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elmartillosinmetre · 2 years

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Mäkelä, el meteoro nórdico

[Klaus Mäkelä (Helsinki, 1996) / MARCO BORGGREVE]

El joven Klaus Mäkelä (Helsinki, 1996) se pone al frente de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Oslo para su debut discográfico en Decca con una poderosa integral sinfónica de Sibelius

Es el último producto de la gran escuela de directores finlandeses forjada en la Academia Sibelius de Helsinki, de donde salieron también Esa-Pekka Salonen, Okko Kamu, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Mikko Franck o Hannu Lintu. Tiene sólo 26 años y dos titularidades ya en su currículo: desde 2020 es Director Principal de la Filarmónica de Oslo y desde la temporada 2022-23 será por cinco años Director Titular de la Orquesta de París, conjunto con el que ya visitó el pasado Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada, donde fue atracción principalísima, pues también se puso al frente de la Orquesta Ciudad de Granada y de la Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Pero además, el joven músico es Director artístico del Festival de Música de Turku y Director invitado principal de la Orquesta Sinfónica de la Radio Sueca. Su nombre: Klaus Mäkelä.

Hijo de músicos, formado como violonchelista y orientado hacia la dirección de orquesta por Jorma Panula, maestro de la mayoría de los directores citados arriba, de Mäkelä empezó a hablarse en serio cuando en 2017, con apenas 21 años, la Orquesta de la Radio Sueca lo vinculó a su estructura artística y, sobre todo, desde su debut con la Filarmónica de Oslo en mayo de 2018 en un concierto vinculado al Día Nacional de Noruega para el que sólo tuvo un día de ensayos. Los profesores del conjunto quedaron tan impresionados que casi inmediatamente se decidió ofrecerle la titularidad a partir de 2020. Pese al riesgo, Mäkelä aceptó.

El centro de aquel concierto fue la 7ª sinfonía de Sibelius, y es con él, el más importante compositor jamás nacido en Finlandia, con quien Mäkelä arranca su carrera fonográfica. Con su primera temporada de titularidad en la capital noruega arrumbada por la pandemia, el joven maestro decidió trabajar intensamente el ciclo de Sibelius. Durante la primavera de 2021 no tocaron otra cosa que no fuera su música: “Tocamos, tocamos, tocamos y luego grabamos. La música de Sibelius, como la de cualquier otro compositor, es un lenguaje que tienes que aprender y las circunstancias en las que grabamos jugaron en realidad a nuestro favor”. Empezar su vinculación a la Filarmónica de Oslo con Sibelius tenía sentido por la gran tradición del conjunto en torno a la música del compositor, quien dirigió a la orquesta justo un siglo atrás, en marzo de 1921.

Fue Decca la compañía que decidió apostar no sólo por dar al joven prodigio finés la oportunidad de su primer registro, sino por relacionarlo con su marca al ofrecerle un contrato en exclusiva, algo que el sello sólo había hecho con anterioridad con otros dos directores, George Solti en 1948 y Riccardo Chailly en 1978.

Los registros se realizaron en los primeros meses de 2021 en condiciones poco favorables, pues los protocolos sanitarios obligaron a guardar entre los músicos distancias poco compatibles con el trabajo de una orquesta, y sin embargo, los resultados son fastuosos, y lo son por la soberbia transparencia orquestal lograda y por la plasticidad de la batuta, capaz de dar sentido a la colección completa como si realmente fuera una única obra, que se abre torrencial, romántica, luego fluctúa entre el lirismo y la hosquedad hierática para terminar desnuda y concentrada. Este Sibelius puede competir con el de los mejores, llámense Colin Davis (¡que grabó la integral tres veces!), Sir John Barbirolli, Leonard Bernstein, Paavo Berglund (también tres integrales en su haber), Simon Rattle, Osmo Vänskä o Paavo Järvi.

Para el joven director finlandés, la de su compatriota es una música cercana y natural, con la que ha crecido, pero a la vez está cargada de retos por su personalidad y la fuerte evolución estilística del compositor: “Todo lo que tiene que ver con Sibelius es original. Podía conseguir que toda una sinfonía sonase como un único gesto, un único aliento”, afirma.

