Klaus Mäkelä & Frank Peter Zimmermann

Klaus Mäkelä & Frank Peter Zimmermann

A programme with three works requiring solo singers is certainly something special – so that Frank Peter Zimmermann has brought along two pieces never heard before in the concerts of the BRSO: Bartók’s roughly ten-minute Rhapsody No. 2 for violin and orchestra (1928) and Martinů’s Suite concertante (1944), a four-movement violin concerto in everything but name. Both works thrive on the tension between original eastern European folk melodies, modern sonic garb and the unique individual styles of their respective creators. A folk inflection of a quite different kind depicts the “heavenly joys” that soprano Anna Lucia Richter invokes in the final movement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. But the childlike naivety of this idyll openly displays its fractures, and perhaps no Mahler symphony is as enigmatic as his purportedly “simple” Fourth. Standing at the rostrum is the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, now in his second appearance with the BRSO following his début of February 2020.

Frank Peter Zimmermann plays Respighi

»Music is love‘s soul, for it is the touching of the divine with the human.« These were the thoughts of Bettina von Arnim – and in our concert conducted by Andrew Manze we indulge in such deep soundscapes as Respighi‘s »Concerto Gregoriano« from 1921: it conjures up a religiously solemn world of the middle ages – inspired by his preoccupation with the honorable church modes and meditative melodies of Gregorian chant, which had seized him »like an addiction« at the time. The violin concerto is therefore largely a lyrical-contemplative composition and quotes the Easter sequence »victimae paschali laudes« in the middle movement – but in the end it soars hymn-like with echoes of the famous »Salve Regina« chant like a fervent profession of faith. One critic characterised the violin part as that of »a cantor in an ancient religious ceremony, with the orchestra personifying the choir of the believers«. With us, Frank Peter Zimmermann will assume the role of solo choir leader with his Stradivarius. What follows is a journey into the Bruckner cosmos: his creative work was inseparably intertwined with religious sentiments, which earned him the nickname »Musician of God«. Before he had dared to approach symphonies, he had already made a name for himself as an eminent organist and church composer. After several dissatisfactory attempts, he composed his first definitive symphony in Linz in 1865/66 – which, however, he reworked in Vienna in 1891 on the basis of the experience he had gathered thereafter: it captivates the listener with its natural originality, grandiose themes and climax after climax – and in addition offers deep insights into Bruckner‘s state of mind in the heartfelt Adagio.

Klaus Mäkelä

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Frank Peter Zimmermann / Andris Poga

»If you want to know who I consider to be the most important living composer, I say without hesitation: Elgar... I put him on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms.« This is how the violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler enthused about Edward Elgar in 1905 – and added a personal request: »I wish Elgar would compose something for the violin.« The flattered man was happy to fulfil this wish. Albeit with a few years’ delay. Edward Elgar completed his violin concerto in 1910. The piece was tailor-made for Fritz Kreisler: Elgar placed an extremely demanding solo part in his hands. The sheer abundance of virtuosic cascades and furiously fast arpeggios are such a great challenge that many soloists avoid them. Frank Peter Zimmermann, on the other hand, has taken it on several times and performed the fifty-minute mammoth work with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, for example. In February 2025, he will join the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to savour the rapturous glow and late Romantic colours of the concerto under the direction of Andris Poga.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Frank Peter Zimmermann / Andris Poga

»If you want to know who I consider to be the most important living composer, I say without hesitation: Elgar... I put him on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms.« This is how the violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler enthused about Edward Elgar in 1905 – and added a personal request: »I wish Elgar would compose something for the violin.« The flattered man was happy to fulfil this wish. Albeit with a few years’ delay. Edward Elgar completed his violin concerto in 1910. The piece was tailor-made for Fritz Kreisler: Elgar placed an extremely demanding solo part in his hands. The sheer abundance of virtuosic cascades and furiously fast arpeggios are such a great challenge that many soloists avoid them. Frank Peter Zimmermann, on the other hand, has taken it on several times and performed the fifty-minute mammoth work with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, for example. In February 2025, he will join the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to savour the rapturous glow and late Romantic colours of the concerto under the direction of Andris Poga.

Orchestre de Paris / Klaus Mäkelä

Vocal and orchestral colours are the order of the day in this contrasting program where the shine of the brass contrasts with the impressionist moire, with the added bonus of Poulenc's smiling spirituality and Mussorgsky’s irresistible pictures!

Orchestre de Paris / Klaus Mäkelä

Klaus Mäkelä lets loose on a program of changing colours, from modernism to impressionism. As a bonus, Gustavo Dudamel takes the podium to conduct one of Beethoven's most brilliant pieces!

Mahler Festival: Concertgebouworkest and Klaus Mäkelä - Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Klaus Mäkelä has been artistic partner of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2022 and will become chief conductor in 2027. Earlier in this festival, he already conducted the First Symphony, today the Eighth. The Concertgebouw Orchestra shares the stage with no fewer than four vocal ensembles: the National Radio Choir, Laurens Symphonic, the Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris and the National Children's Choir.Mahler wrote to his friend Willem Mengelberg that his Eighth Symphony was his greatest work ever. 'All the other symphonies were anticipating this.' Moreover, he experienced it as if the piece of music was dictated to him in a vision. In two monumental movements, Mahler says he sings of the entire universe. 'There are no longer human voices sounding. They are planets and suns, revolving in their orbits.' Practically speaking, it is also a rather voluminous work. Mahler did often need very many performers, and in this Mahler's 'symphony of a thousand', there are close to four hundred. Or more: in 1912, Mengelberg conducted a version with two thousand musicians and singers.

Mahler Festival: Concertgebouworkest and Klaus Mäkelä - Mahler's Symphony No. 8

Klaus Mäkelä has been artistic partner of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2022 and will become chief conductor in 2027. Earlier in this festival, he already conducted the First Symphony, today the Eighth. The Concertgebouw Orchestra shares the stage with no fewer than four vocal ensembles: the National Radio Choir, Laurens Symphonic, the Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris and the National Children's Choir.Mahler wrote to his friend Willem Mengelberg that his Eighth Symphony was his greatest work ever. 'All the other symphonies were anticipating this.' Moreover, he experienced it as if the piece of music was dictated to him in a vision. In two monumental movements, Mahler says he sings of the entire universe. 'There are no longer human voices sounding. They are planets and suns, revolving in their orbits.' Practically speaking, it is also a rather voluminous work. Mahler did often need very many performers, and in this Mahler's 'symphony of a thousand', there are close to four hundred. Or more: in 1912, Mengelberg conducted a version with two thousand musicians and singers.