Unseen recording: Kirill Petrenko conducts Mahler
mainThere are virtually no audio recordings of the incoming Berlin Philharmonic chief, and such video as exists is mostly opera.
Happily, Alexandros Rigas has come up with this 2004 Berlin performance of Mahler’s 4th symphony – not the Berlin Philharmonic, but a beautifully phrased and delicately shaped interpretation. Mischa Horenstein has just posted it on Youtube. Hear what all the fuss is about here:
“Unseen video” Indeed, unseen until all eternity, because this is an audio recording without video. Duh!
Correct.
So glad I have ears! 🙂 Just heard the first opening bars, before having to leave for other things – sounds very good, and I think that a very fine Mahler 4 awaits me when I have the opportunity to hear the video later. Thanks, Norman, for posting.
Norman, Kirill Petrenko’s Mahler IV is very fine, except that in the YouTube clip the final five chords of the first movement are missing: it merrily approaches its conclusion, but suddenly, at 16:12, it breaks off. Thankfully, Mischa Horenstein adds this to his notes: “with apologies for the missing 1½ bars of music at the end” – The other three movements are complete, and indeed beautifully performed. If only the missing 1½ bars were included – as beautifully as the symphony is played, these missing bars ruin the whole. What a pity….
If you want to hear a really fine performance from Petrenko and the BPO, their account of Elgar’s 2nd symphony on the Digital Concert Hall is worth seeking out. One of the best I have heard, especially the third movement.
Better than the recent one from the Staatskapelle?
Of course they both should have been performing his good symphony 😉
You are right, they should, though I am still in two minds about the Barenboim. Watch out for Elgar 2 from the other Petrenko in Liverpool. Should be out in a month or two.
I concur. A truly exciting performance, very taut and alive.
On Spotify is possible to listen to two albums, “Palestrina”, from Hans Pfitzner, with the Frankfurter Opern-und Museumsorchester; and Josef Suk’s “Ripening” & “Tale of a Winter’s Evening”, with the Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin.
Norman, another very fine performance with Petrenko and the Staatskapelle Berlin is the (not often performed) Lyric Symphony by Alexander von Zemlinsky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfKJiGdWnUs
Which — take note, Berliners — he was supposed to conduct with his Bavarian State Orchestra this past January but canceled due to a full plate.
Sounds great to me, a musician who doesn’t sacrifice his ambitions for quality for another paycheck.
It is great. But I wonder how he will cope with the volume of work as Peter Riegelbauer’s Chefdirigent when just preparing Lucia di Lammermoor leaves him feeling overwhelmed. And a one-season overlap, 2020-21, with Munich seems even less realistic. Nobody wants him to push himself too far, if you understand what I am saying.
Life isn’t perfect, and restoring those five chords would have meant redoing the whole video, an hour or two that I didn’t have. My sincere apologies for the abrupt end to the 1st movement. May I suggest you adopt the glass-is-half-full approach instead?
Thanks, Misha.
In regards to the missing bars, whoever is interested please send me an e-mail and I ll send you my Dropbox link for you to download the complete uncompressed recording.
Alexandros Rigas
Athens
Greece
You can download the uncompressed (flac) complete concert as originally captured from my dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f0ov3p3zlt9kdkv/AADHIXoNv_yTXDW6Zgj7uuf7a?dl=0
Komische Oper Berlin
Aufzeichnung vom 5.11.04
1. Rodion Schtschedrin »Alte russische Zirkusmusik«
2. Luciano Berio »Folk-Songs« fόr Stimme und Orchester
3. Gustav Mahler Sinfonie Nr. 4 G-dur
Brigitte Geller, Sopran
Caren von Oijen, Mezzosopran
Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin
Leitung: Kirill Petrenko
DVB-S
Deutschlandradio Kultur, 18 Nov 2004
Enjoy,
Alex