Music in transition

Concerts with Kirill Petrenko

The end of Romanticism, the beginning of Modernism: Kirill Petrenko will bring to life this exciting phase in the 2023/24 season. Plus music dramas by Strauss, Wagner, Schoenberg, and others.

Great works from the transitional period between the 19th and 20th centuries form the heart of Kirill Petrenko’s concert programmes in the 2023/24 season. Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, which also opens the season and its thematic focus on Heroes, is already representative of this era. Johannes Brahms, Arnold Schoenberg and Karl Amadeus Hartmann are other composers who exemplify this peroid; starting from them, the view expands a hundred years in both directions. The programmes range from Mozart to the present day, the core repertoire of the Classical and Romantic periods is included along with important lesser-known works, and music from very recent times.

Works for the Berliner Philharmoniker

In a concert at Musikfest Berlin, the chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker shows how strongly he feels about new music: Jonchaies by the composer and architect Iannis Xenakis meets the premiere of a commissioned work by the Hungarian composer Márton Illés and the magnum opus of another Hungarian: Stele by György Kurtág was also written for the Berliner Philharmoniker and premiered by them with Claudio Abbado in 1994. The soloist in Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Gesangsszene is Christian Gerhaher, a favourite of the audience, orchestra and conductor alike.

In November 2023, Mozart’s Symphony No. 29, Alban Berg’s Three Pieces of Orchestra op. 6 and Brahms’ Fourth Symphony will show how Romanticism grows out of the Classical period and how it finally develops into Modernism. The 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth brings a rarely heard work to the Philharmonie: Die Jakobsleiter. Conceived first as a symphony movement, then as an oratorio and finally as an opera, the biblical drama remained unfinished and yet is one of Schoenberg’s most haunting creations.

First collaboration with Lisa Batiashvili

Even beyond that, there is plenty of 20th century music to discover in Kirill Petrenko’s concerts. For Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, Artist in Residence Lisa Batiashvili has been invited as the soloist; she and the Philharmoniker’s chief conductor will perform together for the first time. In another first, the Berliner Philharmoniker will also perform Henri Dutilleux’s First Symphony. Plus, there is Béla Bartók’s music for the ballet The Wooden Prince, which unfolds its dramatic potential even without dance. Kirill Petrenko will also introduce young audiences to this work at a family concert.

Generally speaking, Kirill Petrenko has a preference for music that expresses itself in sound, that can tell a story. For example, the tone poem Má vlast, Bedřich Smetana’s declaration of love for his Czech homeland. Its legends, myths and landscapes are portrayed in six movements, of which The Moldau is the most famous. Or Richard Strauss’ Symphonia domestica: “The symphony”, the composer thought, “should give a musical picture of married life” – and became much more than that: the combination of once incompatible things, of “absolute music” and programme music.

Elektra and The Valkyrie

The ancient Greek tragedy of Elektra is planned as a major concert opera performance. Richard Strauss’ work about the Atrides’ daughter’s revenge on her adulterous mother, who became her husband’s murderer with her lover, requires powerful, virtuosic voices. The top-class vocal cast for these performances includes soloists such as Nina Stemme, Elza van den Heever, Michaela Schuster and Johan Reuter.

The New Year’s Eve concerts also promise musical drama: in addition to the Tannhäuser Overture, they include the first act of Richard Wagner’s The Valkyrie. Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund and Lise Davidsen as Sieglinde will present the meeting and reunion of the Wälsungen twins with Georg Zeppenfeld as Hunding. Finally, Kirill Petrenko gives the Waldbühne concert a French accent. For this he has chosen Maurice Ravel’s Bolero and his music from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé. As the piano soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini op. 43, Yuja Wang’s keyboard fireworks will contribute to a splendid end to the season.

Concerts with the chief conductor

Wednesday,

08 May 2024,
20:00

Main Auditorium