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South China Morning Post
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
‘Music everyone can relate to,' Mahler's symphonies celebrated in Amsterdam festival
When Klaus Mäkelä climbed the Concertgebouw podium in Amsterdam and turned to the audience at the orchestra's third Gustav Mahler Festival in 105 years, the conductor could see the writing on the wall. Facing him was 'MAHLER' etched in gold on a cartouche and shining in a spotlight, centred in a permanent position of honour among the 17 composers enshrined across the balcony front. And sitting in the first row directly behind the sign was Marina Mahler, the composer's 81-year-old granddaughter. 'It was just as it should be. I was terribly moved and excited at the same time,' she said after the final note of Mahler's Symphony No 1. 'It affected me in the deepest possible way.' All 10 of Mahler's numbered symphonies are being presented in order along with his other major works from May 8-18, ending on the 114th anniversary of his death at age 50. Ivan Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir in Mahler's Symphony No 2 in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Photo: AP 'This is in a way the first orchestra that really trusted in Mahler,' Mäkela said.
Hindustan Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Composer Gustav Mahler, whose music is enjoying new popularity, is celebrated at Amsterdam festival
AMSTERDAM — When Klaus Mäkelä climbed the Concertgebouw podium and turned to the audience at the orchestra's third Gustav Mahler Festival in 105 years, the conductor could see the writing on the wall. Facing him was 'MAHLER' etched in gold on a cartouche and shining in a spotlight, centered in a permanent position of honor among the 17 composers enshrined across the balcony front. And sitting in the first row directly behind the sign Friday night was Marina Mahler, the composer's 81-year-old granddaughter. 'It was just as it should be. I was terribly moved and excited at the same time,' she said after the final note of Symphony No. 1. 'It affected me in the deepest possible way.' All 10 of Mahler's numbered symphonies are being presented in order along with his other major works from May 8-18, ending on the 114th anniversary of his death at age 50. 'This is in a way the first orchestra that really trusted in Mahler,' Mäkela said. Joining the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are the Budapest Festival Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic, with conducting split among Mäkelä , Iván Fischer , Fabio Luisi , Jaap van Zweden , Kirill Petrenko and Sakari Oramo . Programs are simulcast to a 1,500-seat amphitheater in Amsterdam's Vondelpark. 'We have a U.S. orchestra for the first time in this festival,' said Simon Reinink, who headed the planning as general director of The Concertgebouw . 'We also thought why shouldn't we invite an Asian orchestra?' Mahler's first champion was Willem Mengelberg, who conducted the entirety of the first Mahler Festival in 1920 to celebrate his 25th anniversary as the Concertgebouw's chief conductor. A second festival was held in 1995 to mark the 75th anniversary of the first festival and a 100th anniversary celebration was planned for 2020 and canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. 'Mahler is really in the DNA of the orchestra,' said Dominik Winterling, managing director of Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. "You feel it because we have a certain tradition, which is also passed on from generation to generation." Bruno Walter and Leonard Bernstein were Mahler's other primary proponents in the 20th century. 'My father, who was a musician, always told me: `Mahler was a great conductor and a good composer with some problems. Usually the form is not perfect and it's formless,'' Iván Fischer said of Sándor Fischer, also a conductor. When Bernstein led the Vienna Philharmonic in all of Mahler's symphonies over a decade starting in the mid-1960s, there was resistance. 'In intervals, in corridors, everywhere musicians talk to each other, there was this: `Yes, it's good music but a little kitsch. Well, why does he need these bombastic effects?'" Iván Fischer recalled. 