Petrenko conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker

0000: Kirill Petrenko conducts Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff in front of 1,000 visitors

On Saturday, 23rd of March, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko performed Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff live in the Philharmonie Berlin. The concert took place as a pilot project initiated by the Senate of Berlin. For the first time since the lockdown in March 2020, the orchestra has again performed a concert in front of an audience of 1,000.

"Happiness was sitting in the auditorium" (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
"Oh", exclaims horn player Sarah Willis in the foyer between the test stations, "it's so wonderful that you're all finally back". (rbb)

At his debut with the Philharmoniker in February of 2006, Kirill Petrenko conducted one of his favourite works: Sergei Rachmaninoff’s late-Romantic Second Symphony. Almost exactly 15 years later Petrenko has programmed the composition a second time. Like all of Rachmaninoff's symphonies and piano concertos, this epic work is also in a minor key and – particularly during the familiar slow movement, with its expansive clarinet solo – is filled with the melancholy and longing so typical for the composer. The concert opens with Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet.

Mournful, heartfelt, passionate: a promising concert in unusual times! The programme is now in postproduction and soon available for TV distribution.

Genre Orchestral Music
Recording location Philharmonie Berlin
Recording date 20 March 2021
Duration approx. 85'
Production Company EuroArts Music, SWR in collaboration with ARTE
TV Director Michael Beyer
English title of music work Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy after Shakespeare
English title of music work Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
Orchestra / Band Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor Kirill Petrenko