Klaus Mäkelä conducts Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Dowland, and Schumann — With Alexandre Kantorow

Two of the brightest young stars in the classical music firmament team up for a rich and eclectic program on the stage of the Philharmonie de Paris: the dynamic Klaus Mäkelä, the Orchestre de Paris's music director, and virtuoso pianist Alexandre Kantorow! Winner of the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019 and the ultra-prestigious Gilmore Artist Award for 2024, Kantorow performs Saint-Saëns's "Egyptian" Piano Concerto No. 5, written while the composer was staying in Luxor and brimming with Eastern influences—much like Ravel's "fairy overture" Shéhérazade which opens the concert, an early work that calls to mind Rimsky-Korsakov and augurs the irresistibly melodic oeuvre Ravel would go on to compose. The second half of the program features one of John Dowland's early 17th-century pavanes, the heart-wrenching Lachrimae Antiquae, and concludes with Schumann's Symphony No. 2, a defiant burst of C major triumph born from a period of illness and suffering.

Photo: Klaus Mäkelä © Marco Borggreve
Klaus Mäkelä appears courtesy of Decca Classics. Alexandre Kantorow appears courtesy of BIS Records.