Orchestral heydays come and go. In the
past, orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Philadelphia
Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Leningrad Philharmonic, and the
Philharmonia orchestras all achieved pinnacles of success (many of
them are still truly excellent). Some conductors could inspire even
second-rate orchestras to give wonderful performances (one thinks of
Jascha Horenstein who was a wandering conductor of a great variety of
orchestras in the 1950s, 60s and 70s). I have just been enjoying a CD
of Russian works – Mussorgsky, Khachaturian, Kabelevsky, Shchedrin,
Rachmaninov – conducted by the Russian Vasily Petrenko,
still in his mid- 40s. Petrenko conducts the Liverpool Philharmonic
which sounds, as so often under his baton, like an excellent Russian
orchestra in this repertoire.
Confusingly, there are two Russian
Petrenko conductors on the go at the moment (not related). Vasily
Petrenko comes from St Petersburg and currently specialises in the
music of Northern Europe (the Russians, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky,
and Elgar – whose music he conducts superbly). He has been found
mainly with the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Oslo Philharmonic,
though he takes up an appointment at the Royal Philharmonic in
England next year. Kirill Petrenko was born in Omsk, though he
emigrated at an early age to Austria and Germany and is to be found
mainly in Munich, and now Berlin.
I enjoyed the 73 minutes of Petrenko's
latest Russian recording that includes Mussorgsky's Pictures at an
Exhibition as orchestrated by Ravel. After the Great Gate of
Kiev we have a little over two minutes of an orchestration of
Rachmaninov's Romance Op 21 No.7 - It's peaceful here, where
the Liverpudlians almost sound like the old Leningrad Philharmonic.
In his chosen repertoire, Vasily Petrenko is definitely one of my
favourite conductors.
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