Just in: Kirill cancels Vienna Phil

Just in: Kirill cancels Vienna Phil

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

April 18, 2024

The 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

Comments

  • Chet says:

    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…

  • Alexander says:

    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…

    • waw says:

      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.

    • Tristan says:

      The Viennese love CT unlike so many abroad so they will be happy – it’s nothing too exciting so agree with the comments

    • Adrian Brown says:

      indeed they could. I could have done it. how very boring. take a risk!

      • Manu says:

        Yeah take a risk book a youngster, give him a chance, like Makela, who deserves more chances…(irony)

        • Truth Hurts says:

          Give ‘him’ a chance??? How chauvinistic!!! Give ‘HER’ a chance!!! They could have hired Blanchett, Tár, or many other women who could have used the opportunity to learn the rep and gain some on-podium experience. Myself, my pronouns are ‘he’/‘it’/‘they’/‘she’/‘us’.

  • Philipp Lord Chandos says:

    Replacing Respighi by Brahms is like getting milk instead of Prosecco .

    • waw says:

      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

    • CRWang says:

      I wish I can hear “The Birds” or “Ancient Airs and Dances” at a live concert for once. Lovely music to my ears.

      • Petros Linardos says:

        Music to my ears. See, if interested, a discussion between Don Ciccio and myself in the adjacent Bychkov thread.

      • Don Ciccio says:

        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”.

    • Truth Hurts says:

      Respighi is good/adequate at best. We’ve all heard ‘Pines’ etc. hundreds of times.

  • WU says:

    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).

    • Tristan says:

      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

    • professional musician says:

      Spot on.

  • Kyle says:

    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.

  • Brian says:

    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

    • osf says:

      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.

    • ML says:

      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.

  • Roger Rocco says:

    I hope KP gets well soon! He’s a very fine conductor but his replacement is very fine also. Bravo maestros!

  • professional musician says:

    Sad…. Great opportunity with the three Respighi poems replaced by a Thielemann routine programme done by him the umpteenth time.

  • zandonai says:

    Compared to other maestros with 3 or 4 full-time jobs, Petrenko looks like a slacker.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      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.

    • Nydo says:

      Quality over quantity.

  • Bill Ducker says:

    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

    • henry williams says:

      to be the conductor
      of the BPO. one needs to be very fit
      it is not an easy ride.
      especially touring abroad.

  • A.S. says:

    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. 🙂

  • Henrique Lian says:

    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!

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