'Really the cult of Mahler, where everybody started to love it, came after this cycle of Bernstein in Vienna but it was a spirit of the time. I think what created the breakthrough was that you didn't feel that music had to comport to certain norms and so it was a little liberation of the '60s, the time of free love, Beatles." Mahler has gained acceptance. The Fifth Symphony's adagietto was conducted by Bernstein at Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's funeral and is featured in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film 'Death in Venice' and 2022's 'Tár.' No. 2 sets a mood in a current Tony Award nominee, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray.' Though just 29, Mäkelä was a natural fit to lead off with the first symphony because he becomes both Concertgebouw chief conductor and CSO music director for the 2027-28 season. His exuberantly stepped down two dozen steps toward the podium to open his program with Anders Hillborg's 'Hell Mountain,' a world premiere commissioned for the festival that quotes two of Mahler's works. Van Zweden, who has a home a short walk from the Concertgebouw, was to open the canceled 2020 festival with the New York Philharmonic, when he was its music director. Van Zweden first heard Mahler When he was 6 or 7, van Zweden heard a fourth symphony led by Bernard Haitink, the Concertgebouw's chief conductor from 1961-88. A violinist in his youth, van Zweden became the orchestra's youngest concertmaster at age 19. 'The scores of Mahler, what he gave us is a GPS system about the road of his life,' he said. 'He is such a human and we are such a witness of all the emotional roller-coasters and beauty and sadness and everything in his life during that performance. That is a different experience than a Tchaikovsky symphony.' Luisi first heard Mahler when he attended a Fifth Symphony as a 15-year-old in Genoa, Italy. 'It was overwhelming. I didn't know that this music could be so passionate and intense all the time — such a long symphony with a lot of different characters, different feelings, different moods,' he recalled. 'I remember getting out of that concert shaking in pleasure and surprise.' Mäkelä used a new edition of the score for No. 1 compiled by Michael Waterman, the fifth member of his family to play in the Concertgebouw in a lineage dating to 1950. With the help of his mom Cleora and friend Silvio Scambone, Waterman compiled markings going back to 1967. He now is working on editions of Nos. 5 and 9 based on notations dating to Mengelberg, who headed the orchestra from 1895-1945 before he was banned for his collaboration with Nazis. On Saturday, Fisher took a five-minute break between the first and second movements of No. 2, specified by Mahler but not often followed. In a hall famous for its precise acoustics, he drew breathtaking playing from horns that scampered on and off stage like NFL special teams. 'So you hear these trumpets from heaven, everywhere, different directions,' he said. Mäkelä is convinced Mahler has become more accessible in current times. 'It speaks to the audience now because it's music that everyone can relate to,' he said. 'Because it's so personal, it somehow gives you a possibility to self-reflect.' Corrects that Mahler 5 was played at Robert F. Kennedy's funeral from John F. Kennedy's funeral in earlier version.
Business Mayor
10-05-2025
- General
- Business Mayor
kingdom of bahrain's heatwave pavilion wins venice architecture biennale 2025 golden lion
The Kingdom of Bahrain has been awarded Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale for its pavilion, Heatwave. Curated by Andrea Faraguna and commissioned by Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, the exhibition offers a grounded and urgent response to one of today's most pressing climate challenges: extreme heat. Celebrated for its environmental intelligence and social consideration, Heatwave was praised by this year's International Jury, comprised of Hans Ulrich Obrist (President, Switzerland), Paola Antonelli (Italy), and Mpho Matsipa (South Africa), for its presentation of 'viable proposals for extreme heat conditions,' combining tradition with innovative design. With works by Wafa Al Ghatam, Eman Ali, Alexander Puzrin, and Mario Monotti, Heatwave stands out for its thoughtful integration of traditional Bahraini cooling systems, including wind towers and shaded courtyards, with contemporary material research. The pavilion functions as a full-scale, inhabitable prototype, defined by a raised platform, suspended ceiling, and central supporting column that together depict how passive cooling techniques can be reimagined to address global warming in real-time conditions. Its spatial framework doubles as a climatic device, shaping microclimates through materiality and form. all images by Andrea Avezzù heatwave addresses extreme heat in the nation Designed to be modular and scalable, the Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion imagines how such systems could be implemented across diverse contexts, particularly in public outdoor spaces where exposure to extreme heat is highest. As the designers explain, 'Architecture must address the dual challenges of environmental resilience and sustainability. The ingenious solution can be deployed in public spaces and in locations where people must live and work outdoors in conditions of extreme heat. The pavilion uses traditional