Kirill Petrenko finds leading the Berlin Philharmonic means 100 opinions and 100 expectations

NEW YORK -- Kirill Petrenko thought about the challenge of leading the Berlin Philharmonic, perhaps the world’s greatest orchestra.

“A hundred musicians have 100 opinions and 100 expectations — 100 different expectations,” the conductor said.

Stefan Dohr, the principal horn, estimated forming a unified interpretation is even more arduous.

“I think everybody has more than one opinion,” he said.

In his sixth season as chief conductor, Petrenko is leading the orchestra 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 Dvorák’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.

“I’m 52 now,” Petrenko said during a Zoom news conference with U.S. media ahead of the tour. “Maybe my previous 10, 20 years were more connected with Mahler, also because of my Jewish heritage, maybe because I also am some sort of outsider — no home here, no home there. But maybe it will change and now I worked very intensively with this Bruckner.”

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.

He is the latest in the orchestra's distinguished line of chief conductors that include Hans von Bülow, Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle.

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.

Petrenko was born in Omsk, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1972 and moved as a teenager to Austria. He came to Berlin after serving as general music director of the Meininger Theater (1999-02), Berlin’s Komische Oper (2002-07) and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera (2013-20). His podium presence in Berlin has matured with familiarity.

“I can trust, and I cannot mention things too much in the rehearsal,” Petrenko said. “Maybe just have a quick look on some occasions, not to stop rehearsal, not to interrupt the music.”

His opinion of Bruckner has evolved.

“Originally, I came from Russia. Bruckner for me was absolutely -- I couldn’t even touch it. I didn’t know how to do it,” he said. “Then I came to Austria, and I had, so to say, my second childhood in Austria, since I was 18, and of course, there I heard a lot of Bruckner. I saw a lot of mountains, high mountains. I visited a lot of special Austrian kitchens and wurst hauses and, yes, I started to understand a little bit.”

Berlin opened its season with the Bruckner on Aug. 23 and before heading to the U.S. played it three more times at Berlin's Philharmonie plus on tour in Salzburg, Austria; London; Lucerne, Switzerland; and Frankfurt, Germany. To prepare, Petrenko listened to a 1942 recording of the orchestra led by Furtwängler.

“We can be brilliant. We can be perfect. We can be fantastic performers,” Petrenko said, “but there is some authentic side of one piece, what is today after we lost a lot of traditions, are very, very difficult to achieve, and the historic recordings are helping us.”

For Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, he listens to Bruno Walter’s performances. For Stauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier,” it is Erich Kleiber and Clemens Krauss.

“Absolutely unachievable. You can't do it today like this,” Petrenko said. “You need to restore — step by step you need to go back as far as you can go back, to go to the source of this tradition.”

That thought and preparation is noticed by the orchestra.

"We are now approaching the moment where we do understand what Kirill Petrenko wants without him explaining it most of the time,” Dorn said.