Rich, extraordinary Dvořák highlights Mäkelä’s final CSO program of season
In his second and final program of the current season, Klaus Mäkelä led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a populist program of two romantic cornerstones with a tart 20th-century intermezzo as palate cleanser.
The CSO’s charismatic music director designate has gone from strength to strength with each local concert he has led and Thursday night’s program built on the success of last week’s Mahler Third Symphony. The concert was notable not only for the stellar performances but for the way the Finnish conductor is gradually moulding the corporate sound of the orchestra.
Mäkelä favors a lean yet punchy sonority, the brass given their head at climaxes but without blaring or overwhelming strings and winds. The Finnish conductor’s balancing was meticulous throughout the three works (horn playing perhaps a bit over-reticent Thursday night). Strings were dexterously layered without any section dominating. Overall, there is a finely blended sonority within sections and in the corporate ensemble. The playing was lively and responsive, the musicians attentive to Mäkelä‘s spirited yet communicative direction.
Most attention was focused on the evening’s Brahms concerto performance with keyboard superstar Daniil Trifonov on the first half. Yet, inspired as that was, it was the performance of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 that proved most illuminating and extraordinary.
The Seventh is the finest of Dvořák‘s nine works in the genre. The Czech composer labored over this British commission more than any of his other symphonies, resulting in a work imbued with characteristic lyricism yet cast in a darker, tougher style set against a predominantly tense and driven canvas.
Dvořák‘s music is so well constructed that even a mediocre performance is invariably effective. Yet Thursday night’s Seventh presented one of the finest and most fully realized Dvořák performances one has heard in years, with Mäkelä bringing out the Bohemian colors as well as the restless drama of the score in a richly idiomatic and expressive rendering.
Mäkelä had the full measure of this symphony from the jump—literally, giving the downbeat nearly before the entrance applause had subsided. From the hushed mystery of the introductory bars to the stormy main theme of the opening movement, the conductor balanced the taut drama against Dvořák‘s gracious lyricism—which he drew out wonderfully, always bringing the composer’s bucolic writing for woodwinds to the fore.
In the challenging Poco adagio, Mäkelä‘s direction fluently encompassed the soaring lyricism as surely as the abrupt dark outbursts, Stephen Williamson and Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson lending pastoral charm to their clarinet and flute solos, respectively.
The famous Scherzo with its insistent rhythmic point received a lilting rendition, the conductor coaxing the dance-like accents with some graceful Terpsichorean moves. The finale was given a powerful and rich-textured performance, Mäkelä and the orchestra putting across the turbulent drama and culminating in an emphatic yet decidedly un-triumphant coda, even with the music’s belated turn into the major.
The audience seemed to realize that this was a special Dvořák performance and Mäkelä was recalled repeatedly to the stage. After acknowledging individual musicians and sections for applause, the modest young maestro stood behind the podium and affectionately patted Dvořák‘s score on the stand—giving the credit to the music and not just to himself.
The Dvořák was preceded by a genuine curio with Pierre Boulez’s Initiale. Though the composer later expanded the 1987 work into an 80th birthday salute to Georg Solti, this was the CSO debut of the original version for brass septet. Boulez packs a lot of incident into this five-minute work, the mercurial score quickly morphing from angular fanfare to bluesy languor and gamboling vitality. Mäkelä directed this bracing miniature with all the energizing clarity he brings to larger works, and the seven CSO brass musicians delivered a gleaming and brilliant performance.
Remarkably for such a repertoire cornerstone, Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 hasn’t been heard at CSO concerts for a decade. The final fruit of Daniil Trifonov’s term as CSO artist in residence this season, this week’s concerto performances follow the pianist’s solo recital last fall and duo concert with Leonidas Kavakos in March.
The Russian pianist’s technique proved as airtight and highly polished as ever. But most impressive on this occasion was his ability to make fresh one of the most familiar works in the repertoire. Solo passages were assayed with a breadth and individual phrasing and sense of rubato that consistently heightened the proceedings.
The lyrical drama of the opening movement, rambunctious scherzo and relaxed effervescence of the finale were handled with typical incisiveness and bravura by the soloist, with Mäkelä providing a watchful and simpatico accompaniment.
But it was the lyrical passages that resonated in the memory. John Sharp launched the Andante with a singing, warmly expressive cello solo and Trifonov played with comparable sensitivity in solo and duet with Sharp and oboist William Welter, bringing uncommon poise and a sense of time almost standing still. Mäkelä and the orchestra gave their star soloist alert support as a unit and individually from Sharp and Welter in the slow movement to Mark Almond’s lovely opening horn solo.
Perhaps taking a page from the Boulez miniature, Trifonov favored the audience with a wry encore of Chopin’s Prelude No. 10 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 28 (Molto Allegro)—all ten seconds of it, neatly dispatched.
The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. cso.org
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5 Responses to “Rich, extraordinary Dvořák highlights Mäkelä’s final CSO program of season”
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Posted May 02, 2025 at 8:38 pm by Mark Gelula
Agreed. A stellar performance. My take is that Mäkelä is reforming the strings into a blend that somehow reminds me of what Stokowski did in Philadelphia.
Posted May 04, 2025 at 7:18 am by Mark Friedman
Agree with the review. Saturday’s performance was sublime. I’m thrilled by the speed with which Mäkelä has already begun to win over his critics; he will surely be a transformative leader for the CSO–possibly the one who saves this institution from its years of drift.
Trifonov was mesmerizing. The encore on Saturday appeared to be more than just the 10 seconds of the Chopin Prelude as listed above, but I don’t know what it was.
Posted May 04, 2025 at 8:31 pm by Dave
I attended the Sunday performance and it was spectacular. Dvorak was a hauntingly beautiful interpretation. Trifonov’s light, airy technique lived up to his reputation.
Maestro Makela got an incredibly rich, lush, and balanced sound from the orchestra. The unique sonority was distinctive–powerful but balanced.
Truly a memorable experience. The CSO clearly responds to Makela and Makela seems to enjoy pushing the CSO to create new and innovative interpretations. The natural and organic chemistry is palpable.
Something special is blooming in Chicago. I was not around for the Reiner or Solti years to know what that felt like. The closest thing I can remember is the early 1990s when Michael Jordan came onto the scene. You knew he would be a superstar, but the question was can he take the Bulls to new heights.
Klaus Makela is an undeniable superstar. It will be fun to match the CSO team get better and reach new heights. This is going to be a fun period for classical music.
Posted May 05, 2025 at 12:17 am by Charles Amenta
A fantastic concert. I heard it on Friday and went back Saturday. I am very encouraged for the future of the CSO.
Trifonov’s encore on Friday was the Pletnev arrangement of the Red Riding Hood and Wolf dance from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. On Saturday, it was the following Adagio from the same Suite.
Posted May 09, 2025 at 3:39 pm by Mike T.
Saw the Sunday afternoon concert. Very enjoyable. First time seeing Makela conduct and I was impressed, particularly with the way he handled Dvorak 7. He is exciting to watch and, like Hrusa, even has a bit of youthful swagger that’s been rare at the CSO since the Solti days. I can see why the CSO and Amsterdam have taken a chance on his potential, which seems huge to me. I look forward to seeing what he does with the Berlioz Phantastique this fall.
He also provided smooth accompaniment while Trifonov dispatched the Brahms concerto with graceful ease.