Performer: Kirill Petrenko

Under the leadership of Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko, the Berliners produced a deep, muscular and forward sound that invigorated familiar music.

Kirill Petrenko conducts a magesterial account of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony after a trio of motets by the BBC Singers. 

This May, the world’s leading orchestras and soloists gather in Amsterdam for a grand celebration of all things Mahler – a city the composer described as his “second musical homeland”.

Presenting all nine symphonies and the song cycles over ten days in Amsterdam, the Mahler Festival features the Royal Concertgebouw, Budapest Festival, NHK Symphony, Chicago Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras.

Bachtrack polled 15 of the world's leading music critics and can reveal their 2023 list of the world's greatest orchestras and conductors.