Klaus Mäkelä leads Richard Strauss’s colourful mountain trek and a new work by Jimmy López, Sol Gabetta performs Blochs Schelomo .
About this concert
‘Only now have I truly learned how to orchestrate,’ Richard Strauss said upon completing Eine Alpensinfonie . The composer had, of course, long been known for his fabulous instrumentations. But even by his own standards, Strauss does pack a punch here – his depiction of an adventurous Alpine trek calls for some 125 instruments. The recording Concertgebouw Orchestra once made with Bernard Haitink is still considered authoritative. But nothing beats a live performance: now it’s Klaus Mäkelä’s turn to conduct Strauss’s grand and dizzying musical journey.
The Finnish maestro, who also happens to be a cellist, shares the stage with the orchestra and the versatile cellist Sol Gabetta in Ernest Bloch’s Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra, Schelomo . In this richly varied meditation on Solomon’s life and philosophy, Bloch makes sophisticated use of Eastern inflections. The invariably colourful Peruvian orchestrator Jimmy López rounds out the concert with a brand-new work commissioned by the orchestra.
Strauss does pack a punch here – his depiction of an adventurous Alpine trek calls for some 125 instruments.
