Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 Berliner Philharmoniker & Kirill Petrenko

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770- 1827): Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125:
• 1Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125: I. Allegro ma non troppo e un poco maestoso14:11
• 2Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125: II. Molto vivace – Presto13:18
• 3Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125: III. Adagio molto e cantabile12:50
• 4Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125: IVa. Presto05:32
• 5Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125: IVb. Presto. Recitativo "O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!" – Allegro assai – Presto15:59
• Total Runtime01:01:50

Info for Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Finally the time has come! For the first time, Kirill Petrenko will stand before the Berliner Philharmoniker as their new chief conductor. For his inaugural concert, he has chosen one of the greatest symphonic masterpieces of the 19th century: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a work in which almost out of nothing, from a simple fifth, the formidable musical tension Beethoven creates finds redemption and exaltation in the anthemic, visionary choral finale “Freude, schöner Götterfunken” (Joy, thou beauteous godly lightning).

The symphony has great symbolic power in a number of ways: on the one hand, the magnificent final movement with its closing chorus of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” could hardly better express the delight with which Petrenko and the Philharmoniker start off on their future together; on the other, the Ninth also conveys an important message: a clear commitment to humanity, to the equality of all mankind.

In addition, the performance of the symphony is the first in a series of Beethoven concerts this season to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2020. At the same time, it pays musical homage to previous chief conductors of the Berliner Philharmoniker: from Hans von Bülow, who once presented the work twice in a row in one concert, to Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan, who included the symphony among other works for the opening of the newly built Philharmonie in 1963, and finally to Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle, each of them delighted audiences with his own, inimitable interpretation of the Ninth Symphony.

The season opening concert also sees the first appearance by soprano Marlis Petersen as the 2019/20 Artist in Residence. The singer has already worked with Kirill Petrenko on several occasions. In the summer of 2019, she will make her role debut as Salome in the eponymous opera by Richard Strauss under his direction at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Audiences can see her here in Berlin in two very contrasting works: she sings the soprano solo in Beethoven’s Ninth and the vocal part in Alban Berg’s Symphonic Pieces from the opera Lulu which are to be heard at the beginning of the season-opening concert. The role of Lulu gave Marlis Petersen her international breakthrough. In the Symphonic Pieces, which the composer published in 1934 to spark interest in his new opera Lulu among audiences, conductors and directors, she again has the opportunity to present some facets of her most famous role.

Marlis Petersen, soprano
Elisabeth Kulman, mezzosoprano
Benjamin Bruns, tenor
Kwangchul Youn, bass
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Gijs Leenaars, choir direction
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, conductor

Kirill Petrenko
was born in Omsk, Siberia, in 1972 and studied piano at the school of music there. He appeared in public as a pianist for the first time at the age of eleven with the symphony orchestra in Omsk. In 1990 he moved with his family (father violinist, mother musicologist) to Vorarlberg, Austria, where his father accepted a position as an orchestral musician and music teacher. Petrenko continued his studies in Feldkirch, then studied conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

His first engagement took him to the Wiener Volksoper as assistant and Kapellmeister immediately after graduation. From 1999 to 2002 Kirill Petrenko was general music director at the Theater Meiningen, where he attracted international attention for the first time in 2001 with a production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, directed by Christine Mielitz with sets by Alfred Hrdlicka. In 2002 Kirill Petrenko began his tenure as general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin, where he conducted a series of impressive productions until 2007.

Petrenko’s international career developed rapidly during his years in Meiningen and Berlin. In 2000 Kirill Petrenko made his debut at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, in 2001 at the Wiener Staatsoper and the Semperoper in Dresden, in 2003 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, the Bayerische Staatsoper and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and in 2005 at the Frankfurt Opera. From 2006 to 2010 he presented a cycle of Tchaikovsky’s three Pushkin operas with Peter Stein in Lyon.

After leaving the Komische Oper Berlin Kirill Petrenko worked as a freelance conductor.

In addition to his operatic career Kirill Petrenko has also appeared on concert stages throughout the world. He has collaborated with leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Santa Cecilia in Rome, the RAI Orchestra in Turin and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Kirill Petrenko has also conducted concerts at the Bregenz and Salzburg Festivals. From 2013 until 2015 he conducted the new production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival.

Kirill Petrenko began his tenure as general music director of the Bayerische Staatsoper on September 1, 2013. Since then he conducted, besides a huge number of revivals, the premieres of Die Frau ohne Schatten (Richard Strauss), La clemenza di Tito (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) and Die Soldaten (Bernd Alois Zimmermann), Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti), South Pole (Miroslav Srnka, world premiere), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Richard Wagner), Alban Berg’s Lulu, Giacomo Puccini’s Il trittico and Richard Wagner’s Parsifal.

In June 2015 Kirill Petrenko was elected as the next chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic as of the 2019/20 season.

Booklet for Beethoven: Symphony No. 9