Además de las siete sinfonías se ha grabado también el poema sinfónico Tapiola, de 1926, la última obra importante escrita por Sibelius, antes de un silencio de tres décadas, tiempo en el que coqueteó con la idea de una 8ª sinfonía, alguna de cuyas versiones al parecer llegó a enviar a un copista, pero que finalmente acabó destruida intencionadamente por el fuego a mediados de los años 40. Sin embargo, en 2011 se encontraron algunos esbozos de aquel trabajo, en concreto tres breves fragmentos, que Timo Virtanen editó para poder ser interpretados. John Storgårds los había grabado ya con la Orquesta de la BBC de Mánchester. Aquí Mäkelä los ofrece para mostrar la modernidad de un artista maravilloso que en su tiempo tuvo que aguantar desprecios e insultos (“el peor compositor del mundo”) de supuestos vanguardistas hoy perfectamente olvidados. Así que mejor callar sus nombres.

EL ÁLBUM EN SPOTIFY

Siete sinfonías en las que no cabe el mundo

A finales de octubre de 1907 Mahler viajó a Helsinki para dirigir una serie de conciertos sinfónicos. Allí se encontró con Sibelius, quien en conversación personal le mostró su admiración por la construcción de sus sinfonías, en concreto por “la severidad de la forma y la profunda lógica que creaba una conexión interna entre todos los motivos”. Para sorpresa del finlandés, el compositor austriaco le negó esa lectura de su música: “¡No! La sinfonía debe ser como el mundo. Debe abarcarlo todo”. Por más que el propio Sibelius sintiera el género como una especie de revelación íntima (“Una sinfonía no es simplemente una composición en el sentido normal de la palabra. Es más una confesión de fe en diferentes momentos de tu vida”) su obra se aleja del concepto mahleriano y sus sinfonías son ejemplos definitorios de la música absoluta, construidas en función única de la perfecta cohesión de sus parámetros musicales, que además fueron haciéndose cada vez más orgánicos. Las dos primeras sinfonías (1899, 1902) hablan aún el lenguaje del Romanticismo, con rastros de las tradiciones rusa y centroeuropea. La 3ª (1907) vira hacia la claridad y la concisión clásicas. La 4ª (1911) resulta de una ascética modernidad en la que se coquetea con la atonalidad y la politonalidad. La 5ª (1919) puede engañar, pues en sus fuegos de artificio, que parecen vuelta al Romanticismo, se ocultan no pocas sombras. Las texturas de Sibelius han empezado a transformarse. Su culmen son las dos últimas sinfonías: la 6ª (1923) conecta con la tercera y recurre a la modalidad; la 7ª (1924) es un prodigio de condensación y desnudez.

[Diario de Sevilla. 11-04-2022]

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verdiprati · 5 years

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Upcoming Performances by Dame Sarah Connolly

[NOTE: this post is now out of date. Check the schedule tag on my blog for the most recent version of this list.]

After the jump: an unofficial schedule of Dame Sarah Connolly’s future performances. Those of you in Britain may catch a performance in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leeds, Gloucester, Exeter, Chipping Campden, or Helmsley (York). Those on the Continent may see her in Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Vienna, Köln, Rotterdam, Katowice, Bergen, Aix-en-Provence, or Zeist. Don’t live near one of these places? Take in a concert from afar: I am adding online broadcast and livestream details as they become available.

The season of season announcements has been in full swing for several weeks now and I have been able to add a bunch of new performances to this list since the previous edition. The announcements aren’t over yet, though, so bookmark this list (or find it under the schedule tag on my blog) and check back for new developments as we get into April and May.

This is not an authoritative list. These are the upcoming performances by Dame Sarah Connolly that I have been able to learn about from Dame Sarah’s new website, Dame Sarah’s agent's website (Askonas Holt), Operabase, Bachtrack, Dame Sarah's Twitter, and generally ferreting around the web.

I sometimes list concerts that are not yet officially confirmed; you should of course check official sources before making plans and be aware that cast changes and cancellations can happen at any time.

I have added links to venue, ticketing, and broadcast information where available. Tips on new information are always welcome! Please contact me via email (verdiprati [at] selveamene [dot] com), Tumblr messaging, or ask box (plain prose only in the ask box; anything with links or an email address will get eaten by Tumblr filters) with corrections or additions.

Recital with Robin Tritschler, Anna Huntley, and Malcolm Martineau at the Wigmore Hall, London, April 24, 2019. The program features Robert Schumann’s Myrthen song cycle in the first half and a mix of the composer’s other songs in the second. The Wigmore website, where Anna Huntley’s name was just recently added, notes that Huntley "will be joining as an additional mezzo-soprano” while the “programme remain[s] the same,” suggesting that Dame Sarah’s expected participation in the recital has been reduced for some reason.

