Concertgebouw Orchestra on tour
“At the Vienna Musikverein – together with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra – Mäkelä’s presence is already palpable in Arnold Schoenberg’s lullaby-like “Verklärte Nacht” (Transfigured Night): Despite the opulence of the orchestral arrangement, in this exceptional late Romantic setting, the details and the individual gesture are important to him. Thus, he lends inner compactness to this sonorous story of a couple, which sounds as if Schoenberg were trying to shed the influence of Wagner’s Tristan/Parsifal style with desperate intensity.”
Der Standard, Ljubiša Tošić, 1 April, 2025
“Violinist Julian Rachlin transformed Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Offertorium” into an event. He intoned the solo passages breathtakingly. In this “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra,” the composer explores the Passion of Christ. Soloist and conductor brilliantly explored the spiritual, performed in absolute harmony, and made the reference to Bach’s “Musical Offering” audible. Rachlin made his violin sing with virtuosity and depth, blending with the ethereal sounds of the harps with disturbing beauty.”
Kurier, Susanne Zobl, 2 April 2024
“Schumann’s Fourth after the interval is pure pleasure in terms of the vibrancy and clarity of articulation and phrasing, the loving, inspired shaping of everything that Schumann has woven into this symphony. It flows, breathes, has pulse, the lament motifs of the violins and the damsel motif of the solo cello and oboe in the slow movement.”
Hamburger Abendblatt, Verena Fischer-Zernin, 2 April 2024
“Beyond the individual performances, the concert as a whole offered a glimpse into Mäkelä’s rapport with the Concertgebouw. The evening’s repertoire, seemingly diverse at first glance, was in fact a carefully curated showcase of the orchestra’s versatility, from full-throttle modernism to the hushed spirituality of Gubaidulina and the Classical-Romantic rigour of Schumann. As an artistic statement, it was as much about the orchestra’s present excellence as it was about its future trajectory under Mäkelä’s leadership; of musical continuity, of evolving artistic partnerships, and of the boundless possibilities still ahead for both conductor and orchestra.”
Bachtrack.com, Mengguang Huang, 2 April 2024
“With Mahler One, Mäkelä continued the exploratory work spread over various Hamburg orchestral guest performances. The sparkling Concertgebouw tutti was at least half the battle: Outstanding sounding, perfectly balanced wind sections (those horns …!), a very engaging brilliance in the ensemble … Mäkelä’s craftsmanship was evident in the moderation of the transitions from one block of ideas to the next, wonderfully smooth in the third movement, when Mahler’s narrative tone for the ‘simple’, ‘plain’ ‘folk tune’ only whispered cautiously before the music darkened again. The finale: a fast-paced all-out play for effect.”
Hamburger Abendblatt, Joachim Mischke, 3 April 2024
TOUR VENUES AND PROGRAMMES
HAMBURG ELBPHILHARMONIE – 1 & 2 April
VIENNA MUSIKVEREIN – 30 & 31 March
Arnold Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan
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Seung-Won Oh: Spiri III – Sacred Ritual (commission, world premiere)
Sofia Gubaidulina: Offertorium (violin concerto No. 1)
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4
Soloist: Julian Rachlin
