Articles in Top Story
Amid familiar brilliance of Muti CSO concerts, Brahms (on bizarre night) got lost in shadows
Commentary: A singular linearity has defined Riccardo Muti’s many seasons and concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: What you expect – the conductor’s distinctive sensibility coupled with a supreme level of musical performance answered by ripping ovations – is what you get. But Muti’s recent two-week stint with the CSO shattered the rule. By turns brilliant and humdrum and just bizarre, these concerts swung from exhilarating highs to curious lows, all of it mirrored in audience responses of familiar acclaim and mere politesse.
Mäkelä, CSO’s maestro-elect, shows his chops with baton and bow in Oslo orchestra concerts
Report: It was June 6 and I had come to the Konzerthaus in Vienna to hear Klaus Mäkelä both play the cello part and conduct Brahms’ Double Concerto on the Oslo Philharmonic tour fresh from appearances in Amsterdam and Paris. Mäkelä had recently been named music director-designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra effective in September 2027 – at the same time he becomes principal conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. What I heard showed that as much as he is a natural in modern music, Mäkelä also has the DNA of Brahms in his blood, perhaps through being a cellist.
