Reviews  |  

Concertgebouworkest

“Judging by the fantastically soft sounds of the strings in Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées, the orchestra is in excellent shape despite the pandemic. How beautifully Mäkelä allowed the sound to blossom with a kind of underhand movement from the forearm. Above the last section of this symphonic meditation from 1930, Messiaen wrote: ‘Extremely slowly (with great pity and love)’. Here a sound emerged like God’s grace itself … Conductor and musicians came together sublimely.”

“Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, also with only soft strings at the beginning, connected seamlessly with Messiaen’s finale. Mäkelä’s build-up from this desolate silence to black euphoria of the later movements testified to insight into this problematic symphony, in which that clear signature of the composer is so omnipresent …

Trouw, Peter van der Lint, 15 May 2021


Programme:
Messiaen: Les offrandes oubliées
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10