methods of passive cooling typical of the region and reminiscence of wind towers and shaded courtyards.' Read More Budapest Festival Orchestra website design Heatwave also centers the lived experiences of vulnerable outdoor workers, especially those in construction, who work in tough and often extreme climatic conditions, and reframes thermal comfort as a question of equity and public well-being. In doing so, the project introduces the concept of the 'thermal commons' — a shared environmental resource — and advocates for architectural approaches that are porous, adaptive, and communal. Scenarios explored in the pavilion include schoolyards, urban intersections, and other high-heat environments, positioning Heatwave as both a practical proposal and a provocation for rethinking the civic role of architecture in the face of climate emergency. Kingdom of Bahrain awarded Golden Lion for Best National Participation additional accolades at the venice architecture biennale 2025 The International Jury also awarded Special Mentions to the Holy See and Great Britain. The Holy See's Opera aperta, curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti, features work by Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and MAIO Architects, and was recognized for its thoughtful engagement with spatial openness and spiritual reflection. The British Pavilion's Geology of Britannic Repair, curated by Owen Hopkins, Kathryn Yusoff, Kabage Karanja, and Stella Mutegi, brings together collaborators such as cave_bureau and the Palestine Regeneration Team (PART), and was commended for its critical take on colonial and ecological legacies embedded in the British landscape. titled heatwave, the exhibition offers a grounded and urgent response to the challenge of extreme heat. Heatwave stands out for its integration of traditional Bahraini cooling systems with contemporary material research functioning as a full-scale prototype with a raised platform, suspended ceiling, and central supporting column Read More Core77 Weekly Roundup (6-5-23 to 6-9-23) Heatwave centers the lived experiences of vulnerable outdoor workers project info: name: Heatwave curator: Andrea Faraguna exhibitors: Andrea Faraguna, Wafa Al Ghatam, Eman Ali, Alexander Puzrin, Mario Monotti commissioner: S haikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, President of Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities program: Venice Architecture Biennale location: Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Levit/Budapest Festival Orchestra/Fischer review – edgy Prokofiev baffles and compels
Concerts by Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra are always a little idiosyncratic – remember when playing Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony meant them sharing the RFH stage with a tree? – and this all-Prokofiev programme had its own subtle yet distinctive stamp. It started with the Overture on Hebrew Themes. Fischer had Ákos Ács, the BFO's principal clarinettist, standing out front as if it were a concerto – which it isn't, but the clarinet is the guiding spirit of the piece, leading the klezmer melodies on which it's based. Ács was a mercurial presence – almost dancing with Fischer in the centre, then shuffling over among the strings as if to hide when he wasn't in the musical spotlight, but as engaging and virtuosic as a soloist in the whirling fast music. With Ács back in his seat, Fischer and the pianist Igor Levit took Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 2 and made this strange, colossal work sound more baffling and compelling than ever. The orchestra oozed in underneath Levit's first melody and from then on the first movement's music slipped artfully in and out of focus, the orchestra not so much beautiful as eerily glutinous. Levit built his big solo passage to a peak of forceful intensity; then, in the tiny second movement, he kept the piano motoring deftly on, as if impervious to the orchestra hurtling beside it. The mechanical feeling spread to the third movement, which began with almost inhuman stomping but cradled a little swaying dance at its centre. The last movement brought grand romantic sweep – finally, the stuff big piano concertos are made of, hard won. Levit's encore, Schumann's Der Dichter Spricht, was an introspective and deeply felt contrast, its spell unbroken despite throbs of static from a malfunctioning speaker high above. After the interval, it was all about storytelling. A selection from the ballet Cinderella – Fischer our grandfatherly narrator – found the orchestra on more relaxed form, catching the music's colourful, occasionally edgy charm. This continued into their encore, the Gavotte from the Classical Symphony: a dance that 'starts young and ends old', as Fischer put it. If it ended steadier than it began, it lost none of its spark.
