Göteborgs Konserthus Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 with Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) Marche pour la Cérémonie des Turcs The Great Turkish War of 1683-1699 frightened a large part of Europe. Elite troops, janissaries, were accompanied by marching bands that made an eerie noise with wind and percussion instruments of various kinds. It is the music Lully partly depicts in his march. The march was written for Molière's comedy "The Bourgeois as a Noble", which makes fun of a merchant who would like to become a noble. Making fun of Turks was often the intention when something in music was called Turkish in the 16th and 18th centuries. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The Turkish ambassador refused to kneel before Louis XIV. The ambassador was banished from the court and instead held popular coffee parties in Paris, while the Sun King remained in his castle with his bad stomach, terrible breath and laxative doctors. Lully himself played a part in the play as mufti. This is fun music, French Baroque at its most playful. Because it's always nice to joke about something you're a little afraid of. KATARINA A KARLSSON

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) Violin Concerto No. 5, K 219 Allegro aperto Adagio Rondeau: Tempo di Menuetto During the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the Viennese thirst for the exotic was unquenchable. Parade examples include the imported giraffe that marked hairstyles, fashion and jewelry for several years, as well as the Inuit family that, with promises of gold and green forests, for a time lived next to a pond at Belvedere Castle in Vienna. The Orient also exerted its allure. For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Turkey was the closest gateway to the East. Drums and cymbals and other percussion instruments characterized Turkish marching music; timbre effects that would increasingly influence Western art music. Already in 1772, when Mozart staged the opera Lucio Silla in Milan, he was influenced by the Turkish elements in the ballet music, of unknown origin, which was interleaved in the opera. It is this music that Mozart borrowed for the Turkish section in A minor in the violin concerto finale with drum effects col legno from the strings. Other examples of the Turkish influence in Mozart's music are the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail* and the final movement of Piano Sonata No. 11. Violin Concerto No. 5 was the last violin concerto he wrote (1775). He then served as chapel master in Prince Bishop Colloredo's chapel in Salzburg and was probably a soloist himself at the first performance. The three-part form of the concerto is typical: a lively opening allegro in sonata form, a restful adagio in E major and a closing rondo. However, the performance itself is anything but typical, the concert is considered Mozart's finest in the genre. *Serail is the name of the sultan's palace and harem. STEFAN NÄVERMYR

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) Overture no 2 Louise Farrenc was considered Europe's best piano teacher and worked as a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Chamber music was her best branch, and her nonet is still considered one of the best written for that setting. After that, she finally got the same salary as her male colleagues. But her orchestral music is also masterful. A concert overture is something you have to think about for yourself. In 1834, when it was new, Paris was the opera capital of Europe. Long, powerful works with magnificent costumes and sets were played all the time. And Farrenc's overture is a little in that direction. It starts with pukas and trumpets in minor and soon pulls away with modulations that build the tension before she really pulls up with a fast tempo that brings the thought to the start of an opera where the stage is crowded with people running around each other. The bassoon could be the clown of the game, and the flute the young girl. KATARINA A KARLSSON

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No 7 Half Viennese classicist, half romantic, but mostly Beethoven. That's how we're used to seeing him, but he had other sides as well. In both the 6th and 7th symphonies, the folklorist Beethoven appears. In the former he depicts dancing peasants (third movement), and in the seventh symphony he delivers a finale built around a folk dance. Of course, in Beethoven's artful and powerful arrangement - he is incredibly driving, thrusting with weight and force into the chords at an accelerating pace. This restless, rhythmic rondo is one of his most explosive creations. The symphony opens slowly, with upward movements (fast versus slow) contrasted with a pretty, dancing trio. Note Beethoven's orchestral dramaturgy as he strips away the score from the full orchestra until only a flute and an oboe remain. Then the main theme takes over, heralding the 9th Symphony's An die Freude. In the thematic development work, one can often discern the struggle of the lonely against the many, a constantly recurring theme in Beethoven's music. The well-known allegretto in movement two is definitely the symphony's pièce de résistance. This variation movement must have seemed like a very strange animal in Beethoven's time: an evocative passacaglia with a rhythmic figure - one long, two short, two long - pulsating throughout the movement. Above this, Beethoven weaves and develops new parts that increase in strength and scope and then thin out and tone down. The swells are crowned by a couple of solid climaxes. This is Bach and the future at once, the innovative polyphony that would blossom fully in the late string quartets and piano sonatas. The third movement is a scherzo to everything but the name – never have boisterous male laughter (the low strings) and female laughter cascades (the woodwind) been depicted so vividly as here. Beethoven also achieves unusual harmonic effects when he lets the trumpets lie on pedal notes above (reversed!) the melody in the rest of the orchestra. The symphony was first performed on 8 December 1813 together with the almost farcical commissioned work Wellington's Victory, including crevados, cannons and a fugato on God save the King. There is no doubt as to which work is the better.

Oslo philharmonic orchestra In 1919, the orchestra was established under its current name, but the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra dates back to the 1870s when it collaborated with Edvard Grieg and Johan Svendsen. The orchestra gives 60-70 concerts annually in Oslo concert hall, several of which are broadcast by NRK, the Norwegian national broadcast. The programs have a high artistic profile and present many of the world's leading conductors and soloists. During Mariss Janson's long tenure as chief conductor (1979-2002), the orchestra grew in size and gained great international recognition. Other chief conductors who followed were André Previn, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vasilij Petrenko. Since 2020, Klaus Mäkelä is chief conductor. Since the 1980s, the Oslo Philharmonic has recorded a number of internationally acclaimed records, including Tchaikovsky's six symphonies (Chandos) and Rachmaninov's three symphonies and four piano concertos (EMI) with Mariss Jansons and the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. Other solo recordings have included cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, trombonist Christian Lindberg, and violinists Hilary Hahn and Frank Peter Zimmermann. Under Klaus Mäkelä's direction, the Oslo Philharmonic has recorded all of Sibelius' symphonies for Decca Classics.

The Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä has through his fine musical communication with orchestras around the world been internationally celebrated. He took office in 2020 as chief conductor and artistic advisor for the Oslo Philharmonic. He is also from 2022 musical director of the Orchestre de Paris and Artistic Partner of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. At the age of 21, Klaus Mäkelä was appointed first guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he assumed in 2018. This season Klaus Mäkelä makes his first appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester and Wiener Symphoniker and returns to the USA to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mäkelä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski. As a soloist, he has performed with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician at the Verbier Festival, as well as with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Klaus Mäkelä has visited the Gothenburg Symphony several times, most recently in November 2020 when he recorded Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with Sol Gabetta for GSOplay.

Violinist Isabelle Faust's great artistic curiosity encompasses all eras and forms of instrumental collaboration. Highlights of the 2022-2023 season include concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Oslo Philharmonic and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. She also tours with Il Giardino Armonico, English Baroque Soloists, AKAMUS Berlin, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. Chamber music involvement includes collaborations with Sol Gabetta, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Antoine Tamestit, Jörg Widmann, Alexander Melnikov and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The season ends with solo concerts and Kurtág's "Kafkafragment" with soprano Anna Prohaska at the Musikverein Wien. Isabelle Faust was born in Germany in 1972. After winning the famous Leopold Mozart and Paganini competitions at a young age, she soon appeared with leading orchestras, among them the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony and the NHK Orchestra in Tokyo. She developed close collaborations with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Giovanni Antonioni, Frans Brüggen and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Isabelle Faust's recent recordings include Schönberg's Violin Concerto conducted by Daniel Harding with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Alexander Melnikov, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester. Isabelle Faust has also made popular recordings of the sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alban Berg conducted by Claudio Abbado.