Klaus Mäkelä Conducts Jean Sibelius
This spotlight brings together some of the great artists of Scandinavian music: Klaus Mäkelä, the young star conductor, and the world-famous Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra perform Jean Sibelius’s symphonies
Jean Sibelius once described his symphonies as »professions of faith«. In them, the Finnish national composer achieved his own, highly individual orchestral style. While modern music was coming to the fore all around him, Sibelius stuck to the stylistic components of 19th century music, but adapted them to create something new. The outcome were seven very individual Late Romantic scores – often pathos-laden, sometimes raw and bleak like the Finnish landscape, but always brimming with melodies.
Sibelius lovers now have the chance to lose themselves in the composer’s magical sound: the Oslo Philharmonic performs the entire cycle of symphonies in three consecutive concerts at the Elbphilharmonie. On the rostrum is the orchestra’s remarkably young new principal conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who as a native of Helsinki enthusiastically flies the flag for Sibelius’s music, and is currently one of the leading high-flyers of the conducting world.