Klaus Mäkelä conducts Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Beethoven — With Chen Reiss

Maestro Mäkelä and the RCO, one of the world's greatest orchestras, begin the festivities with Felix Mendelssohn's supremely evocative overture The Hebrides, which will transport you to the Scottish seaside in its very first measure. Chen Reiss then makes her entrance for Fanny Mendelssohn's Hero und Leander, a dramatic scene for soprano and orchestra about which Reiss says, "discovering [this work] left me amazed by the richness of colors and invention, as well as [Fanny's] skillful orchestration and dramatic expression." The program continues with the whimsical Scherzo from Felix's Midsummer Night's Dream, followed by another work for soprano and orchestra, Infelice, based on texts by Metastasio. Finally, this Christmas concert comes to the grandest possible close with the "Eroica" Symphony, a work brimming with emotion and melody, so monumentally innovative that it remade the entire genre for centuries to come.

Photo: Klaus Mäkelä © Marco Borggreve

This event is presented with the generous support of Madame Aline Foriel-Destezet. Klaus Mäkelä appears courtesy of Decca Classics. Click here to discover his Decca releases, including a Sibelius box set with the Oslo Philharmonic and a new Stravinsky album with the Orchestre de Paris.