Klaus Mäkelä will become chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the start of the 2027-2028 season. (At the same time he will begin his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.) Washington had a foretaste of the storied Dutch ensemble’s new era under the young Finnish conductor Sunday evening, when Washington Performing Arts presented the final concert of their American tour at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, in the presence of the ambassadors of Finland and the Netherlands.

This orchestra’s last two local appearances, in 2016 under Semyon Bychkov and in 2019 under Daniel Harding, did not achieve the same heights as their several visits here with Mariss Jansons. The RCO has been without a permanent chief conductor since dismissing Daniele Gatti from that job in 2018, under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations. Since the 2021-2022 season, honorary guest conductor Iván Fischer has led a revolving roster of guest maestros.

Mäkelä, a conductor with a calm hand and musical sense beyond his years, seems poised to steady the ship. The RCO musicians played with confidence and vigor under his leadership, beginning with Ellen Reid’s new piece Body Cosmic, another tribute to Mäkelä’s devotion to playing new music. The American composer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for her opera  p r i s m, described it as “a meditation on the human body as it creates life and gives birth.” (Reid wrote this rich, surprising score after having a child during her residency with the Concertgebouw.)

The first movement (“Awe | she forms herself”) opened with a plethora of mysterious sounds: bells, harp, and the seagull-like scrapes of violin bows behind the bridge. Woodwinds began a repeating upward scalar figure, taken up by luscious violins and then trumpet. Mäkelä coordinated this vaguely cinematic work, in a mostly neoclassical style, with minimal gestures, underlining details, such as sagging bent notes in the brass.

A remarkable violin solo, suggesting a newborn’s cries, marked the second movement (“Dissonance | her light and its shadow”). Strange trembling in the woodwinds heralded a painful amassing of sound across the orchestra, punctuated by clanging percussion and Stravinsky-like motoric rhythm. Reid created masterful combinations of sound as the crescendo built, with the solo violin alone continuing briefly after the final loud chord.

Lisa Batiashvili took the solo part in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, for which about half the large orchestra left the stage. The Georgian-born violinist played with a demure tone, excellent intonation, and virtuosic athleticism in the first movement. Mäkelä accompanied her adroitly, guiding the orchestra through her many shifts of tempo. Her 1739 Guarneri del Gesù instrument glowed in its high range and sang darkly on the lowest string in the opening measures.

The second movement featured the most beautiful sounds of the concerto, with Batiashvili floating above the arpeggiating violas and clarinets with a purring legato tone. Mäkelä, supremely careful with orchestral balances, made sure she was always supported and never covered. The finale danced raucously, even bitterly, with garrulous tone from Batiashvili matched by confident shifts of meter. Her ending duets with the bass drum were among the many unexpected sounds.

Even more delightful was the serene encore, offered by Batiashvili and about twenty of the Concertgebouw’s string players: J.S. Bach’s chorale prelude “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” from the Orgelbüchlein, arranged by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg. Played with sotto voce stillness, it proved the perfect antidote to Prokofiev’s sardonic irony.

Ending with Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, without cuts, felt like a rich dessert course after a more savory meal. Mäkelä used this piece as well to highlight the creamy consistency of the RCO strings, a marvel to hear, especially the pristinely unified violins, almost thirty in number. The slow introduction to the first movement burned intensely, with Mäkelä’s typical crouching posture allowing him to lean toward the musicians, as if cradling the sound he wanted in the crook of his cue arm.

Thanks to the control of the other sections, the strings remained in the forefront except for major climaxes, where Mäkelä unleashed the brass. The second movement rocketed with energy, while the dark-hued clarinet solo set the mood at the start of the slow movement. Mäkelä mostly pushed the slow movement’s lush violin theme forward, but in spite of some more spectacular violin solos, the last two movements of this symphony just go on too long, even with the Finale taken at a brisk clip.

Relishing the last stop on their American tour, Mäkelä and the RCO offered one more spirited encore to close out the evening: the Hopak from Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera The Fair of Sorochinski, arranged for large orchestra by Anatoly Lyadov. The choice of this celebratory dance, sometimes known as the national dance of Ukraine, made a statement in support of the struggle for freedom in Ukraine, without a word being spoken.

Nikolai Lugansky plays music of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Wagner 2 p.m. February 9 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. washingtonperformingarts.org

One Response to “Mäkelä and Concertgebouw signal the start of a beautiful friendship in KC visit”

1. Posted Nov 27, 2024 at 1:18 pm by Jeff Snavely

   Wonderfully written review and very perceptive! I was at this concert and expressed many of the same thoughts afterwards.

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