Magnificence and the Beast: The Philharmonic and Petrenko hang-out Brahms with the current

What a grim, indignant Brahms. Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic work relentlessly from the beginning of the 4th Symphony. Even the marginally drifty, melancholic starting of the primary motion within the strings and flutes rapidly thickens and turns into large, as if a battleship was pushing via gently rippled sea waves. The Andante can be emphatic, with excessive legato: the melodic ingredient hardly has an opportunity within the opaque sound structure.

The ultimate motion, the Passacaglia with its 30 variations and eight double basses, which repeat the theme of the ascending scale as persistently as they’re devoted, additionally brings no reduction. Even the gorgeous flute solo (Sébastian Jacot) sounds nearly determined. The music of longing turns into a beacon.

“This finale is sort of a darkish properly; The longer you look into it, the extra and brighter the celebrities shine in direction of us,” wrote Eduard Hanslick, a critic who was associates with Johannes Brahms, about his 4th Symphony.

This night the sky is overcast. You go to the live performance to neglect, not less than for 2 hours, the gloomy world state of affairs, the wars, crises, dilemmas. However Kirill Petrenko brings to mild Brahms’ permeability to the current. The fourth is affected by the shocks of as of late and proves to be each defensive and disabled.

Each stunning sound must be fought for and defended: with Alban Berg’s “3 Orchestral Items” op. 6 the thought is apparent, and never simply within the “Race” with its waltz bars scattered to the winds. But additionally when the large-scale work within the “March” ends with a impolite hammer blow, however after all of the futile tutti actions, not less than just a few stray solos seem shortly earlier than the tip.

How cleverly the night was programmed will also be seen by trying again at Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 KV 201, which opened the live performance. Shrugging his shoulders and dancing, Petrenko encourages the Philharmonic Orchestra to carry out such a swish A serious symphony that you just want to float throughout the dance ground together with her happiness. Very cautious, pleasant, fleeting, with refined dynamics till the ultimate motion, regardless of the energetically intoned Mannheim rocket. The fragility of such magnificence can already be guessed at if you happen to simply take note of how Mozart lets fragments sparkle reasonably than guaranteeing a sublime stream of melodies.

Subsequent week the Philharmonic will go on a three-week tour of Asia. How will the Koreans and Japanese discover the grim Brahms, far-off from the wars in Europe and the Center East?