Klaus Mäkelä conducts Beethoven with the Concertgebouw Orchestra

Klaus Mäkelä and Beethoven

Klaus Mäkelä has proved to be an excellent Beethoven conductor, and now, he will sink his teeth into Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the ‘Eroica.’ Beethoven changed the course of history with this work; it broke all conventions to become a genuine monument within the orchestral repertoire. Felix Mendelssohn’s famous overture, The Hebrides, will also grace the programme, along with the seldom performed concert aria, Infélice.

Two Mendelssohns

The solo will be sung by the superb soprano Reiss Chen, who has been a guest with the Concertgebouw Orchestra on two previous occasions. She will also sing the Hero und Leander ‘dramatic scene’ by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, a composer whose music has started to posthumously emerge from the shadow of her famous brother, Felix. In fact, this will be the first time the Concertgebouw Orchestra performs one of her works; attention to her lush style of composition is therefore long overdue. ‘We wanted to create one composition using the works by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn,’ according to Klaus Mäkelä.