Prom 62: Berlin Phil/Petrenko review – sinister magic marks a concert of startling brilliance
Petrenko proved his mastery of Mahler’s Seventh yet again as he brought out its lurking ambiguity in a performance that hovered between dream and nightmare
September 2021
The week in classical: Berlin Philharmonic/ Petrenko; Partenope at the Lucerne festival
Mesmerising Schubert and sparkling Handel were highlights at this year’s ‘crazy’ Swiss festival
February 2021
Mahler: Symphonies 1-10 review – a sumptuous Berlin Phil moves from the glib to the sublime
This mammoth undertaking, of all of Mahler’s symphonies with different conductors over the last decade, brings variable musical results
June 2020
Lockdown culture
Sound recovery: how live music is returning to Munich
Led, masked and alone, to an underground lair below the Bavarian State Opera house, our writer joined a tiny handful of others for a thrilling chamber concert. Now the company is reclaiming its stage
August 2019
The week in classical: Berlin Philharmonic/ Petrenko review – thrillingly eruptive
The city turned out in force to welcome the self-effacing Kirill Petrenko to the world’s top conducting job
May 2019
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 review – leaves you neither shaken nor stirred
Kirill Petrenko’s first recording with his new orchestra has plenty to admire but taken as a whole feels rather underpowered
December 2018
Best culture 2018
Top 10 classical music events of 2018
Kirill Petrenko gave a foretaste of his time at the Berlin Phil; at 92, Kurtág finally took Beckett to the opera; and young Leeds winner Eric Lu astonished
September 2018
The week in classical: Proms 66 & 68; Paul Bunyan review – Berlin passes the baton
Proms 66 & 68: Berlin Philharmonic/Petrenko review – superlative music making
June 2018
Bavarian State Orchestra / Petrenko review – Rattle's heir thrills with wild intensity
Kirill Petrenko’s rapport with the awesome Bavarian players delivered a truly dazzling Mahler Seventh, and underlined why his move to Berlin is hotly anticipated
April 2018
Proms 2018: it ticks all the boxes but where's the radical and the recherché?
Andrew Clements
Debussy, Bernstein, Boulanger and Parry’s anniversaries are duly marked, and female composers are well represented as are international orchestras, but there’s too little risk in this year’s lineup
June 2015
In choosing Petrenko, the Berlin players are putting the music first
Tom Service, Martin Kettle
His symphonic repertoire is small, and his media experience even smaller, but Kirill Petrenko is a bold and an inspired choice for music director of the Berlin Philharmonic
Kirill Petrenko to succeed Simon Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonic
The conductor was appointed to one of classical music’s top jobs after the orchestra voted by a large majority for the Russian-born musician
Tom Service on classical music
The Bayreuth Wagner festival: more soap opera than classical opera
Allegations that joint director Eva Wagner-Pasquier is not allowed even near the festival theatre are the latest twists in a long saga of offstage feuds at Bayreuth
May 2015
Music blog
The Berlin Phil votes: but who might be their next chief conductor is far from clear
On the day that the Berlin Philharmonic’s musicians vote for their next chief conductor, Andrew Clements tries to read the smoke signals
March 2015
Tom Service on classical music
Conducting's next big question: who will bag the Berlin Phil?
With Rattle’s next post in London finally confirmed, attention returns to the Berlin Philharmonic and the question of who will succeed him as its principal conductor.
August 2013
Music blog
Castorf has become the villain of the Bayreuth Ring cycle
Siegfried/Götterdämmerung – review
July 2013
Das Rheingold/Die Walküre – review
Gold turns to oil in a much-anticipated but very mixed Ring cycle that has too many distractions, writes Martin Kettle
December 2009
Der Rosenkavalier
Royal Opera House, London From the brazen whooping of the first bar's horns, it's clear that conductor Kirill Petrenko eschews the cosy approach in an opera that has a clash of sexually charged Viennese egos at its heart, writes Martin Kettle
