One critic, who was in fact impressed by these performances, called violinist
Janine Jansen and conductor (and, charmingly, cellist at the end)
Klaus Mäkelä "Barbie and Ken," but don't hate them because they're beautiful; this is a splendid release. To start, the program is fresh, getting away from the usual
Sibelius-
Tchaikovsky and
Sibelius-
Mendelssohn pairings and showing the musicians' ability to flourish in varied repertory.
Sibelius'
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, is one of the warhorses of classical music, while
Prokofiev's
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, although common enough, is hardly a crowd-pleaser.
Jansen,
Mäkelä, and the
Oslo Philharmonic (which seems to have a fine rapport with him) are well attuned to the work, which is full of innocently pretty melodies that devolve into something much more uneasy. The real triumph, though, is the
Sibelius. It may be hard to make fresh by this time, but these performers manage the trick. Hear how
Jansen takes time at the beginning, generating enough of a shadowy atmosphere to bring a convincing arc to the work as a whole. Her Adagio is deeply felt, and her finale has lots of forward momentum without feeling ground out. One may also observe that
Mäkelä was one of the hot topics in classical music in 2024, when this album appeared, with lots of big ambitions to live up to. From this, it would seem that he can work very well with a really brilliant soloist, and that is one of the biggest jobs a symphony conductor has. The album made classical best-seller lists in the spring of that year. ~ James Manheim
