Oslo Philharmonic – Sibelius cycle at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

“Klaus Mäkelä and his top orchestra from Oslo make the encounter with the symphonies of Jean Sibelius – still criminally neglected in Germany – an event. A sensational guest performance.”

NDR Kultur, Marcus Stäbler, 2 June 2022

“Mäkelä’s Sibelius is not a dusty old master from the early 20th century that has to be laboriously decluttered in order to be saved. He is vital and rewardingly idiosyncratic.”

Hamburger Abendblatt, Joachim Mischke, 31 May 2022

“That Sibelius was a great admirer of the large-scale architecture of Bruckner’s symphonies was modelled by Mäkelä with impressive overview (in Symphony No 4). He was not afraid of the pathos, the tragedy and the sharpness of the breaking edges that always arise in Sibelius when he loses himself from one moment to the next in another round of brooding, searching for the exit.”

Hamburger Abendblatt, Joachim Mischke, 1 June 2022

“Under Mäkelä, the scurrying string ostinati (in Symphony No. 3) , which only occasionally roofed over drawn-out woodwind melodies, as it were, proliferated in all directions with so much dynamic sensitivity that it was difficult to keep one’s legs still.”

Klassisk.com, Dr Aron Sayed, 31 May 2022