"Crystalline elemental force" NEW IN THE ARCHIVE: KIRILL PETRENKO CONDUCTS MOZART AND TCHAIKOVSKY a (Photo: Monika Rittorshaus) Rarely does the public look forward to a concert with such anticipation and expectations as it did for the recent appearance by Kirill Petrenko: his first guest appearance with the Berliner Philharmoniker since the orchestra elected him their future chief conductor in 2015. The evening had an auspicious start: "The control with which every tone detail unfolded and a musically downright explosive tension brought the audience to their feet even after Mozart's Haffner Symphony" (Suddeutsche Zeitung). John Adams's moving American civil war lament The Wound-Dresser with baritone Georg Nigl was then followed by Tchaikaysky's Pathetique. "The Philharmoniker unleash a power that drives into every register, clear and implacable, polyphonic and inevitable. Petrenko sweeps all sentimentality from the score. And suddenly it is there, a descent into hell of crystalline elemental force, harshly dragging our hopes and expectations along with it — EFTA00646078