Petr Popelka
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Cue fanfare. In turn, Insects gently flittered, birds tweeted and cooed, and warming sunshine complemented by a balmy breeze dispelled any vestige of Winter. Robert Schumann’s wonderful ‘Spring’ Symphony concluded the third outing for this programme, marking Petr Popelka’s debut week with the Berliner Philharmonker. That brassy beginning awoke energetic strides and freshly-milled lyricism, yet this optimistic, happy. and abundant work was not Popelka’s calling card. That was something from his Czech homeland (he was born 1985 in Prague), the last of Dvořák’s musical treatments (Opuses107-110) of four of Erben’s tales, not for readers of a nervous disposition or as a prelude to sleep. Popelka and the Berliners were on top of atmosphere and suspense as well as details and dynamics, a big impression made, and carried into the Schumann with soul and exuberance, a rhythmically vital performance, suitably vernal.
Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, remembering Manon Gropius, taken from the World at a young age, for all its compositional rigour embraces intense expression, folksong, portraiture, and agony and acceptance, calling upon Bach for the latter quality. It’s music of complexity, more, much more than an accompaniment; rather it’s a partnership, exactly what Popelka and the Berliners proposed to Gil Shaham’s masterly account of the solo part, both technically and interpretatively, a reading rewarding to listen to and appreciate the smallest of incidents: for me a short trombone glissando. It all fitted with significance, the Bach quotation arriving tenderly, from there to a hard-won serenity, and a Bach encore from Shaham, the final movement, ‘Tempo di Borea – Double’ from the B-minor Partita, BWV1002, given with absolute command.
Antonín Dvořák The Wood Dove
Alban Berg Concerto for Violin and Orchestra “To the Memory of an Angel”
Robert Schumann Symphony No. 1 “Spring”
“Robert Schumann in the throes of love: newly married to Clara Wieck, the ideas for his First Symphony poured out of him. With its lively optimism, the Spring Symphony reflects this spirit of new beginnings. In contrast to this is Alban Berg’s poignant Violin Concerto, which is a musical memorial to Manon Gropius, who died at a young age. The soloist is Gil Shaham. The concert opens with Antonín Dvořák’s The Wood Dove, which tells of death and guilt.”