‘Mahler that risks nothing is not worth hearing,’ Klaus Mäkelä has declared. Still in his twenties, the electrifying Finnish conductor already leads top orchestras in Oslo and Paris, with Chicago and Amsterdam soon to come. Hear him at the Proms for the first time as Chief Conductor Designate of the mighty Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is a tumultuous journey from the darkness of a funeral march to brilliant light via the famous Adagietto – the tenderest musical love letter in the repertoire. It sits alongside Berio’s delicate ‘rendering’ of Schubert’s unfinished D major Symphony, a musical palimpsest and sonic fantasy.
Broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer this season
Klaus Mäkelä © Marco Borggreve/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra