CD:
Kirill Petrenko conducts Johannes Brahms

0000: Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings releases the First Symphony and the “Tragic Overture” on CD.

For his performance of Johannes Brahms’s symphonies, Kirill Petrenko returns to their roots – and to his own: in Meiningen. Hans von Bülow was the first to perform Brahms’s works there, before Fritz Steinbach succeeded him as court conductor in 1886. Thanks to Brahms’s regular visits to Meiningen, Steinbach became extremely familiar with his music during his 17 years at the court – and meticulously recorded the composer’s wishes as performance notes in the scores.

Around a century later, Kirill Petrenko took over as general music director at the theatre in Meiningen. As a result, the works of Johannes Brahms form a focal point of his repertoire. Steinbach’s notes are invaluable to him, as they provide direct insight into the interpretative style of the composer. Petrenko’s performance of the First Symphony, which the chief conductor presented with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the launch of the 2025/26 season, is characterised in particular by its highly variable tempo.

The symphony, which Brahms wrestled with for almost a quarter of a century in the long shadow of Beethoven, is paired here with the “Tragic Overture”. The edition’s booklet includes essays by Maren Goltz and Peter Gülke, which provide in-depth analyses of the compositional process behind the symphony and of the Brahms tradition in Meiningen.