Recital with Joseph Middleton at the Festival Katowice Kultura Natura, May 14, 2019. Works by Schumann, Debussy, Zemlinsky, Wolf, and Roussel.

Berlioz, Les nuits d’été at the Chipping Campden Music Festival, May 21, 2019. In a program with orchestral works by Fauré and Mendelssohn. Thomas Hull conducts the Academy Orchestra.

Recital at the Internationaal LiedFestival Zeist (Netherlands), May 25, 2019. With Sholto Kynoch. Songs by Brahms, Wolf, Debussy and Zemlinsky. The LiedFestival Zeist announced on May 23 that due to illness, Dame Sarah would be replaced by Paula Murrihy.

Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius with the Hallé and three choruses at Victoria Hall, Leeds, June 1, 2019. Barry Banks and David Soar are the other vocal soloists; Simon Wright conducts.

Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde with the Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester at the Grieghallen Bergen, June 5, 2019. With Toby Spence singing the tenor part and Edward Gardner conducting. As of this writing, the orchestra’s website still lists Ekaterina Gubanova as the mezzo soloist for this concert, but the engagement appears in Dame Sarah’s diary on her own website as well as on her agent’s website.

[New! Special event] “An Evening with Dame Sarah Connolly,” fundraiser event for the Opera Awards, London, June 10, 2019. The Opera Awards website is light on details for this event but I expect it will consist of a purely spoken interview, with no live musical performance. Tickets are £195 and include dinner.

[New! Special event] ENO Gala, London, June 12, 2019. The English National Opera promises a “special guest performance” by Dame Sarah during the dinner service at this fundraiser; repertoire is not specified. Pure speculation on my part, but I imagine she will sing two or three songs or arias. Baritone James Cleverton is also scheduled to perform earlier in the evening. Tickets for the gala are £399.

Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (extracts) and Janáček, Glagolitic Mass at the Maison de la Radio, Paris, June 20, 2019. With the Orchestre National de France and the Choeur de Radio France, conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The other vocal soloists for the Glagolitic Mass are Simona Šaturová, Mati Turi, and Christof Fischesser Mischa Schelomianski.

[Broadcast] This concert will be broadcast live on France Musique.

[New! Special event] A public "conversation” at the Oxford Festival of the Arts, Magdalen College School, Oxford, July 3, 2019. Dame Sarah is scheduled to appear “in conversation with Oxford Festival of the Arts Director, Dr Michelle Castelletti” at an untitled event. The description says that “The evening will be illustrated by excerpts from some of her most glorious performances”; I believe this refers to the showing of videos, not any kind of live musical performance.

Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde at the Festival d’Aix, Aix-en-Provence, July 13, 2019. With the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Ingo Metzmacher; Andreas Schager sings the tenor part.

Michael Betteridge, Across the Sky (community opera) at the Cheltenham Music Festival, July 14, 2019. The performance is only an hour long and the nature of Dame Sarah’s participation is not totally clear to me from the festival’s website; she is not specifically named as a vocal soloist. Anyone drawn to this event by the fact that Dame Sarah’s name is attached to it should also take note that she is performing in the south of France the night before and factor in some risk of travel delay.

[New!] Recital at the Ryedale Festival, Duncombe Park, Helmsley, York, July 18, 2019. With Christopher Glynn, the Festival’s artistic director. On May 7, the Festival announced on Twitter that Dame Sarah would be singing this recital in place of Ian Bostridge, who is withdrawing from concerts (elsewhere as well) during his recovery from heart valve surgery. (Get well, Ian!) My thanks to an alert reader for sharing the Festival’s tweet with me!

Recital with Malcolm Martineau at Wigmore Hall, London, July 23, 2019. Part of Dame Sarah’s yearlong residency at the Wigmore. Repertoire to include works by Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Frank Bridge, and Benjamin Britten.

Bob Chilcott, A Christmas Oratorio (premiere) at the Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester, August 1, 2019. With Nick Pritchard, Neal Davies, and of course the Three Cathedral Choirs; conducted by Adrian Partington. Note that this is an afternoon concert, not the main evening concert for August 1. (Multi-mezzo fans may want to stick around to hear Anna Stéphany Kathryn Rudge do Les nuites d’été in the evening.) Tickets go on sale to the general public on April 24.

