Orchestre de Paris – North America & Canada tour
“Mäkelä and the players fed off each other’s energy to produce a performance that one hopes was as breathtaking for them to play as it was for the audience to hear … The shattering end of the Rite brought the audience instantly to its feet – in recognition, one hoped, as much of musical history brought to life as of the achievement of these immensely accomplished visitors from abroad.”
New York Classical Review, David Wright, 17 March 2024
“Mäkelä summoned the earthiness and physical drama of two milestone pieces written for dance, Firebird and The Rite of Spring, the first lushly charming and fantastical, the second crackling and fierce … The best conductors come to a performance with a clear mental picture of how a piece should sound and the flexibility to allow the moment to speak. It was clear that Mäkelä was listening … He seemed less interested in demonstrating his gifts than in delivering Stravinsky’s sheer sonic extravagance: brash hues, flashes of charm set off by undertones of savagery, an episodic feeling of vertigo. The Firebird stakes out an immense sonic territory, from the basses’ subterranean snores in the opening to great manic explosions of color, and Mäkelä’s vision was ample enough to contain it all.”
New York Magazine, Justin Davidson, 18 March 2024
“By giving more than usual attention to the intricate musical connections between the famous “scenes,” (Firebird) Mäkelä was also making the transitional material part of the story, creating a new level of tension – of suspense – between the sections. Stravinsky’s final series of repetitions can sometimes seem almost endless. But here, in the orchestra’s rich, almost three-dimensional hush, we felt a rare and unexpectedly moving sense of awe, a resolution to everything that had come before—perhaps all evening—and a depth of feeling that brought me to tears. And cheers.”
Musical America, Lloyd Schwartz, 20 March 2024
“It was with the sounds of Stravinsky’s Firebird in our heads that we emerged from this evening in which the OSM welcomed the Orchestre de Paris to its hall. Even leaving aside the pandemic period, we have too few visits of this kind, which open our ears to other sounds (for example, the mellowness of the bassoon in the Berceuse de l’Oiseau de feu) and other styles.”
Le Devoir, Christophe Huss, 20 March 2024
“For years, the fact that Klaus Mäkelä is destined for a truly great career has been accepted by a vast majority of music lovers. His successful debut on Carnegie Hall’s history-laden podium will be remembered by anyone lucky enough to have attended the performance.”
Seen and Heard International, Edward Sava-Segal, 20 March 2024
Programmes:
New York, Carnegie Hall:
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete version)
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Ann Arbour, Boston and Montreal:
Claude Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Sergej Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete version)
Soloist: Yunchan Lim
