By the rivers of Babylon: Widmann at the Philharmonie

By Mark Valencia, 26 January 2017

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“a presto section that batters the ears like a plague of armoured locusts”

Reviewed at Philharmonie de Paris: Grande salle Pierre Boulez, Paris on 25 January 2017

Beethoven, Leonore Overture no. 2, Op.72a

Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D major, Op.61

Widmann, Babylon-Suite

Orchestre de Paris

Daniel Harding, Conductor

Renaud Capuçon, Violin

Orchestre de Paris and Mäkelä wow Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw

Max Lima, 18th March

Under its Music Director Klaus Mäkelä, the French orchestra returns to the Concertgebouw for an exhilarating concert with pianist Anna Vinnitskaya.

****1

New season, new horizons: Salonen opens the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 3rd September

Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris opened the Elbphilharmonie season with a vivid journey from Strauss’s dramatic energy, through a reflective new Horn Concerto, to Sibelius’s luminous, precise grandeur.

****1

Rach 4 redefined: Mäkelä and Yunchan Lim set a new benchmark in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 11th June

In Yunchan Lim’s hands the score to Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto emerges as a small revelation, conspicuously succeeding where so many others have floundered.

*****

Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris paint vivid pictures in Vienna

Mark Pullinger, 23rd February

Maurice Ravel the orchestrator takes centre stage at the Musikverein in an evening of descriptive aural painting.

****1

Khatia Buniatishvili in search of her lost fingers

Alain Lompech, 30th October

Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto turns out to be a shipwreck for the Georgian pianist, despite an admirable Orchestre de Paris and conductor (Kirill Karabits).

*1111

Fresh and flamboyant: Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris at the Proms

Mark Thomas, 3rd September

Klaus Mäkelä presents fresh and dynamic takes on French masterpieces from Debussy and Berlioz, the Orchestre de Paris providing colour and vigour in Stravinsky.

*****

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

By the rivers of Babylon: Daniel Harding conducts Widmann at the Philharmonie