Klaus Mäkelä conducts Berlioz and Schumann

With Klaus Mäkelä, we play two masterpieces from the symphonic repertoire. Schumann’s beloved Rhineland inspired him to compose a symphony full of noble sounds and effervescent melodies. Impressions of a romantic journey with his wife Clara thread themselves together into a five-movement musical adventure that never fails to impress. Schumann at his best!

Then we turn to sunny Italy. Berlioz describes his symphony Harold en Italie as ‘a sequence of scenes for orchestra in which the viola solos have a place throughout the piece as a reminder of my wanderings through Italy’. Viola player Antoine Tamestit is your guide, he knows the route like the back of his hand. Gradually, he has come to see the work more and more as a kind of opera, ‘in which I need to learn to breathe life into (...) the role of an inspired, sensitive and profound traveller – Berlioz himself, perhaps.’