Two prominent German media outlets have come under fire for running "antisemitic" commentaries on Kirill Petrenko, the Russian-born Jew chosen as the next conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.

As a result of the statements made in articles for Northern German Radio (NDR) and Die Welt Online, Mr Petrenko, director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, has refused to give further interviews.

NDR writer Sabine Lange described Mr Petrenko's main competitor for the position, the German-born Christian Thielemann, as a world renowned expert in "the German sound", and Mr Petrenko as "the tiny gnome, the Jewish caricature" from Wagner's operas. Both Mr Petrenko and Mr Thielemann conduct at the Bayreuth Wagner festival.

The apparent juxtaposition of "good, pure German" and "defective Jew" did not go unnoticed by incensed readers.

Meanwhile, Die Welt Online writer Manuel Brug noted that Mr Petrenko would be Berlin's third Jewish conductor, after Daniel Barenboim (Berlin State Opera and Stattskapelle), and Ivan Fischer (Konzerthaus).

'One is an expert in the German sound, the other the Jewish caricature'

Mr Brug also made an oblique reference to Mr Petrenko's relationship with an opera singer at Bayreuth, saying that the conductor was known to have "good interpersonal relations".

Readers pointed out the antisemitic stereotypes of overly competitive and over-sexed Jews, as well as the notion that somehow the Jewishness of three conductors was important.

The offending articles were removed and apologies issued - but not soon enough for Eleonore Buening, editor for music in the cultural section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine online.

"Why did they write it?" she wrote. "Because Nazis, women, greed, power and so on bring in clicks... and because of amnesia about our history. And because it can all be erased so quickly."