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Mahler 1 Through the Concertgebouw Orchestra OLV Klaus Mäkelä. Heard: 9/5 Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Repetition 10/5, 1.30 pm. Look back here.

When the Amsterdam Concertgebouw opened its doors for the first time on April 11, 1888, Gustav Mahler had just put the finishing touches to his First symphony. Well, it would take its final form until 1896 before the work was a stimulating thought that two size of music institutions at the same time ‘off the’ shore ‘. A bit like the loved ones in a romcom: they did not know each other yet, but they were intended for each other, the most beautiful room and the greatest symphonic oeuvre.

Hundred and thirty-six years and four weeks later, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and his upcoming chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä gave a glowing reading of that Firstthe starting shot of the ten -executed symphonies in the third Mahler Festival.

Mäkelä was looking forward to it: he came down the stairs when there was still a vote, after a few steps remained and withdrew. As soon as he stood on the goat, he gave the woodwinds plenty of room to sculpt their sound against the back cloth of sizzling strings, and even when the celli used the first theme, the blazers continued to predominate. Great natural gears followed, beautiful whispering game; The thunderous climax of the first part felt deserved.

Mäkelä’s mastery

In the second part, Mäkelä increased the contrast between the excited, some logs Ländler and the elegant trio, which worked well as a prelude to the third part, the mourning march on ‘father Jacob’ in a minor who forms the emotional center of gravity of the symphony. The successive bets of double bass, bassoon and cello were terraced with a lot of personality, culminating in the delicious tubasolo of Perry Hoogendijk. No matter how beautiful in sound, the Iron Marspuls got something woolly, which led to the fate.

The final was then an excellent guided tour and roller coaster ride through one sublime musical landscape after the other. How to reluctantly hinged the high intensity of the opening section to a lyrical slow passage: you know that Mäkelä can shape such transitions like no other, but the mastery remains amazing.

Granddaughter Marina Mahler was there, and also former concert director Martijn Sanders, under whose leadership the second Mahler Festival took place in 1995.