The new head of the Berlin Philharmonic was no-one’s first choice

Let’s face facts. Kirill Petrenko was no-one’s first choice as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

His name came into the reckoning only after 124 orchestra members split fatally down the middle in an all-day election on May 11, half of them voting for the German favourite Christian Thielemann and the other half for the blazing young Latvian, Andris Nelsons. By nightfall, the players were at each other’s throats and wiser heads knew they had to seek a third candidate, a compromise.

But who? The Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who set the orchestra alight last week, had ruled himself out. So had Daniel Barenboim, Mariss Jansons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and other front-runners. Kirill Petrenko, 43, in his second year as music director at Bavarian State Opera, privately signalled his disinterest in the job.

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But Petrenko likes Berlin. He had a good time as music director at the Komische Oper from 2002 to 2007 and conducted the Philharmonic three times, getting to know and like some of its players.