Articles in Top Story
Encore! Encore! Maybe just one. Kissin’s fans were dazzled; he was dazed by da bum’s rush
Commentary: Pianist Yevgeny Kissin offered two encores after his typically astonishing recital program May 17 at Orchestra Hall. We’ll get to the first one in due course. The second, which can still be heard and seen, was unprecedented for this beloved pianist and very possibly unexampled anywhere ever: a video apology that Kissin posted to explain to his “dear listeners, dear friends” why he had played just one encore when he’s famous for lavishing them by the double handful.
Mäkelä brings energy, urgency to Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Orchestre de Paris concert
Review: In just under 80 exhilarating minutes, Klaus Mäkelä, music director-designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Paris Philharmonie with the Orchestre de Paris and Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris, revealing once again why the uncompromising work remains the most formidable of choral–orchestral undertakings.
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.
