Orchestre de Paris
Klaus Mäkelä, Conductor
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
December 2024, Philharmonie de Paris, Paris
RAVEL La valse
September 2024, Philharmonie de Paris, Paris
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Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Mäkelä (CD)
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Mäkelä (CD)
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Mäkelä makes [Symphonie fantastique] sound remarkably fresh ... directing affairs assertively and sensitively, operating like a coiled spring, holding and releasing at critical moments. Every detail within the melee comes through, despite all hell breaking loose, giving the best cardio workout without actually going to the gym.
Conductor Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris pair two landmark works of the French orchestral repertoire on this Decca Classics recording: Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Maurice Ravel’s La valse. Recorded live at the Philharmonie de Paris in December 2024, Symphonie fantastique has long held a special place in the orchestra’s repertoire, dating back to performances and recordings led by its first music director, Charles Munch.
Berlioz’s vividly dramatic symphony follows the dreams, passions and hallucinations of an artist in love, while Ravel’s La valse transforms the elegance of the Viennese waltz into a dazzling and increasingly unsettling orchestral showpiece. Originally conceived for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, La valse also continues a thread through Mäkelä’s previous recordings with the Orchestre de Paris devoted to music associated with the famed company.
The album follows acclaimed performances by Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris at the BBC Proms, where The Guardian described their Symphonie fantastique as “electrifying,” and The Arts Desk praised its finale as “the culmination of something at last truly extraordinary.”
Discs: 1
Record Label: Decca
Release Date: July 11, 2025
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