[Broadcast, details TBA] According to the Three Choirs website, “This concert will be recorded for future broadcast.”

Berlioz, Les nuits d’été with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA at the Konzerthaus, Berlin, August 6, 2019. Part of a concert conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. Tickets are available via the link above or on the Konzerthaus website.

[Livestream] The Konzerthaus website mentions “Dieses Konzert wird live auf arte concert gestreamt”—this concert will be livestreamed on Arte Concert. Arte livestreams are sometimes available worldwide, sometimes geoblocked, but given that this is the National Youth Orchestra of the USA performing in Europe, I have hope that it will be available worldwide.

[New!] Berlioz, L’enfance du Christ with the Hallé, London, August 14, 2014. Co-starring Allan Clayton, Roderick Williams, and Neal Davies; conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. The work is being billed with an English title (The Childhood of Christ) but I see no indication that it is to be sung in translation. Part of the BBC Proms.

[Broadcast] The BBC Proms are generally broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

[New!] Elgar, The Music Makers with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, London, August 29, 2019. In a concert conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Part of the BBC Proms.

[Broadcast] The BBC Proms are generally broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

[New!] Gluck, Orpheus and Eurydice (Orpheus) at the English National Opera, London, October 1, 10, 12, 17, 24, 31, and November 14 and 19, 2019. With Sarah Tynan as Eurydice and Soraya Mafi as Love. Wayne McGregor is the director and choreographer, with dancers from his company participating in the production; Harry Bicket conducts. Public booking opens on April 24.

[Details TBA] Performance with The English Concert at Exeter Cathedral, October 15, 2019. The Two Moors Festival has tweeted news of the gig but has not yet formally announced its 2019 lineup nor made tickets available for purchase. Keep an eye on the websites for the Two Moors Festival and The English Concert for their full season announcements.

Mahler, Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, London, October 19, 2019. With Sofia Fomina, the London Philharmonic Choir, and the Philharmonia Chorus. Vladimir Jurowski conducts a concert also comprising Colin Matthews’ Metamorphosis.

[New!] Max Reger, “An die Hoffnung” with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, November 1, and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, November 2, 2019. Part of a concert also featuring Reger’s “Serenade” and Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, conducted by Neeme Järvi. For details, see the PDF season brochures for Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively.

[New details!] Recital with Julius Drake at Temple Church, London, November 25, 2019. Although I still don’t see this concert listed on the Temple Music website, I have found a brochure online that gives details of Dame Sarah’s recital along with other performances scheduled for October through December, 2019. The repertoire includes Robert Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben, Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Judith Bingham’s Adieu Solace, and “songs by Alma and Gustav Mahler.” The Judith Bingham piece is apparently based on the life of Mary Queen of Scots, as are Schumann’s Gedichte.

Elgar, Sea Pictures with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London, December 12, 2019. In a concert conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano that also includes instrumental works by Tippett and Vaughn Williams.

[New!] Wagner, Die Walküre (Fricka) at the Teatro Real, Madrid, February 12, 16, 21, 25, and 28, 2020. Co-stars include Tomasz Konieczny (Wotan), Ricarda Merbeth (Brünnhilde), and Stuart Skelton (Siegmund). Pablo Heras-Casado conducts; the production by Robert Carsen is a revival from Oper Köln. If booking tickets, be sure to note the dates when Dame Sarah is performing; Daniela Sindram takes the role of Fricka on other nights. Single tickets go on sale November 4, 2019 if I read the Teatro Real website correctly.

Oskar Fried, Verklärte Nacht with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London, March 13, 2020. With Stuart Skelton; Edward Gardner conducts.

[Details TBA] Recital at Wigmore Hall, London, March 19, 2020. Repertoire and accompaniment remain TBA. Listed in the Wigmore Hall preview brochure for the ’19-’20 season.

Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, London, April 30, 2020. The piece is being billed as The Song of the Earth but there is no indication that it will be sung in translation as well. Andreas Schager sings the tenor parts; Xian Zhang conducts the concert, which includes a Mozart symphony in the first half.

Mahler, Symphony No. 2, Resurrection with the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, De Doelen, Rotterdam, May 14, 15, and 17, 2020. Chen Reiss sings the soprano part; Lahav Shani conducts.

[New!] Mahler, Symphony No. 2, Resurrection with the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Köln Philharmonie, May 27, 2020. Chen Reiss sings the soprano part; Lahav Shani conducts. (A repeat of the program from Rotterdam, above.)

