Klaus Mäkelä to conduct Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Christmas Matinee

The Concertgebouw Orchestra is performing its Christmas Matinee on 25 December at 2.15 p.m., this year under the baton of its chief conductor designate Klaus Mäkelä. The festive Christmas concert will be broadcast live on radio by AVROTROS via NPO Klassiek; a telecast on NPO 2 follows at 4.00 p.m. 

  

The programme features works by Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, followed after the interval by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (‘Eroica’). Soprano Chen Reiss appears as soloist in two rarely performed works: the ‘dramatic scene’ Hero und Leander by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and her brother Felix Mendelssohn’s concert aria Infelice (the 1834 version). Also featuring are two of Felix Mendelssohn’s instrumental pieces – the overture Die Hebriden and the scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Never before has the Concertgebouw Orchestra performed music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. 

  

This programme will also be performed on Wednesday, 20 December and Thursday, 21 December. On Saturday, 23 December, Klaus Mäkelä will conduct Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony on an Essentials concert catering for younger and less seasoned concertgoers. 

  

Klaus Mäkelä and the Christmas Matinee 

Broadcast live, the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Christmas Matinee is a tradition that dates back to 1975. It has generally been the chief conductor who has led the orchestra in the Christmas Matinee, a convention established early on by Bernard Haitink. The 2021 Christmas Matinee was offered as a concert stream when the Netherlands was in lockdown, and for which Klaus Mäkelä was invited back three months following his Concertgebouw Orchestra debut. The success of this collaboration with the orchestra led to Klaus Mäkelä’s appointment as its artistic partner and furure chief conductor. In that capacity, he will be leading the orchestra in its annual Christmas Matinee as from 2023.