Concert information
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The Ninth Symphony is Gustav Mahler’s last completed work – an expressive farewell and at the same time a visionary anticipation of musical modernism. Since Mahler did not live to see the premiere of his Ninth, he could not complete his customary final revisions of the instrumental balance. “This provides a special challenge for all those who interpret this musical testament when examining the musical text,” says Kirill Petrenko. He is joined in this delicate task by the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Programme
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 9
Additional information
Duration ca. 1 hour and 30 minutes
Main Auditorium
47 to 149 €
Introduction
19:15
Series A: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
47 to 149 €
Introduction
19:15
Series C: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
“Upbeat”
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9
Programme notes and rehearsal footage
“Upbeat”: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9
Gustav Mahler’s Ninth is considered his “farewell symphony”. The piece reveals his struggles with the death of his daughter and his own progressive illness. This episode of Upbeat offers exclusive insights into chief conductor Kirill Petrenko’s work on this complex and emotional work with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Violinist Philipp Bohnen provides an introduction to the symphony. He says: “Working with Kirill Petrenko is so fascinating because he has an incredible musical intuition, coupled with a fantastic knowledge of the work – about both the history of its composition and the details of the score.”
Love at second sight
Gustav Mahler and the Berliner Philharmoniker
Mahler’s music now features so regularly in the programmes of the Berliner Philharmoniker that it is all too easy to forget that this has not always been the case. True, Mahler himself conducted the orchestra on a handful of occasions but audiences in Berlin could initially make no sense of his musical world. Despite this there were conductors who even at this early date were keen to promote his works, which they did with both passion and persistence. It was they and their successors who laid the foundations for the orchestra’s Mahler tradition, a tradition that continues to leave its mark on the players today.
Biography
Kirill Petrenko
Kirill Petrenko has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since the 2019/20 season. Born in Omsk in Siberia, he received his training first in his home town and later in Austria. He established his conducting career in opera with positions at the Meininger Theater and the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2013 to 2020, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also made guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses, including Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden in London, the Opéra national in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Bayreuth Festival. Moreover, he has conducted the major international symphony orchestras – in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Chicago, Cleveland and Israel.
Since his debut in 2006, a variety of programmatic themes have emerged in his work together with the Berliner Philharmoniker. These include work on the orchestra’s core Classical-Romantic repertoire, for example with symphonies by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Unjustly forgotten composers such as Josef Suk and Erich Wolfgang Korngold are another of Kirill Petrenko’s interests. Russian works are also highlighted, with performances of Tchaikovsky’s operas Mazeppa, Iolanta and The Queen of Spades attracting particular attention recently.
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