Ravinia_2018_Issue_4_Week

9ASIL< PETREN.O

conductor

Born in Russia, Vasily Petrenko began his music

education at the Saint Petersburg Capella Boys

Music School, later studying at the Saint Peters-

burg Conservatory and participating in master

classes led by such conductors as Ilya Musin,

Mariss Jansons, and Yuri Temirkanov. Following

his successes at the

Shostakovich Choral

Conducting Competition and

Proko ev

Conducting Competition, both in Saint Pe-

tersburg, as well as at the Sixth Cadaques In-

ternational Conducting Competition in Spain,

Petrenko received his rst major appointment,

serving the Saint Petersburg State Academic

Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor from

until

, when he was named Young

Artist of the Year by

Gramophone

. He would be

named the magazine’s Artist of the Year a de-

cade later. He became principal conductor of the

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in

(adopt-

ing the position of chief conductor in

and he has since also become chief conductor

of the Oslo Philharmonic (since

) and the

European Union Youth Orchestra (as of the

/ season). Petrenko was previously prin-

cipal conductor of the National Youth Orchestra

of Great Britain from

and principal

guest conductor of the Mikhailovsky

eatre.

Highlights of his

/ season include his de-

but with the Seoul Philharmonic and tours of

Europe and Asia with the Royal Liverpool and

Oslo Philharmonics, as well as guest engage-

ments with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa

Cecilia, Netherlands and France Radio Philhar-

monics, London and Israel Philharmonics, and

Vienna and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.

Petrenko is also an in-demand conductor of

opera, having made his Glyndebourne Festival

and Paris Opera debuts in

leading Verdi’s

Macbeth

and Tchaikovsky’s

Yevgeny Onegin

respectively. His credits have since included

Tchaikovsky’s

Pikovaya Dama

at Hamburg State

Opera, Mussorgsky’s

Boris Godunov

at Bavarian

State Opera and with the Dutch Touring Opera,

and Bizet’s

Carmen

and Shostakovich’s

Lady

Macbeth of Mtsensk

with Zurich Opera. Tonight

Vasily Petrenko makes his rst return to Ravinia

following his

debut.

SIMON TRPÎES.I

piano

e rst ever National Artist of the Republic of

Macedonia and a recipient of the nation’s Presi-

dential Order of Merit, native and pianist Simon

Trpčeski is a graduate of University of St. Cyril

and St. Methodius School of Music in the capi-

tal, Skopje, where he studied with Boris Roman-

ov. A prizewinner of international competitions

in the UK, Italy, and Czechia, he was a member

of BBC New Generation Artists between

and

, when he was honored with the Young

Artist Award from the Royal Philharmonic So-

ciety. With the support of Macedonia’s Ministry

of Culture and the KulturOp organization, he

now regularly works with young musicians in

Macedonia to cultivate the country’s next gen-

eration of artists. Trpčeski remains a frequent

soloist in the UK, appearing with the London

Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony,

Philharmonia, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philhar-

monic, and London Philharmonic Orchestras.

He is also regularly engaged as a soloist across

Europe and North America, collaborating with

such ensembles as the Royal Concertgebouw

Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Vien-

na’s Tonkünstler Orchestra, Danish National

Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Phil-

harmonic Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Philhar-

monic, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras,

San Francisco Symphony, New York and Los

Angeles Philharmonics, and Chicago, Boston,

Pittsburgh, and Baltimore Symphony Orches-

tras. His credits also include the New Japan,

Seoul, and Hong Kong Philharmonics, as well

as the Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne Sym-

phony Orchestras. As a recitalist, Trpčeski has

given solo performances in many of the world

music capitals, and he regularly plays with cellist

Daniel Müller-Schott, recently touring North

America as a duo and forming a trio with vio-

linist Julia Fischer for performances at Wigmore

Hall and the Dresden Philharmonie. He has also

performed at such festivals as Aspen and Verbi-

er, and in

he was joined by cellist Nina Ko-

tova for performances of Chopin for a theatrical

event featuring Jeremy Irons at the Tuscan Sun

Festival. Simon Trpčeski made his Ravinia debut

and returned twice last season during

the CSO’s residency.

devoid of the “Fate” motive, whose rhythm is

now found in the accompaniment.

A formal development section follows. But it

should be noted that the sense of development

continues throughout the movement, since

so much of the music is indebted to the “Fate”

motive. In fact, the motive returns in di erent

guises in the remaining three movements.

short-short-short-long pattern returns in the

second movement, as part of the second theme.

Again, the rhythm is heard in the

Scherzo

as part

of its rst theme. is same music returns in the

nal movement as well.

Overall, the Symphony No. presents a com-

pact, almost poetic, thematic integration in the

same way that verse is uni ed by the repetition

and transformation of certain rhyme patterns.

To the conservatively minded musician, this

was an a ront to the established musical con-

ventions; they recoiled from it in disgust and

confusion.

ere were many who shared the

opinion of the German composer and con-

ductor Ludwig Spohr: “It has many individual

beauties, but they do not add up to a whole. e

very rst theme, in particular, lacks the dignity

essential to the opening of a symphony. … e

last movement, with its empty noise, is the least

satisfactory.” Unusual features of this symphony,

such as the short oboe cadenza in the rst move-

ment, provoked fervent criticism.

Progressive artists grasped the ability of this

new music to probe the fearful and monstrous

realms of the soul that E.T.A. Ho man de-

scribed. Hector Berlioz wrote, “In an artist’s life

one thunderclap sometimes follows swi ly on

another, as in those outsize storms in which the

clouds, charged to bursting with electric energy,

seem to be hurling the lightning back and forth

and blowing the whirlwind. I had just had the

successive revelations of Shakespeare and We-

ber. Now at another point on the horizon I saw

the giant form of Beethoven rear up. e shock

was almost as great as that of Shakespeare had

been. Beethoven opened before me a new world

of music, as Shakespeare had revealed a new

universe of poetry.”

e inner longing and horror brought on by

this Symphony No. opened a Romantic ood-

gate that owed unabated throughout the th

century. Perhaps, this was the Fate—his own

“Fate”—that Beethoven heard knocking at the

door.

Todd E. Sullivan

RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 30 – AUGUST 5, 2018

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