When Klaus Mäkelä made his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in September 2020, it was a real sensation. The orchestra was going through a difficult period, after the dismissal of ex-chief Daniele Gatti, but here it sparkled without equal – “Love at first hearing”, as orchestra musicians put it afterwards. Eighteen months later, Mäkelä was appointed, with effect from the 2027/2028 season, as the orchestra’s eighth chief conductor; until then he is ‘artistic partner’. Almost every concert with Mäkelä in the past three years has been something exceptional – or simply one of the best concerts of the year.
In other words: expectations were quite high when Mäkelä came to conduct a program with Debussy and Ravel this week, with the absolute star pianist of our time, Yuja Wang, as soloist. She last performed solo at the RCO in 2015 and her return was eagerly awaited. An evocative piece of human interest that suggests musical fireworks: the two are currently in a relationship.
And there were fireworks. Yuja Wang can do anything, but both of Ravel’s piano concertos are clearly close to her heart – her 2015 recording of it, with the Tonhalle Orchestra, is wonderful. The biggest difference with that recording was the freedom that both Wang and Mäkelä allowed themselves with the meter: their Ravel sometimes slowed his pace, looked around for a moment, then continued with his characteristic light step.
Also read the review of Mäkelä with his Orchester de Paris in Amsterdam in March 2023
Range of colours
These temporizations were even more pronounced in the Debussy classics with which Mäkelä accompanied the Ravel concerts. The Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune took place slowly and sultry, with an almost voluptuous molded form – very different from the light, sensual performance that Manoj Kamps recently led at the Rotterdam Philharmonic. From the other Debussy work, La merthey will perform a fragment when Mäkelä and his orchestra are guests in the TV program on Sunday, October 1 College Tour.
However beautiful, the Ravel concerts were truly sublime. Wang’s first cadenza in the Piano concerto for the left hand had everything: power, excellent articulation, a whole range of colors, a compelling story. Mäkelä also provided excitement in the orchestral interludes, with one orchestral soloist after another excelling. In the opening part of the Piano Concerto in G the harp intermezzo had a magical shroud, nicely sharply cut through by the fat tutti blues lick. The Adagio assai, which begins as a solo piano, was the highlight. Wang played softly even by Concertgebouw standards and filled the hall with a wonderful sound: delicate and velvety, yet clear and firm, free of sentiment. The use of the flute lifted everything for a moment.