Petrenko inaugural at the Berlin Philharmonic

Berlin is in Petrenko fever: Kyrill Petrenko is the new principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, and we have his inaugural performance this hour.

Concert Hour is your ticket to the German classical music festival scene. From the Schwetzingen Festival to the Bayreuth Festival, the Bachfest in Leipzig and the Beethovenfest in Bonn, we have the picks of the season: two hours of music renewed regularly.

Along with host Rick Fulker, the musicians themselves are on hand to give their insights into the events and the music.

This time, Kyrill Petrenko's first official appearance as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, from August 2019. Part one:

One musician, one vote: Five years ago, Kirill Petrenko was elected principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, the world's only major orchestra in which the musicians elect their boss.

Before he was named principal conductor-to-be, the Berliners had seen and heard Petrenko in action only a few times, and in the four years intervening, there had been only four joint appearances. That made his inaugural performance all the more hotly anticipated.

The iconic Berlin Philharmonie shook to the performance you'll hear in this broadcast, and one could feel the tremors all across Germany, where music lovers watched the performance in a live transmission to movie theaters. Beforehand, Petrenko said, "A concert like this comes only once in a lifetime. But the pressure is incredible. I couldn't wait for the day to pass. I wanted it to be evening right away."

Alban Berg

Symphonic pieces from the opera Lulu for soprano and orchestra

Marlis Petersen, soprano

Berlin Philharmonic

Kirill Petrenko, conductor

Recorded by Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB) in the Berlin Philharmonie on August 23, 2019

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 34 in C Major, 2nd and 3rd movements (excerpt) Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg Kirill Petrenko, conductor

Recorded by Deutsche Welle in the

Grand Hall of the Mozarteum in Salburg on August 18, 2002

Pyotr Ilyich Tchakovsky Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, op. 74, 2nd movement

Berlin Philharmonic

Kirill Petrenko, conductor on CD Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings BPHR 190261

Part two:

Through Petrenko's election by the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2015, the now 47-year-old Austrian, born in Siberia, became the seventh principal conductor in the orchestra's 137-year history. Only seven principals in that period of time means that they each had a long stay at the head of the orchestra.

The Berlin orchestra has had very different personalities among its principal conductors, and each one has focused on different things. So the first question on everyone's mind at this point in music history is: Where does the Berlin Philharmonic go now? Before his inaugural concert, Kirill Petrenko articulated a wish:

"At present there are 125 musicians from 28 countries performing in the Berlin Philharmonic. I myself come from far away. My greatest wish — although we won't achieve it in one season, not even in five — is that these diverse musicians with their diverse traditions in their homelands all come together in what I call the Berlin Philharmonic's core repertory, the music it has played since it was founded: the German-Austrian classical-romantic repertory. So that all these musicians can say: 'Yes, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn: They belong to me. They're mine, just as they belong to the orchestra. I feel at home here, this is what I represent, it's a piece of me, this is what I depict. I identify with it.'"

Petrenko also explained why Beethoven's Ninth is on the program:

"I've always thought that if you were to send a message to faraway planets and to describe humanity in it — as individuals, as society, with all our positive and negative qualities, our fantastic culture and also all the terrible things we've done in the past — if you had encapsulate all that into a single message, there could be no better vehicle for that than Beethoven's

Ninth Symphony. To me, it contains everything that constitutes humanity, good and bad. So that's why I felt it was very, very important to begin with this work."

In general, Petrenko is not sparing in his praise of the composer: "Beethoven is about three Fs in the German language," says Petrenko: "Freude, Fidelio and Freiheit– Joy, Fidelio and Freedom. Take the Missa solemnis, and there's another F: Frieden (Peace). And I think everyone will agree that these three big Fs are more important now than ever before. You feel that you have to really fight for these old, established concepts today. Beethoven depicted them like none other. So these works are immensely relevant."

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, opus 125, excerpt

Berlin Philharmonic

Kirill Petrenko, conductor Recorded by Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB) in the Berlin Philharmonie on August 23, 2019

Mobilizing the forces of one of the world's most respected classical music institutions

A day later, the concert was repeated at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin for an audience of thousands