KLAUS MÄKELÄ / VARÈSE: AMÉRIQUES
What a line-up! Three of the greatest cellists of our time (Gautier Capuçon, Pablo Ferrández, Truls Mørk) join forces in a superb Concerto grosso by Penderecki. Everything is larger than life in this evening devised by Maestro Klaus Mäkelä, which culminates in Varèse’s sprawling Amériques.
Programme
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (1933-2020)
Concerto Grosso for 3 Cellos and Orchestra
Interval
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 16 in F major Op. 135 (version for string orchestra)
EDGARD VARÈSE (1883-1965)
Amériques (revised version 1929)
Artist(s)
- Verbier Festival Orchestra
- Klaus Mäkelä conductor
- Gautier Capuçon cello
- Pablo Ferrández cello
- Truls Mørk cello
Klaus Mäkelä conducts Bernstein: Candide Overture at Verbier Festival (VFCO)
Find out more
Music director of the prestigious Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and of the Chicago Symphony, Klaus Mäkelä is also an accomplished cellist. For this exceptional concert, the Finnish conductor invites three eminent colleagues for a Concerto grosso in which three cellos engage in virtuoso dialogues in the post-Romantic idiom typical of Penderecki. In its version for string orchestra, Beethoven’s Quartet No. 16 also sees its power multiplied tenfold. Following in the footsteps of conductors such as Mitropoulos and Bernstein, Mäkelä enlarges the violin, viola and cello sections while doubling the line with double basses, all the while preserving the spiritual inwardness of the German composer’s final masterpiece. Equally opulent, the first version of Varèse’s Amériques called for no fewer than 150 musicians, including an impressive arsenal of percussion. In its revised version, the Franco-American composer returns to the dimensions of a ‘classical’ orchestra but the extraordinary force of this portrait of the modern city retains its power to fascinate intact.
