Berlin Philharmonic gets sidelined at Salzburg

Berlin Philharmonic gets sidelined at Salzburg

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norman lebrecht

November 08, 2017

The once-powerful relationship has been reduced to just two concerts next summer, both at the festival’s fag-end.

Kirill Petrenko will conduct both performances – one with Yuja Wang in Prkofiev 3, the other featuring the little-heard Franz Schmidt 4th symphony.

 

The LSO will play two concerts with Simon Rattle. The Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal gives an all-Penderecki concert with Nagano.

 

 

Comments

  • Garech de Brun says:

    Classical world has been in decline post H v K, Kleiber, Wand etc, smaller festivals eg Innsbruck, Melk, Kilkenny, West Cork, far better and less costly to stay and visit.

    • Don Niperi Septo says:

      Agree 100%, it was H v K who brought BPO to Salzburg which upset the VPO. The Age of the Great Stick Dictators is over alas.

    • sue says:

      And C. Kleiber is much missed. He revered two musicians above all – according to his friends – his father and Herbert von Karajan. They say so in the documentary film “I am Lost to the World”.

      • tristan says:

        Kleiber also appreciated Muti believe it or not! He didn’t think Barenboim is a great conductor, so right! He valued Norrington also. His most admired was Karajan, no doubt.
        Carlos himself was by far the greatest
        AND you all have no idea here: the first class Berliner (after Rattle finally leaving fascinating Petrenko will bring them back to the best they always were!) have never played more than two concerts in Salzburg! Karajan normally brought them there end of August before they went on to Lucerne! They are nowhere banned but we just all wait eagerly to hear them with Petrenko and not overrated Rattle! He by the way almost killed the jewel of the Easter Festival

  • Grammar Police says:

    I think you mean: The LSO will play two concerts with Simon Rattle.

  • rambo says:

    2 concerts ? it was never more than that. Summer festival is Wiener Philharmoniker festival in a way…It was never BPH festival…Even only one concert the past years… Maybe you are confused by summer/easter Festival Norman?

    • Nik says:

      I was thinking the same thing, but then again he is a leading music critic so I find it inconceivable that he would make an error like that. Whatever could he mean?

    • norman lebrecht says:

      If you go back to the Karajan and Abbado years, there was always a strong Berlin Phil presence – certainly as far as I recall. Yes, Vienna Phil were in residence but Berlin was always in evidence.

      • Olassus says:

        It’s not true, Norman. As early as the 1970s and 1980s the BPO was consistently giving two concerts only, and at the tail end. This has been a contrast of course to the separately managed Osterfestspiele.

      • Adam says:

        ….and I bet they even managed to spell “Prkofiev” correctly on their posters too.

      • erich says:

        If you had taken the trouble to look back at the summer concerts of the previous years, you would have seen that the Berliners ALWAYS appear twice at the end of the Festival for a very simple reason: their season starts in Berlin in late August and they then leave for a Festivals tour, Salzburg, Lucerne, Proms etc. So yet again a non-story and sloppy reporting.

      • rambo says:

        No. Not true. They always start thé season jat the end of august. So they never had a strong presence in a summer.

  • Bernard says:

    Since at least four decades (even under Karajan in the ’70s and ’80s) the Berlin Philharmonic has played only two concerts at the end of the Salzburg Summer Festival. “The once-powerful relationship” was with the Salzburg Easter Festival.

    Aug 26, 2018: Petrenko – Strauss Don Juan/Tod und Verklärung/Beethoven 7th Symph.; Aug 27: Petrenko, Wang – Dukas/Prokofiev/Franz Schmidt.

  • TERRY DEAL BAER says:

    I HAVE HEARD YUJA PLAY THE PROKOFIEV 3RD TWICE UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL…

    …THE MOST AMAZING PERFORMANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN AND HEARD !!!!!

    • Nik says:

      Do you need a tissue?

      • John says:

        Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I’ve also heard her Prokofiev 3rd. Far from the “most amazing performance” I’ve ever seen and heard. She’s fast. That’s about it. So what?

      • Ungeheuer says:

        Or fresh underwear. This Terry person evidently has not heard Argerich in the P3. Check her out. She basically ate it for breakfast.

        https://youtu.be/FgnE25-kvyk

        • TERRY DEAL BAER says:

          MS ARGERICH AND YUJA HAVE A MOST UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP AS SHE, MARTHA, WOULD TELL YOU IF SHE WERE TO DEIGN TO SPEAK TO A DUMB ASS SUCH AS YOURSELF…

          …THEREFORE, STICK YOUR SKIVVY COMMENT UP YOUR YOUR A**.

    • Sue says:

      It’s wonderful when a performance thrills us like that, isn’t it!! Wang is thrilling and I love that concerto. I’ve seen her at Wiener Konzerthaus myself.

  • Robert Holmén says:

    Today’s Briticism that doesn’t travel well: “… the festival’s fag-end.”

  • Emil says:

    A word on the audacity of programming an all-Penderecki concert on tour for Nagano and the OSM, perhaps?

    • Petros Linardos says:

      That might be better than a mixed program that leaves quite a few people unsatisfied. Sometimes modern music audiences skip, say the Brahms symphony after the modern work. Conversely, traditional music audiences skip the modern work or the entire concert.

    • Another Hasbeen says:

      It’s an “all-Penderecki concert” because it’s a single work concert – the St Luke Passion.

  • Manu says:

    I find more surprising Concertgebouworkest is missing in Salzburg for the second consecutive year… well, we will go to Lucerne or Amsterdam which is far nicer than Salzburg

  • Hermann Lederer says:

    How not researched and unreflecting can a single journalist be? There have never been more than two concerts and always at the end of the festival. The sensation to report would have been: they come with Petrenko already a year before he starts officially.

  • Iain scott says:

    As our younger readers may say “whatevs”. Orchestral music faces greater challenges/

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