Mäkelä shapes Sibelius persuasively in Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen

By Edward Sava-Segal, 14 November 2020

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“Mäkelä... constantly avoided grand musical gestures, accentuating gracefulness instead”

Reviewed at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm on 13 November 2020

Schumann, Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra, Op.86

Sibelius, Symphony no. 6 in D minor, Op.104

Sibelius, Symphony no. 7 in C major, Op.105

Hans Larsson, French horn

Christopher Parkes, French horn

Anna Ferriol de Ciurana, French horn

Bengt Ny, French horn

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Klaus Mäkelä, Conductor

The Swedish RSO provides a flashy finish for Dvořák’s Prague

Frank Kuznik, 25th September

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra bring their own fireworks to the festival finale.

****1

Handel's Messiah streamed from the Baltic Sea Festival

Sandra Bowdler, 18th September

Reinhard Goebel conducts a perfectly fine, straight-down-the-line Messiah as Sweden re-engages with live audiences.

***11

A Baltic phoenix: Esa-Pekka Salonen brings Stockholm back to life

Tristan Labouret, 9th September

After hosting 18 months of concerts without audience, Berwaldhallen comes back to life with the Baltic Sea Festival and its phenomenal opening concert as intelligent as it is overwhelming.

*****

Elegant Mozart and monumental Schubert from Blomstedt in Stockholm

Cameron Kelsall, 20th November

The inexhaustible maestro shared the stage with Johan Dalene, an exciting violinist seven decades his junior.

*****

A persuasively dark Don Giovanni from Swedish Radio

David Karlin, 14th June

Andrew Staples creates an austere, monochrome semi-staging that's strangely appropriate to the times; Peter Mattei and John Lundgren lead an excellent cast.

****1

Post-lockdown Sibelius from Daniel Harding and the Swedish RSO

Mark Valencia, 6th June

Although filled with beauty and sweetly played, the fragmentation of the symphony felt too disruptive.

***11

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Edward Sava-Segal

Edward has been living in New York for the last 25 years, one of the reasons being the extraordinarily rich cultural life in this city. He has studied piano and classical music in his early years. He switched later on to computer science and data architecture but he kept an unwavering interest in following the classical music phenomenon here in New York and in his travels. Edward occasionally reviews fine arts events for the most prestigious literary magazine in Romania, his home country.

Klaus Mäkelä shapes Sibelius persuasively in Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen