Seiji Ozawa to Conduct Berlin Philharmonic in April / Kirill Petrenko to Succeed Rattle in 2018

For the first time in seven years Seiji Ozawa, 80, will conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on April 8 and 10, revealed the orchestra, December 18. Ozawa last conducted the orchestra in May, 2009.

A concert scheduled on April 8 in Berlin next year with Zubin Mehta was cancelled and Ozawa was quickly asked to replace him.
Talking about the Berlin Philharmonic, it was made known  late June earlier to engage Kirill Petrenko to succeed the retiring chief conductor/artistic director Simon Rattle. Rattle retires in 2018.

Petrenko was born in Russia and resides in Austria. He reportedly has years of career in operatic work in German-language regions and is highly gifted. But he has limited appearances both in CD/DVD and media and his appointment with the Berlin Philharmonic is taken as a big surprise. 

A brief resume on Kirill Petrenko might be due here.  A Jewish Russian born on February 11, 1972, in a family of musicians, his father a violinist in the second largest Siberian city of Omsk and his mother a musicologist.

Petrenko emerged first as a concert pianist playing with a local orchestra at age 11. He continued playing the piano but later turned to conduct under Uroš Lajovic. 

Petrenko debuted as a professional  conductor in 1095 conducting Britten's "Let's Make an Opera". 

In 2001, Petrenko  conducted "The Ring of the Nibelung", four parts with two orchestras for four consecutive nights, drawing the attention of music media in the German-language regions.

Then, a breakthrough came in 2007 and 2009 when he won "This Year's Best Conductor" in both years. Petrenko conducted Eugene Onegin in May, 2010 to relieve the ailing Seiji Ozawa in Vienna.

The music media is unanimous on Petrenko' gift of being an anti-maestro. He talks less, if not none. When he was told of his appointment with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. he reportedly uttered:

"Let me hug your orchestra".