Ballet dancer Nijinsky, the first Petrushka, 1911, choreography by Fokine
Friday, October 31, 2025
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Showcasing one of their programmes for an imminent Asian tour, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko opened with the six Lachian Dances, a proud, expressive, exuberant, and folklore-rich start, outdoors music of charm and vigour, performed with lyrical contours and rhythmic panache, witty steps and whirlwind passages combining in the final number. Contrast with the Mandarin music, with closely observed detail and dynamics, initially underplayed it seemed until appreciation became apparent of Petrenko looking beyond top lines and primary colours. Clarinet solos were seductive as part of a sinister atmosphere being created – muggers/would-be-murderers, the mandarin of the title unable to resist the girl decoy and then unable to die from his wounds until they embrace – the Suite concluding before the Miraculous happens, with ‘chase’ music, Petrenko’s until-then deliberate pacing giving way to a frenzy maintained to the end, played brilliantly, ferocity to the fore. A lighter touch if no-less-vivid pictorialism was evident in the Stravinsky, Shrovetide fair hustle and bustle, a notably quick ‘Russian Dance’ (yet with rarely heard oboe counterpoint brought out), excellent solos (flute and trumpet especially), introspection and crowd scenes attractively offset, and a high degree of theatre, not calamitously ruined by then using the ‘concert ending’, the score finishing, as it should, in otherworldly mystery/suspense.
(The Lachian Dances qualifies as “Music That Time Forgot”.)