The Orchestre de Paris and Music Director Klaus Mäkelä are about to undertake a tour of North America, performing works by Stravinsky, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, with young South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim as soloist.
This will be the first North American tour by the Parisian Orchestra since Christoph Eschenbach led its performances there in 2003, and the first since Mäkelä took the helm in 2021. It also marks Mäkelä’s debut at Carnegie Hall, and further performances will take place in Boston, Ann Arbor and in Montreal.
The tour features the music which was written for the Paris premieres of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and The Firebird, and for Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun – all staged by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. Also included in the programme are the Piano Concerto No 2 by Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3.
The Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä will shortly be releasing on the Deccca/Universal label the second volume of music of the Ballets Russes, which concludes a cycle spanning more than two years, during which they have performed this repertoire at the Philharmonie de Paris, as well as on tour in Europe, Japan, at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and now in the United States and Canada.
The performance at Carnegie Hall is part of the festival Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice which began towards the end of January and continues throughout May. This festival is described by Carnegie Hall as “a powerful exploration of one of the most complex and consequential chapters in modern human history”, and programmes will feature the diverse styles of the time, of which Prokofiev and Stravinsky were part.
Alongside his role as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, Mäkelä is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Oslo Philharmonic – a role he’s held since 2020 – and as Artistic Partner to the Concertgebouworkest since 2022, he will become its Chief Conductor in 2027. As a cellist, he partners with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouworkest for occasional programmes, and each summer performs at the Verbier Festival in chamber music concerts with fellow artists.
Yunchan Lim became the youngest person ever to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2022. Since then, his rise to international fame has been impressive. Marin Alsop, conductor of the 2022 Cliburn Final said, “Yunchan is that rare artist who brings profound musicality and prodigious technique organically together.” Noting that Yunchan Lim’s performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 was the defining moment of the competition, Seen and Heard International wrote that “The applause that followed was endless: a star had emerged before our eyes”. It has been listed as one of the Top 10 Classical Music Performances of 2022 by The New York Times.
Yunchan Lim’s engagements across North America, Europe and Asia include performances with the New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo philharmonics, the Baltimore Symphony and Orchestre de Paris, as well as festival appearances at Aspen, Bravo! Vail, and Ravinia, and a number of recitals such as those at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Wigmore Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Suntory Hall and Seoul Arts Center.
Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris appear at the following venues:
The Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor on March 14th
Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No 2 (soloist Yunchan Lim)
Stravinsky – The Firebird
Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 16th
Stravinsky – The Firebird
Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring
Symphony Hall in Boston on March 17th
Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No 3 (soloist Yuncha Lim)
Stravinsky – The Firebird
Place des Arts in Montreal on March 19th
Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No 2 (soloist Yunchan Lim)
Stravinsky – The Firebird
For information on reservations visit the websites of the venues concerned.
Information sourced from:
Orchestre de Paris programme notes
Artists’ websites