Klaus Mäkelä with Schumann in Vienna and Hamburg
Violinist Julian Rachlin performs Goebaidoelina’s Offertorium
Under the baton of its future chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä, the Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Schumann’s Fourth Symphony, a new work by Oh, and Gubaidulina’s Offertorium featuring violinist Julian Rachlin.
Concert programme
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Seung-Won Oh
Spiri III: Sacred Ritual (commission, world premiere)
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Sofia Goebaidoelina
Offertorium (vioolconcert nr. 1)
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-- interval --
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Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 4
Performers
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Klaus Mäkelä
conductor, artistic partner
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Julian Rachlin
violin
About this concert
From the first notes, the Fourth Symphony carries us away into Schumann’s utterly original world of dark romanticism. ‘Robert Schumann is the romantic composer’, says conductor Klaus Mäkelä. ‘His symphonies contain such wonderful moments. It always makes me feel good to play them. His music fills your heart with joy and sadness – the emotions are very pure and honest. Schumann makes me happy; he makes me a better person.’
His romantic musical language notwithstanding, Schumann was a great admirer of the early music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The famous Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina also shows her indebtedness to the Baroque master, as in her much-praised Offertorium. The concert opens with a newly commissioned work by the successful Korean Seung-Won Oh. The final piece of her Spiri trilogy, Spiri III ‘seeks to transform the transient nature of human affection, and expand and enhance it to the next level’, the composer says. ‘Rather than limiting the view of the flower blooming and withering to a local event, we can contextualize this minute event as the beginning of a perpetual cycle that can't be measured or truly experienced by humans.’
Spiri III by Seung-won Oh was written with financial support from the Fonds Podiumkunsten.
Dates and tickets
About this concert
From the first notes, the Fourth Symphony carries us away into Schumann’s utterly original world of dark romanticism. ‘Robert Schumann is the romantic composer’, says conductor Klaus Mäkelä. ‘His symphonies contain such wonderful moments. It always makes me feel good to play them. His music fills your heart with joy and sadness – the emotions are very pure and honest. Schumann makes me happy; he makes me a better person.’
His romantic musical language notwithstanding, Schumann was a great admirer of the early music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The famous Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina also shows her indebtedness to the Baroque master, as in her much-praised Offertorium. The concert opens with a newly commissioned work by the successful Korean Seung-Won Oh. The final piece of her Spiri trilogy, Spiri III ‘seeks to transform the transient nature of human affection, and expand and enhance it to the next level’, the composer says. ‘Rather than limiting the view of the flower blooming and withering to a local event, we can contextualize this minute event as the beginning of a perpetual cycle that can't be measured or truly experienced by humans.’
Spiri III by Seung-won Oh was written with financial support from the Fonds Podiumkunsten.