Kirill Petrenko leads the Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. Photo by Stefan Cohen.
In the November 22 Associated Press, Ronald Blum writes, “In his sixth season as chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko is leading the Berlin Philharmonic on its 25th U.S. tour and second in three years. There are eight performances from Nov. 15-26 in Washington, D.C.; New York; Boston; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Chicago. One program includes Rachmaninoff’s ‘The Isle of the Dead,’ Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony. The other is devoted to Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony, a sprawling work of about 80 minutes played to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth in September…. Carnegie Hall concerts this week showed breathtaking emotional depth and clarity. Petrenko signaled poignant pauses with nods and cathartic crescendos with arms sweeping sharply as if tennis backhands…. In an age of widespread audio and video streams, live performances remain an unmatched experience. The U.S. is the second-largest market behind Germany for the orchestra’s digital concert hall, launched in 2008-09. ‘The touring is really important because we want to first meet our audiences,’ orchestra general manager Andrea Zietzschmann said. ‘We are artists, and we have a strong ambassador role.’ Thirty-four nations are represented among the orchestra’s 130 members. There are five Americans, including Noah Bendix-Balgley, one of the three concertmasters.”
