Oslo Philharmonic on tour
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5:
“In a truly magnificent performance Mäkelä squeezed out every drop of energy at key moments, the burnished Oslo heavy brass and stormy unison strings notching up the turmoil … keeping undercurrents turbulent, he struck the ambiguous balance with thrilling perfection.”
***** Bachtrack.com, David Smythe, 23 August 2023
“The opening movement was instantly all-consuming, a journey of organic inevitability encompassing the sublime, the cataclysmic, and the disarming naivety of its closing bars.“
***** The Scotsman, Ken Walton, 23 August 2023
“It was both the foundation stone and the life-blood of perhaps the finest performance of this piece I have heard.“
Seen and Heard International, Simon Thompson 23 August 2023
Sibelius Symphony No. 7:
“Makela’s close attention to colouring individual phrases, particularly in the strings, created a beautifully cantabile effect. There was magic, even devilry, in the fast middle part, and scrupulous balance between the sections. Pure refreshment.”
***** The Times, Neil Fisher, 22 August 2023
“The intense concentration of conductor and orchestra alike, with first and second violins divided across the stage, cellos and violas powering from the middle, gave magnificence and glinting spirit to this account.”
**** The Observer, Fiona Maddocks, 26 August 2023
Mahler Symphony No. 4:
“… it was delicacy that marked this performance of the Fourth, most of all in the shimmer of the strings — often gossamer-light, with exquisitely deft portamenti. The result was far from rough-hewn, angsty Mahler … to me it had a startling, effervescent effect.”
***** The Times, Neil Fisher, 22 August 2023
“… an interpretation that was precisely proportioned in every respect with a sound whose brightness and lightness,so to speak, strove with the symphony towards the heavens, but in which there was nevertheless room for coarse accents from the earthly world.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Axel Zibliski, 21 August 2023
“In Lucerne, Klaus Mäkelä and his Oslo Philharmonic set the stage with the big trowel. Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner and Jean Sibelius. Three scores that make steep demands vertically and horizontally. Too steep as it turns out … In Mahler’s Fourth Symphony the design never develops the flow to keep the long movements going. Single brushstrokes, short sketched lines. A picture far from the complete work of art. ”
Luzerner Zeitung, Roman Kühne, 25 August 2023
“ … this is an astonishingly mature interpretation of Mahler … In general, the music glows and lightens under Mäkler’s hands without getting out of hand into formless rapture. In the similarly original second programme, this is of particular benefit to Tchaikovsky’s early Shakespeare fantasy “The Tempest” and the “Poeme de l’extase” by Alexander Scriabin, which Mäkelä steers into a frenzy with a hot heart but cool head.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Christian Wildhagen, 29 August 2023
RHEINGAU MUSIC FESTIVAL
Programme:
Richard Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from “Tristan und Isolde”
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Soloist: Johanna Wallroth
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
Programmes:
Rolf Gupta: Epilogue from Earth’s Song
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No 7
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 4
Soloist: Johanna Wallroth
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No 5
Soloist: Yuja Wang
LUCERNE FESTIVAL
Programmes:
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Richard Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Soloist: Johanna Wallroth
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: The Tempest: Symphonic Fantasia in F minor after William Shakespeare
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Alexander Scriabin: Le Poème de l’Extase
Soloist: Yuja Wang
