Mäkelä conducts The Firebird

Stravinsky’s colourful ballet music and recent works by Alexander Raskatov and Sauli Zinovjev

image: Eduardus Lee

Conductor Klaus Mäkelä returns to the Concertgebouw Orchestra with Igor Stravinsky’s intensely colourful music for the ballet The Firebird. This eventful programme also contains an exciting work by Sauli Zinovjev and the world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s Oboe Concerto for the Concertgebouw Orchestra and principal oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk.

After the premiere of Stravinsky’s Firebird, Serge Rachmaninoff allegedly exclaimed, ‘Great God! What a work of genius this is! This is true Russia!’

Concert programme

  • Sauli Zinovjev

    Batteria

  • Alexander Raskatov

    Time's River (oboe concerto, commission, world premiere))

  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Firebird (version 1910)

Performers

About this concert

Klaus Mäkelä is without a doubt one of the most talented and visionary conductors of our time. His brilliant debut in 2020 prompted the Concertgebouw Orchestra to invite him back several times. Now he leads the orchestra in The Firebird, the colourful ballet music which marked Igor Stravinsky’s international breakthrough. After the premiere, Serge Rachmaninoff allegedly exclaimed, ‘Great God! What a work of genius this is! This is true Russia!’ Instead of the shorter suite which is usually performed in concert, the Concertgebouw Orchestra will perform the complete ballet score.

Before the interval, we will have the opportunity to witness the world première of Alexander Raskatov’s Oboe Concerto, composed for the Concertgebouw Orchestra and its principal oboist, Alexei Ogrintchouk. Klaus Mäkelä opens the concert with an exciting work by his young compatriot, Sauli Zinovjev. Although inspired by recent dramatic historic events, Batteria is not a political statement, but, according to the composer, ‘purely and simply humane art from one individual to another, privately and personally’.

Dates and tickets

About this concert

Klaus Mäkelä is without a doubt one of the most talented and visionary conductors of our time. His brilliant debut in 2020 prompted the Concertgebouw Orchestra to invite him back several times. Now he leads the orchestra in The Firebird, the colourful ballet music which marked Igor Stravinsky’s international breakthrough. After the premiere, Serge Rachmaninoff allegedly exclaimed, ‘Great God! What a work of genius this is! This is true Russia!’ Instead of the shorter suite which is usually performed in concert, the Concertgebouw Orchestra will perform the complete ballet score.

Before the interval, we will have the opportunity to witness the world première of Alexander Raskatov’s Oboe Concerto, composed for the Concertgebouw Orchestra and its principal oboist, Alexei Ogrintchouk. Klaus Mäkelä opens the concert with an exciting work by his young compatriot, Sauli Zinovjev. Although inspired by recent dramatic historic events, Batteria is not a political statement, but, according to the composer, ‘purely and simply humane art from one individual to another, privately and personally’.

A preview