The Motivator

It has been nearly five years since Sir Simon Rattle announced his departure from the Berlin Philharmonic, setting into motion the search for a new chief conductor. An initial conclave in Spring of 2015 resulted in deadlock, but a few months later it was announced that Kirill Petrenko would take up the post. In the following seasons Mr Petrenko appeared in Berlin only a handful of times, with each concert revealing different facets of his conducting style: two restrained Tchaikovsky symphonies suggested an interpreter not overly prone to grand gesture, while an extraordinary performance of Ligeti’s Lontano (with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester) promised a level of engagement with the twentieth century repertoire. Although he conducted his first season-opening concert for the Berlin Philharmonic last year, the expectations for his first…