Just in: Kirill cancels Vienna Phil
OrchestrasThe Berlin Philharmonic chief conductor Kirill Petrenko has cancelled all of this weekend’s concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic at very short notice.
No reason has been given. UPDATE: Health reasons are now given.
Christian Thielemann has stepped in with a different programme.
Freitag, 19. April, 6. Soirée
Samstag, 20. April, 7. Abonnementkonzert
Sonntag, 21. April, 7. Abonnementkonzert
Montag, 22. April, Konzert der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien
Richard Wagner: Vorspiel zur Oper „Lohengrin“, WWV 75
Richard Wagner: Vorspiel und Liebestod aus „Tristan und Isolde“, WWV 90
Pause
Johannes Brahms: Symphonie Nr. 2 in D-Dur, op. 73
1) At this point, if people closely working with Petrenko are not deeply concerned about the frequency of his cancellations, especially if it is health related, at his relatively young age, then I don’t know what to say…
2) I know it’s almost impossible to replace a last minute cancellation with the Vienna Phil, but to replace Petrenko’s Wagner with Thielemann’s Wagner is to fall right back to the status quo, because the whole point is, everyone already knows Thielemann’s Wagner, but what people want to hear is how Petrenko’s Wagner compares… I mean, yes, of course it will be an excellent concert, but it will be an excellent concert with nothing new to discover.
What can I say, if Makela and Nezet-Seguin were too busy this weekend, then Makela and Nezet-Seguin were too busy…
The original program with Petrenko was all about Respighi, no Wagner…
And because Petrenko doesn’t talk to the press or do social media, he can operate in a bubble of secrecy. I would be rather angry if I had purchased tickets partly to see him conduct these pieces and that was the way he treated his commitment.
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and see how we go.
I think you will find that Petrenko was meant to be conducting an all Respighi programme – not Wagner at all
Yes what a shame. many could have done that programme even me! Legge took a risk with Colin Davis in the 50s! it can pay off
I will be in Vienna on 22nd of April. How is possible to get tickets to that event? I can not find ANY announcement….thx
Then you didn’t look on the venue or orchestra websites? Tickets available here:
https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/en/konzerte?v=19-04-2024
Petrenko was schedule to conduct Respighi’s Roman Trilogy. Now, Thielemann is just repeating his Brahms Symphony II of last week in Vienna! No Pines, no Fountains, no Roman Festival…
I think we can only thank the deity of choice for that!!
To think they can shamelessly sell FOUR nights of this tired programme, after most of the audience saw half of it last weekend… lordy. In Wien it seems it’s about taking the money and being seen to go.
I guess most of the public at these concerts in Vienna are turists, so the turists of last week aren t the same turists of this week….
Not for the Vienna Philharmonic.
It was an entire Respighi program..
so true
Petrenko was scheduled to conduct a whole respigi concert!
Petrenkos Programm was:
Ottorino Respighi
Pini di Roma
Fontane di Roma
Feste Romane
They didn’t replaced Petrenkos Wagner with Thielemanns Wagner. They changed the whole programm. Thielemann is preparing Lohengrin in the Vienna Staatsoper and he did the Brahms last weekend. The Vienna Philharmonic could have used Petrenkos cancellation to give a good – may be young -conductor a chance, but thats not their style…
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Thielemann was not named music director of Chicago, because if you don’t even have these Respighi warhorses in your repertoire at the ready, and if the only thing you can do is to repeat Brahms from the last weekend, no orchestra aside from Vienna, can sustain an audience base with such a narrow repertoire, however transcendent your 1,000th Wagner is.
The issue is Petrenko.
There is truth to this.
The Viennese love CT unlike so many abroad so they will be happy – it’s nothing too exciting so agree with the comments
indeed they could. I could have done it. how very boring. take a risk!
Yeah take a risk book a youngster, give him a chance, like Makela, who deserves more chances…(irony)
Replacing Respighi by Brahms is like getting milk instead of Prosecco .
like getting sauerkraut instead of sun-dried cherry tomatoes in olive oil
like getting Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog instead of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Like getting Brahms instead of Respighi.
I wish I can hear “The Birds” or “Ancient Airs and Dances” at a live concert for once. Lovely music to my ears.
Music to my ears. See, if interested, a discussion between Don Ciccio and myself in the adjacent Bychkov thread.
Noseda (relatively) recently conducted the second suite in Washington, but the main event of that concert was the second symphony of Casella.
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York has occasionally programmed int eh last decade or so both “The Birds” and “Ancient Airs and Dances”.
What a loss for the ticketholders! Thielemann is like a marching disc repeating itself over and over again – even the usual (embarassing) posturing after the concert and the (embarassing) show of his admirers didn’t went well a few days ago (!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lImhJm96-A
I could have attended two concerts of his in May (decent price) – after the snoozefest of a New Year’s concert I decided not to and to visit the Volksoper instead! To be honest – concert number 1 was never on my calendar (Lang Lang).
Vienna is different and with CT one needs to judge the conductor once at the helm and right repertoire and not the strange personality – was just told by people in Salzburg how enthusiastically for instance a great human being AND fabulous conductor like Pappano conquered the audience as they had enough of the ultra German Thielemann
Spot on.
Arts organizations should have a little more respect for people who pay their hard-earned money to attend concerts and offer refunds when you change not just the artist but also the whole program.
As a big fan of Petrenko, I find it quite “interesting” that he has cancelled all 3 of his major guest appearances(RCO Wooden prince, Bergen Elektra and now VPO) over the last year due to health reason, but hasn’t missed any of his Berlin concerts since Feb 2023.
His Berlin concerts are marvellous and I don’t question his integrity, but I am wondering if the Berlin job is wearing him down on his health such that he chose to cancel his guest appearances. Anyway hope for a speedy recovery and sad for the audiences who will miss his Vienna concerts
Petrenko has missed concerts in Berlin, too – including New Years the year before last. But it would seem right to prioritize Berlin over guest appearances if there is a choice to be made.
I do hope he makes it back to Bergen, though; a fine orchestra that deserves the exposure of working with someone of Petrenko’s stature.
If he has an injury like he did last time, it might be the travelling that is impossible with his injury, which would explain why can still conduct at home in Berlin but not abroad.
I hope KP gets well soon! He’s a very fine conductor but his replacement is very fine also. Bravo maestros!
Sad…. Great opportunity with the three Respighi poems replaced by a Thielemann routine programme done by him the umpteenth time.
Compared to other maestros with 3 or 4 full-time jobs, Petrenko looks like a slacker.
What about his reluctance to offer generous servings of platitudes at interviews? He focuses instead on what he does best: coaxing the musicians of great orchestras into giving their all. What a lazy bum.
Quality over quantity.
Sorry to hear about your slipped disc sir. It is incredibly painful. I suffered as a musician too. You need to rest. You are in my prayers I was in a plaster cast and was about to be operated on when some Christians prayed for me and I was healed. God bless you sir and thank you for your amazing musicianship. Bill. Ducker. Nottingham. Uk
to be the conductor
of the BPO. one needs to be very fit
it is not an easy ride.
especially touring abroad.
And to think they had Vasily Petrenko in the area right now, who could do all the Respighi pieces with his eyes closed. But he would have been too busy anyway, Verdi’s Requiem to prepare for London on Tuesday. Our gain. 🙂
That’s what I call a lucky strike: you buy Respigh with Petrenko and get Wagner with Thieleman. I wish I were in their shoes!