Prelude to a new era

It has now been three years since Kirill Petrenko was named the next chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, and in that time he has given Berlin audiences only a few intriguing glimpses of what lies ahead. His programmes have tended toward the early twentieth century, and there have been a few pleasingly unexpected choices – notably Franz Schmidt’s still underrated Fourth Symphony – among the less-than-usual suspects; yet for his first season-opening concert with the orchestra (his tenure doesn’t officially begin until next year) he went straight to the heart of the standard repertoire, performing two tone poems by Strauss and one symphony by Beethoven that have been closely associated with the Berlin Philharmonic for over a century.

Don Juan, the evening’s first piece, was also arguably its high point. It opened with a surge of…