Just in: Berlin Philharmonic chief backs out of New Year’s

The Berlin Phil has just informed us that chief conductor Kirill Petrenko has withdrawn from the New Year’s Eve concert on medical grounds. The Israeli Lahav Shani has jumped in.

Here’s the statement:

It is with great regret that the chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker Kirill Petrenko has to cancel his conducting duties at the orchestra’s New Year’s Eve concerts at short notice due to acute back pain. The orchestra is very grateful to the young Israeli conductor Lahav Shani for being able to step in at such short notice. The music director of the Israel Philharmonic conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker for the second time in these concerts following his debut in September 2020.

The programme has been partly changed and is now as follows:
Johann Strauss Die Fledermaus: Overture
Max Bruch Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G minor, op. 26
Janine Jansen violin
Fritz Kreisler: Liebesleid
Janine Jansen violin
Igor Stravinsky The Firebird, Suite No. 2 (1919 version)
Maurice Ravel: La Valse

Two items replaced on the programme are Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing overture and parts of Richard Strauss’ orchestral suite Schlagobers.