His Berlin appointment came as a surprise — not least to Mr. Petrenko, who said later that he had been shocked.

The Philharmonic is a self-governing orchestra. When its players first met in 2015 to elect a successor to Mr. Rattle — who had pushed the orchestra to modernize with ambitious outreach initiatives and daring programming — they initially failed to reach a consensus. (The most discussed candidates, at least in public, included Christian Thielemann and Andris Nelsons, but Mr. Petrenko, revered for his way with the core Central European Romantic repertoire, was always in the running.)

The players met again a month later and elected Mr. Petrenko — who had only performed with them three times, but wowed them. A sour note was struck when some German press accounts, noting that Mr. Petrenko would be the first Jewish conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, were condemned for including anti-Semitic stereotypes.

A conductor reluctant to record would seem an odd fit in Berlin, long one of the world’s most CD-happy orchestras. The orchestra recently started its own label, as well as a streaming platform, the Digital Concert Hall.

But Mr. Petrenko is adapting. He has already allowed the orchestra to release his first recording with them, of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and he has embraced the Digital Concert Hall, even giving some interviews on it to his musicians. He is also planning some outreach, including leading students in Puccini’s “Suor Angelica”at Berlin’s Tempelhof, a former airport , and conducting future family concerts.