The area around Potsdamer Platz was
unnaturally crowded for a Thursday, but not everyone was there for the first
night of Berlinale. The foyer of the Philharmonie was also busy in anticipation
of a concert featuring the Berlin Philharmonic, their artist-in-residence Lisa
Batiashvili, and their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko. Although the programme promised
a fairly traditional overture-concerto-symphony structure, the choice of pieces
– which included Szymanowski’s first Violin Concerto and Strauss’ Symphonia
domestica – and the quality of the performances yielded a concert that
balanced obvious thrills with subtler pleasures.
The opening piece was Brahms’ Tragic
Overture, but it was clear from the decisive vigour of the first two chords
that Mr Petrenko had little intention of taking the work’s title at face value:
what followed was…
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