Friday, January 30, 2026
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
‘The Divine Poem’/Symphony No.3 by Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) – “mystic, devil worshipper, erotic composer” – had its premiere in Paris in 1905 conducted by Nikisch. It’s a C-minor to C-major piece in three linked movements of transcendental release, structured cyclically, opening with an attention-grabbing heavy-brass motif (eight horns, four trumpets, etc., with a couple of harps swirling into action), the music then striding forward impassionedly, with flexibility, exploration, and discovery, Kirill Petrenko sympathetic to the heated expression, the detours (Brucknerian stop-starts and look-backs) and observant of the wide-ranging dynamics, glorying in the moment without losing sight of the ultimate goal, celestial fulfilment out of earthly toiling, the second movement (‘Delights’) an enchanted interlude, intimately realised, not least by Daishin Kashimoto (sharing the first desk with concertmaster colleague Noah Bendix-Blagley) before striving returns, the playing powerful and voluptuous, victory in sight, sonorously cadenced, a timing of forty-six minutes (a little below the average), some evidence that Petrenko had seen the work whole.
In the first half, Brahms’s Violin Concerto, a trademark work for Janine Jansen, was introduced with space yet purpose by Petrenko, seized upon with rough-hewn tone and fiery energy by Jansen in her first entry, mellowing to lyrical beauty without becoming treacly, the BP and KP model partners, supportive yet characterful, the music searched, shaped and projected for its own sake in agreement, Joachim’s tried and trusted cadenza a moment of unescorted development so that the orchestra’s return was as if it had never been away. It fell to grateful silence. The slow movement, opening with winds in consort, Jonathan Kelly’s eloquent oboe leading the way for Jansen’s singing line threaded through cohabiting Harmonie, succeeded by an ardent yet articulate Finale, something saved for a fleet-footed conclusion. Now cheers could begin, although no encore.