first cellist Olaf Maninger – modest and quiet. He avoids too much eye contact, speaks in a low, clear voice, and with a marked Russian accent, almost as if it were him, this would be embarrassing. He reveals what the night means to him: “such A concert happens only once in a lifetime. At the same time, the pressure is incredibly high. I didn’t want to wait for the day, but wish it was the same evening.”
Also, for the starting point of his collaboration with the Philharmonic, Petrenko finds clear words: “I had the feeling that the musicians are willing to follow my Intentions, in an honest way. And it would be nice to give the musicians a kind of confirmation, reminding you that ‘Yes, I am!'”
No egomaniac on the console
The Americans Matthew Hunter, since 1996 member of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, highlights Petrenkos rather modest appearance, but it also says, what does this mean for the Pultarbeit: “You need to have a large Ego, if you stand on the stage. This could even be a hindrance when it comes to Achieving musical goals. You can be modest and still have maximum musical authority.”
The Result? Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony received its momentum, passion and relevance. A plant that is used for solemn occasions of every kind, sound fresh, alive: so, as it would be first or unique. This approach to the Timpanist Rainer Seegers brings to the expression: “You risk as much as possible. But the Chance that something arises that you can’t do it again.”
A look into the future
What can we expect in the Petrenko Era of the Berlin Philharmonic? Matthew Hunter says it all: “I can’t predict, like Petrenko will develop our sound in the coming five to ten years. But I would say, we are returning to something.”
Rainer Seegers is clearer: “so what, what was before long time with Karajan also comes back. The sound of the Berliner Philharmoniker, it was time to restore I think this is his secret goal.”
Finally, Petrenko, the orchestra groups get up
At the present moment the fresh-baked partnership, in the foreground, overlaid by a kind of honeymoon feeling but first. 24. August is repeated, the program – at the Brandenburg gate in front of an audience of up to 32,000 people velvet Transfer on a LED-wall, to the TV and to the Digital Concert Hall of the Berliner Philharmoniker. 20 o’clock Central European time it’s happening.
And as the performance went on 23. August to the end? With never-ending ovation, many of the curtains and the usual rituals of wool: a Single-instrument groups received the applause, chorus, vocal soloists and the Maestro, was happy and relieved appeared. That would have probably a good half hour more to go. Eventually, the orchestra and choir members stood up and left. Then the ranks were thinning in the Auditorium, something. But it went further with the applause still. Finally, Kirill Petrenko came out alone, for the last Time, and bowed to the Rest of the audience. So as the modest Maestro wanted to say again: “Yes, I am!”