Cast
Oslo Philharmonic
Klaus Mäkelä — Conductor
Program notes
The extraordinary Klaus Mäkelä leads the Oslo Philharmonic in a poignant musical time capsule: Dmitri Shostakovich's first and last symphonies! The mordantly satirical, Prokofiev-inspired First Symphony, completed by the prodigious Shostakovich in 1926 at just nineteen, was an instant hit that established the young composer's international reputation as an original and brilliant new force. Decades later, his Symphony No. 15, which premiered in early 1972, offered something of a retrospective on both his personal history and musical influences, featuring a dazzling succession of quotations alluding to everything from Beethoven, Rossini, and Wagner to several of his own greatest works.
Photo © Kaupo Kikkas
Klaus Mäkelä appears courtesy of Decca Classics. Click here to discover Klaus Mäkelä's releases on Decca Classics, including a new Stravinsky album with the Orchestre de Paris.