Some concerts are planned as tributes, others acquire that status by sheer circumstance. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s performance at the Elbphilharmonie became one such occasion, coinciding with the death in mid-March of Sofia Gubaidulina in her home near Hamburg.
The concert opened with the German premiere of Spiri III: Sacred Ritual by South Korean composer Seung-Won Oh. Contrary to what the title might suggest, this is not a meditative piece but rather a restless orchestral force, maintaining full sound and high intensity throughout. The work demands the entire orchestral power, feeling almost like a high-end audio system’s test disc – designed to push every register, texture and dynamic range to its limits. Mäkelä ensured that this sonic powerhouse never descended into chaos, maintaining extraordinary clarity even in the thickest orchestral textures. The RCO responded with astonishing precision and power, earning warm applause for the composer who was greeted on the stage later.
Then came Gubaidulina’s Offertorium, a work diametrically opposed in its aesthetic. Here, the orchestral writing was sparse, with full tutti passages rare; most of the time, the RCO’s string section leaders provided a delicate, spectral backdrop to the solo violin’s extended soliloquy. Julian Rachlin’s interpretation was exceptional. He embraced the work’s austere, inward-looking nature, focusing on the intricate dialogue with the orchestra and string section principals, forming a tightly interwoven, chamber-like texture that gave the piece an almost sacred intimacy. His control over the extended solo lines was particularly striking, feeling like a thread of silver light tracing constellations in a vast nocturnal sky, its clarity cutting through the surrounding stillness. Even in the most fragile moments, where the violin almost hovered on the edge of audibility, it evoked the distant shimmer of starlight.
Mäkelä’s control over orchestral balance was noticeable, reinforcing the work’s spiritual transparency and guiding its thematic dissolution and rebirth with an extraordinary sense of pacing. Particularly in the final minutes, the orchestral sound reached a level of near-transcendence, gradually building a sense of weightless suspension before resolving into a moment of quiet revelation. Given the composer’s recent death, this performance took on a noble emotional resonance as a profound tribute.
After the interval, Schumann’s Symphony no. 4 in D minor provided a striking contrast. This was the most familiar work on the programme, and under Mäkelä’s direction, it unfolded with an effortless sense of structure clarity and natural flow. Even with a large orchestral apparatus, the RCO maintained an uncommon degree of clarity and inner transparency. Without any imposition of grandiose conceptualism, Mäkelä shaped the performance based purely on sonic effect and organic musical logic. The orchestra played with warmth and flexibility, showcasing Schumann’s architecture in this through-composed, four-movement symphony which is deeply rooted in the classical symphonic tradition.
As a final touch, the orchestra offered an encore, an entr'acte from Schubert’s Rosamunde, bringing an intimate and lyrical close to an otherwise intense and architecturally rigorous programme.
Beyond the individual performances, the concert as a whole offered a glimpse into Mäkelä’s rapport with the Concertgebouw. The evening’s repertoire, seemingly diverse at first glance, was in fact a carefully curated showcase of the orchestra’s versatility, from full-throttle modernism to the hushed spirituality of Gubaidulina and the Classical-Romantic rigour of Schumann. As an artistic statement, it was as much about the orchestra’s present excellence as it was about its future trajectory under Mäkelä’s leadership; of musical continuity, of evolving artistic partnerships, and of the boundless possibilities still ahead for both conductor and orchestra.
