Klaus Mäkelä conducts Mahler
Saariaho’s Orion and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony
Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Mahler’s ‘Tragic’ Sixth Symphony and Kaija Saariaho’s colourful Orion.
The music gradually unlocks its secrets and rewards the listener with an unforgettable emotional experience
Concert programme
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Kaija Saariaho
Orion
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Gustav Mahler
Symfonie no. 6
Performers
About this concert
Klaus Mäkelä’s outstanding debut in September 2020 prompted the Concertgebouw Orchestra to invite him back four times already. Now he returns for Gustav Mahler’s intensely personal Sixth Symphony, nicknamed ‘Tragic’. According to Mahler, his symphony presented ‘riddles’ which could only be solved by a generation ‘which has previously absorbed and digested my first five symphonies’. Although it did take a long time for press and audience alike to come to terms with the Sixth, you do not need to be an expert to enjoy it. The music gradually unlocks its secrets and rewards the listener with an unforgettable emotional experience.
The Finnish conductor pairs Mahler’s Sixth to Orion by his compatriot, Kaija Saariaho. After his death, the mythical hunter Orion was placed by Zeus in the sky as a constellation. He is thus at one an active human being and an immobile heavenly object, and Saariaho has fully exploited that contrast in a compelling three-movement musical journey. The sparkling, iridescent colours of her music have for years ensured a permanent place for it in the orchestral repertoire.
Dates and tickets
About this concert
Klaus Mäkelä’s outstanding debut in September 2020 prompted the Concertgebouw Orchestra to invite him back four times already. Now he returns for Gustav Mahler’s intensely personal Sixth Symphony, nicknamed ‘Tragic’. According to Mahler, his symphony presented ‘riddles’ which could only be solved by a generation ‘which has previously absorbed and digested my first five symphonies’. Although it did take a long time for press and audience alike to come to terms with the Sixth, you do not need to be an expert to enjoy it. The music gradually unlocks its secrets and rewards the listener with an unforgettable emotional experience.
The Finnish conductor pairs Mahler’s Sixth to Orion by his compatriot, Kaija Saariaho. After his death, the mythical hunter Orion was placed by Zeus in the sky as a constellation. He is thus at one an active human being and an immobile heavenly object, and Saariaho has fully exploited that contrast in a compelling three-movement musical journey. The sparkling, iridescent colours of her music have for years ensured a permanent place for it in the orchestral repertoire.