Review: BBC PROMS: MÄKELÄ CONDUCTS MOZART, PROKOFIEV & BARTÓK, Royal Albert Hall

Conductor Klaus Mäkela is a busy man. Still in his twenties, he is the chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, music director of the Orchestre de Paris, artistic partner and chief conductor-designate of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and music director-designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

In his second appearance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at this year's Proms, he helms an ambitious programme teaming two concertos (Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra) with Mozart’s ‘Paris’ Symphony. Celebrated violinist Janine Jansen returns to the Proms for more than ten years, and displays a deeply lyrical and lively sense of melody and pizzicato.

Written during a time of turbulence in Russia, Prokofiev's concerto is quite the opposite, Light, cheerful, impish, it retains a sense of mischief across its three movements. Jansen's violin opens the piece, inviting the orchestra to push open the door a little and teasing with counterpoint. It progresses into a lyrical dance of instruments and motifs.

From its andantino to finale moderato it insists on a virtuoso performance from any soloist, and Jansen fits in well with this orchestra with her gymnastics, flourishes and harmonies. It's a beautiful performance and shows Mäkela is in tune with the style of Prokofiev from the first note.

After the interval we are in the darker, ponderous world of Béla Bartók, and his Concerto for Orchestra. Despite its heaviness, this is a glorious piece of musicianship, itself written within the context of Bartók's exile from an unstable, later occupied, Hungary in World War II. 

With the echoes of European folk structures as well as traditional Western classical pieces, the Concerto opens its arms to draw in the audience just as much as the orchestra, with flourishes, finesses and fire. 

With Mozart's Paris Symphony opening up the afternoon with rich tones and a sense of courtship between strings and woodwind, this programme seems to thrive on themes of togetherness, resilience, and support that may have also influenced the Russian composer at the mid-point of his life, the Hungarian maestro nearing the end of his, and even the bright young man setting out to shake us the music scene in Europe to excess.

Will Mäkelä be the next young man to rock the foundations of the classical world? Wait and see. In the meantime, this concert soars.