Residency in Baden-Baden

6 to 9 November 2021

Baden-Baden in November – you wouldn’t normally expect to find the Berliner Philharmoniker and its chief conductor Kirill Petrenko there at this time of year. But this year, everything is different. After the planned Easter Festival in April had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, the orchestra will now have an autumn residency in the Baden-Württemberg spa town.

A political psychological thriller

Kirill Petrenko is realising one of his dream projects: the performance of Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa, which the conductor describes as a “stunning work whose plot is more topical than ever”. It tells the tale of the historical figure of the Ukrainian Cossack captain Mazeppa and his rebellion against the Russian Tsar Peter I, with political and private intrigue, and a love that is betrayed.

“The piece is a political psychological thriller with super-dramatic scenes,” says Olga Peretyatko enthusiastically. The soprano takes on the role of Marie, Mazeppa’s lover, alongside baritone Vladislav Sulimsky, who sings the title role.

Romanticism and Modernism

In addition to the two concert performances of Mazeppa, Kirill Petrenko and the Berliner Philharmoniker will also present two concert programmes which contrast the music of the Romantic and Modern periods.

The first programme juxtaposes Carl Maria von Weber's spirited Oberon overture with Paul Hindemith's ironic Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes by Carl Maria von Weber. The programme also includes Franz Schubert's "Great" Symphony in C major, which became the epitome of the Romantic symphony with its lyrical melodies and atmospheric orchestration.

Felix Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony, which opens the second programme, is also entirely in keeping with the sound aesthetic of the Romantic period. It is juxtaposed with Dmitri Shostakovich’s dark, and in places grotesque, Tenth Symphony, in which the Russian composer uses music to reflect on the horrors of the Stalin regime.

Performances and Concerts

Saturday,

06 Nov 2021,
18:00

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden