He took Berlin, he'll take Tel Aviv

Two captivating artists & two very different personalities – Kirill Petrenko, the next chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmonicer, and Yuja Wang, one of the great pianists of her generation – join to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for an exciting and varied program
 

                        The Israel Philharmonic official site ©

Of the few works French composer Paul Dukas left behind we tend to remember only “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” And we almost lost the music to the ballet “La Péri” because Dukas planned to use it to pay for a gambling debt. But friends persuaded him to safeguard this work, which he had composed for ballerina Natasha Trouhanova, and thus it was preserved. The subject of the work is immortality: a fairy guards the flower of immortality and Iskender sets out to find it. But (as expected?) he fails.  The music of iridescent tone poem is imbued with a magical atmosphere while Iskender’s attempts to steal the flower are bestowed with additional color.

Like Beethoven, Sergei Prokofiev composed five piano concertos and stopped composing in this genre when he ceased performing; and like Beethoven he went on to compose piano sonatas. Like Beethoven, Prokofiev always traveled with a notebook in hand in which he noted musical ideas he was afraid to lose. Like Beethoven, he sat down to compose his Piano Concerto no. 3 after he had already sketched out most of the work in his notebook. The result? Following the world premiere of the work, the Chicago Daily Herald wrote: “this was the most beautiful concerto of the modern world.” Prokofiev dedicated the concerto to the poet Konstantin Balmont who reacted to the tribute with a sonnet beginning with these words: “A joyful flame from a scarlet flower/ a keyboard of words shines in the flames / that suddenly leap in tongues of fire…” Beautiful, rousing words that move us just like the concerto.

“I will never compose a symphony! You have no idea what a composer goes through when he feels that the giant stature of Beethoven is watching him,” Brahms confided to Herman Levy, the famous conductor. Brahms, who had already composed sophisticated orchestral music with his “A German Requiem,” his first piano concerto and a number of chamber works, waited many years before completing Symphony no. 1. Today, we all hum the music from the 4^th movement and love the entire symphony. It’s just as well that we have forgotten the complex reception that greeted the premiere of the work.

Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor designate of the Berliner Philharmoniker, was born in Omsk in 1972 where he studied piano at the College of Music. At the age of eleven he gave his first public performance as a pianist with the Omsk Symphony Orchestra. In 1990 his family (his father a violinist and his mother a musicologist) relocated to Vorarlberg where his father worked as an orchestra musician and music teacher. Petrenko first continued his studies in Feldkirch before moving to Vienna to study conducting at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. His first job after graduation took him directly to the Vienna Volksoper where he was hired by Nikolaus Bachler as Kapellmeister. From 1999 until 2002 Kirill Petrenko was General Music Director at the Meininger Theater. It was in 2001 in his role as conductor of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, in the production by Christine Mielitz and with scenery by Alfred Hrdlicka, that he first achieved international acclaim. In 2002 Kirill Petrenko became General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin where, until 2007, he was credited with a series of highly significant productions.

During his time in Meiningen and Berlin his international career also began to flourish. In 2000 Kirill Petrenko made his debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in 2001 at the Vienna Staatsoper and the Dresden Semperoper, in 2003 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the New York Metropolitan Opera and in 2005 at the Oper Frankfurt. In Lyon, in collaboration with Peter Stein, he conducted all three Pushkin-inspired operas by Tchaikovsky (Mazepa, Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame) from 2006 until 2008, which were also performed as a cycle in early 2010. After moving on from the Komische Oper Berlin Kirill Petrenko worked as a freelance conductor. During this period his projects included conducting a new production of Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa (Production: Barbara Frey) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2009. In Frankfurt he conducted Pfitzner's Palestrina (Production: Harry Kupfer) and Puccini's Tosca (Production: Andreas Kriegenburg). In 2011 he worked on two new productions of Tristan and Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon and at the Ruhrtriennale. To date, the most important orchestras Kirill Petrenko has been invited to conduct include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the BR Symphony Orchestra, the Bayerische Staatsorchester, the WDR Cologne Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic and the NDR Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester, the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Kirill Petrenko has also conducted concerts at the Bregenz and Salzburg Festivals. From 2013 to 2015 he swung his baton for the new production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen during the Bayreuth Festival. Since September 2013 Kirill Petrenko has been General Music Director at the Bayerische Staatsoper. He will be working in this position until the end of the 2019/20 season. Since 2013, he has taken to the rostrum for premieres of Die Frau ohne Schatten, La clemenza di Tito, Die Soldaten, Lucia di Lammermoor and Lulu as well as a revival of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen among other works. In June 2015, Kirill Petrenko was named future Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, starting this position in autumn 2019. In the current season at the Bayerische Staatsoper Kirill Petrenko led the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka's South Pole, next up is a new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in May 2016. Furthermore, Kirill Petrenko conducts revivals of Lulu, Tosca, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Fledermaus and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as three Academy Concerts with the Bayerische Staatsorchester.

Her singular blend of technical prowess, keen musical insight, and emotional depth have established Yuja Wang as one of the world’s finest performers. The power of her interpretations emerges from a distinct combination of her exceptional presence on stage and a natural affinity and inquisitive approach to the repertoire, which ranges from Mozart to Gershwin and beyond. ‘Charismatic’, ‘breathtaking’, ‘flawless’ and ‘heartfelt’ are just a selection of the superlatives used frequently by critics worldwide. Yuja’s 2017-18 season features recitals, concert series, and extensive tours with some of the world’s most venerated ensembles and conductors. She begins the summer of 2017 on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas and a programme featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.2, followed by a performance of the first concerto at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Lionel Bringuier. Later engagements include concerts with the Munich Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev, a series of performances at the Verbier Festival, and a three-city German tour with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. She also embarks on play-conduct tours with two of the best chamber orchestras in the world, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as joining the inaugural tour of Jaap van Zweden with the New York Philharmonic and the final tour of Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s directorship with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Other notable appearances include concerts in Hong Kong, Miami, Washington D.C., Prague, Tel Aviv, and Berlin. Winter of 2017 sees Yuja reunite with violinist and frequent collaborator Leonidas Kavakos for a European chamber tour, whilst in the spring of 2018, Ms. Wang will embark on a vast-reaching recital tour at premiere venues in the US and Europe; New York City, San Francisco, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and beyond. As part of its commitment to the arts, Rolex selected Yuja Wang as one of its cultural ambassadors in 2009, a distinction she holds to this day. She has been described by the New York Times as “one of the best young pianists around” and hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald for her “blistering technique.” In July 2015 the Los Angeles Times declared: “Hers is a nonchalant, brilliant keyboard virtuosity that would have made both Prokofiev (who was a great pianist) and even the fabled Horowitz jealous.” This combination of critical acclaim, audience ovations, return engagements at leading international venues, and an exclusive recording relationship with Deutsche Grammophon confirm Yuja Wang’s status as one of this century’s most compelling and engaging artists. Yuja’s way of making music connects with a strikingly broad demographic. It appeals to everyone, from classical music newcomers to devoted pianophiles, and has attracted an exceptionally youthful following. Her love for fashion, recognised by her induction into Giorgio Armani’s Sì Women’s Circle, has also contributed to the popular appeal of an artist who is armed with the ability to challenge the status quo and to welcome fresh converts to the concert hall.

Yuja Wang was born in Beijing and encouraged to make music at a young age by her dancer mother and percussionist father, which served as the catalyst for the never-ending thirst for knowledge that has sustained her continued musical development. She began piano lessons at the age of six, and her progress was accelerated by studies at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. In 1999 she moved to Canada to participate in the Morningside Music summer programme at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, and thereafter enrolled as the youngest ever student at Mount Royal Conservatory. Wang’s exceptional gifts were widely recognised in 2001 with her appointment as a Steinway Artist, and again the following year when she was offered a place at Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Gary Graffman.

By the time Yuja graduated from Curtis in 2008, she had already gained momentum following the spectacular success of her debut three years earlier with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa. Wang attracted widespread international attention in March 2007 when she replaced Martha Argerich on short notice in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and within the span of just a few seasons she was working with conductors of the highest calibre. Over the past decade of her career, she has worked with such pre-eminent Maestros as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Michael Tilson Thomas, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, and Zubin Mehta. In January 2009, Yuja Wang became an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist. Her debut album, Sonatas & Etudes, prompted Gramophone to name her as its 2009 Young Artist of the Year. Her 2011 release of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto and Paganini’s Rhapsody with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Claudio Abbado was nominated for a Grammy® Award in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. Subsequent releases for the label include Fantasia, an album of encore pieces by Albéniz, Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saëns, Scriabin, and others; a live recording of Prokofiev’s Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and an acclaimed coupling of Ravel’s two piano concerti with Fauré’s Ballade, recorded with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and Lionel Bringuier. Reviewers around the world have documented the full range of Wang’s work, capturing the essence of her musicianship and observing the development of an artist blessed with consummate technical abilities, an inexhaustible creative imagination, and an unmatched artistry.

Concert dates: 17.02, 20.02, 23.02, 24.02, 25.02, Charles Bronfman Auditorium, Tel Aviv; 18.02, International Convention Center, Jerusalem; 19.02, 21.02, Rappaport Hall, Haifa.

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Photo: Wilfried Hösl, Kirk Edwards