The Youth of Legends

Look back and try to recall a time when a conductor had to be pushing 60 before he could be considered a maestro. Today, musicianship is attained much sooner. The average age of acclaimed conductors has decreased and is in the hands of unabashed new talents who create an electric sound in the most legendary orchestras. Klaus Mäkelä, a star on the rise who is barely 30, comes to the Teatro de la Maestranza with the fabulous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Inspired in the past by maestros such as Mengelberg, Haitink or Chailly, today it has succumbed to the technique of this young Finn.

In the first part, we hear two sides of Jean Sibelius. His brief, yet immeasurable, Symphony No. 7, a monolith which condenses all the poetry of its composer in 20 minutes; and the apex of the romantic concerto for violin with the extraordinary bow of Lisa Batiashvili, as she sculpts this diamond bathed in the dark light of northern realms. After intermission, Symphony No. 7 by Beethoven, one of the peaks that all conductors must scale to reach the top. Doubtless, Mäkelä, as have other legendary conductors before him, will reveal something new to us.

Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 7 in C major, op. 105
Jean Sibelius, Concierto for Violin in D minor, op. 47
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92