BERLIN PHIL/K.PETRENKO. BEETHOVEN 7. R3 HDs.
Assai meno presto, is Beethoven’s marking for the trio; and Kirill Petrenko’s swiftly flowing, rhythmically supple, intensely inspired reading of this section of the 7th, on the very edge of orchestral coherence, was a microcosm of this remarkable performance.
From the very start, the 1st movement was wonderfully alert and incisive, both danceable and dynamic, rhythms never forced but always alive, only ambiguous where that could count. Such a range of weight and colour in this playing, but always spontaneous, never sounding over-prepared or merely giving us their rehearsed responses; the exposition repeat was far more than a repeat.
And perhaps this is where we can start to grasp the specialness of Petrenko’s Berlin assumption:
something of Rozhdestvensky’s desire always to leave something - preferably, a great deal - for the creation of the concert performance in the moment of that performance; a sense that it might go another way at any of those moments; the orchestra as a flock of birds, seemingly random but in fact, instinctually responsive.
The allegretto followed almost attacca (this was a symphony conceived in two parts tonight, with the only pause between ii and iii), so flowing, so intense at the climax with great tonal weight, yet with smilingly relaxed moods in between. Then a hi-energy scherzo with subtle, barely perceptible rubato accelerando to heighten the excitement; that extraordinary trio, revealing again that willingness to take risks, to push coherence to the limit in the heat of creation (just listen to the trio repeat!).
K-Petrenko took great and affectionate care over dynamic subtleties in this movement.
The finale had an intensity, a precision, an on-the-edge riskiness, rarely experienced and almost impossible to describe: every single repeat at white-heat-white-light - it crowned a performance already beyond the reach of superlatives.
***
Sarah Willis, in an exchange with tonight’s presenter, said, as you might expect, that Kirill Petrenko wanted to play his Beethoven 7th, not, as she put it, “Karajan, or Simon, or Abbado”…
Perhaps I read too much into things, but the way she named the conductors seemed telling….
...
Assai meno presto, is Beethoven’s marking for the trio; and Kirill Petrenko’s swiftly flowing, rhythmically supple, intensely inspired reading of this section of the 7th, on the very edge of orchestral coherence, was a microcosm of this remarkable performance.
From the very start, the 1st movement was wonderfully alert and incisive, both danceable and dynamic, rhythms never forced but always alive, only ambiguous where that could count. Such a range of weight and colour in this playing, but always spontaneous, never sounding over-prepared or merely giving us their rehearsed responses; the exposition repeat was far more than a repeat.
And perhaps this is where we can start to grasp the specialness of Petrenko’s Berlin assumption:
something of Rozhdestvensky’s desire always to leave something - preferably, a great deal - for the creation of the concert performance in the moment of that performance; a sense that it might go another way at any of those moments; the orchestra as a flock of birds, seemingly random but in fact, instinctually responsive.
The allegretto followed almost attacca (this was a symphony conceived in two parts tonight, with the only pause between ii and iii), so flowing, so intense at the climax with great tonal weight, yet with smilingly relaxed moods in between. Then a hi-energy scherzo with subtle, barely perceptible rubato accelerando to heighten the excitement; that extraordinary trio, revealing again that willingness to take risks, to push coherence to the limit in the heat of creation (just listen to the trio repeat!).
K-Petrenko took great and affectionate care over dynamic subtleties in this movement.
The finale had an intensity, a precision, an on-the-edge riskiness, rarely experienced and almost impossible to describe: every single repeat at white-heat-white-light - it crowned a performance already beyond the reach of superlatives.
***
Sarah Willis, in an exchange with tonight’s presenter, said, as you might expect, that Kirill Petrenko wanted to play his Beethoven 7th, not, as she put it, “Karajan, or Simon, or Abbado”…
Perhaps I read too much into things, but the way she named the conductors seemed telling….
...
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