[New!] Recital at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, June 6, 2020. With Malcolm Martineau. The program includes Ravel’s Shéhérazade, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis, and various works by Hugo Wolff, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Charles Villiers Stanford, and Cecile Chaminade.

[New!] Mahler, Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Musikverein, Vienna, June 12 and 13, 2020. Three Vienna choirs add their forces; Philippe Jordan conducts. The other scheduled vocal soloists are Camilla Nylund, Irène Theorin, Martina Janková, Michaela Schuster, Burkhard Fritz, Iain Paterson, and John Relyea. Casting the monumental Mahler 8 with a complete team of singers who will make it through rehearsals to the final performance is said to be uniquely challenging, so if you’re wedded to hearing this particular cast, keep a close eye on it. (The last time I was keeping an eye on a particular Mahler 8, five of the originally cast eight soloists had changed by the time of the actual performance.)

Wagner, Götterdämmerung (Waltraute, Zweite Norn) at the Opéra national de Paris, November 13, 17, 21, and 28, and December 6, 2020. Part of a new complete Ring Cycle production directed by Calixto Bieito. The 2019-2020 season will include the first two Ring Cycle operas, with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung to follow in October and November 2020; the complete cycle will then be performed sequentially twice in “festival” format during November and December 2020. (The festival performances are being ticketed as a four-opera package; curiously, at the upper end of the price scale, a festival ticket gives you a small discount as compared with buying the four operas separately, but at the lower end of the scale, you pay a premium for the festival. Concise ticket price information can be found on page 168 of the season brochure PDF.) Dame Sarah’s co-stars in Götterdämmerung include Andreas Schager (Siegfried), Ricarda Merbeth (Brünnhilde), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Gunther), and Jochen Schmeckenbecher (Alberich).

[Unconfirmed / details TBA] Handel, Agrippina at the Dutch National Opera. In June 2018, opera critic Hugh Canning tweeted the news that the Royal Opera is planning to offer Barrie Kosky’s new production of Agrippina with Joyce DiDonato in the title role during the ’19/’20 season; in a reply that has now been deleted, Dame Sarah mentioned that she and Alice Coote would do the same production in Amsterdam and Munich. (If you are a member of the Sarah Connolly fan group on Facebook, you can scroll back in time to June and see a screenshot there.) Subsequent discussion revealed that Coote would get the Munich gig (in July 2019), so Connolly must be the Amsterdam Agrippina. Agrippina appears in neither the ’18-’19 season nor ’19-’20 at the DNO, so presumably we must look farther ahead.

[Unconfirmed / details TBA] Brett Dean, Hamlet (Gertrude) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, sometime in 2021-22. Allan Clayton, who starred in the title role of Brett Dean’s Hamlet at Glyndebourne in 2017, mentioned in an interview with the Telegraph that he would be reprising the role at an unspecified date and venue in the US. When prompted on Twitter, Dame Sarah indicated that she would be participating in the revival, too (“I shall be misunderstanding my confused boy again”). In a later interview with Opera News, Clayton reportedly specified that he would reprise Hamlet at the Met. The Future Met Wiki places the production at the Met in the 2021-2022 season (as does this New York Times article). Hat tip to Christopher Lowrey, who sang Guildenstern in the original production at Glyndebourne, whose tweet praising Allan Clayton brought the Telegraph interview to my attention. (No indication whether Lowrey will also be cast in the American revival.) Additional hat tip to the Tumblrer who submitted information on this topic via the ask box.

Previous versions of this list can be found under the schedule tag on this blog. This list published March 29, 2019. Edited April 3 to add Orpheus and Eurydice. Edited April 4 to add the Mahler 8 in Vienna (thanks to a tip from a friend!). Edited April 12 to reflect the change of bass for the Glagolitic Mass. Edited April 17 to add the two BBC Proms and the Teatro Real Walküre. Edited April 29 to link to the Two Moors Festival’s tweet. Edited May 9 to add the Ryedale Festival recital and the three special events (Opera Awards fundraiser, ENO Gala, and Oxford Festival of the Arts appearance). Edited May 10 to add new details to the Temple Music recital. Edited May 18 to update the link for the Ryedale Festival. Edited May 19 to add the recital at the Musée d’Orsay. Edited May 23 to reflect Dame Sarah’s withdrawal from the recital in Zeist. I may continue to edit this list as I receive new information.

#sarah connolly #performances #schedule

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