Berliner Philharmoniker

“As a thoroughbred musician, Mäkelä electrifies the Alpine Symphony: after the amorphous beginning, the sunrise is all the more dazzling. As if out of nowhere, he provokes volumes and sharpness of sound that ring in your ears. Strauss’s vivid tone painting from 1915 aims to overwhelm; you don’t have to like it. This makes it all the more interesting how Mäkelä aims for abstraction. Cowbells, birdsong, natural beauty? Long before the apocalyptic use of thunder sheets and rain machines, the flutes shriek, and garish dissonances and bold cluster chords take over. Sound turns into noise.”

Der Tagesspiegel, Christiane Peitz, 31 May 2025

The orchestral virtuosity is ravishing, but always full of polyphonic awareness. Mäkelä never loses himself in artificial rubati, and the silence before the storm is stretched out in a thrilling manner.

Berliner Zeitung, Peter Uehling, 1 June 2025


PROGRAMME:
Wolfgang Rihm: Transitus III
Richard Strauss: Alpine Symphony