Program

Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition *arr. Ravel

About the Conductor

Klaus Mäkelä

Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä has held the position of Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2020 and Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie since September 2021. He assumes the title of Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in September 2027 and in the same season commences as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive Decca Classics artist, he has recorded Stravinsky and Debussy Ballets Russes with Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie. With the Oslo Philharmonic he has released the complete Sibelius Symphonies, and Sibelius and Prokofiev’s first Violin Concerto with Janine Jansen.

With a focus on French composers and new works, Mäkelä’s fourth season with the Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie pays tribute to the anniversaries of both Ravel and Boulez and features music by Berlioz, Fauré, Debussy, Poulenc and Messiaen. New commissions featured the premieres of Thierry Escaich’s Lux Aeterna and Charlotte Bray’s A Sky Too Small. In addition to the 10th anniversary celebrations at home in the Paris Philharmonie, they have toured extensively, with summer performances at the BBC Proms and Lucerne Festivals, and guest performances across Europe. They complete the season by returning to Asia in June 2025.

About the Pianist

Yunchan Lim

Since becoming the youngest person to ever win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of 18 in 2022, Yunchan Lim’s ascent to international stardom has been meteoric. His performances showcase a “magical ability” and a “natural, instinctive quality” (La Scena) that astounds listeners around the world. Marin Alsop, who conducted the 2022 Cliburn Final said, “Yunchan is that rare artist who brings profound musicality and prodigious technique organically together.”

In the years following his Cliburn win, Yunchan made successful orchestral debuts with the New York, Los Angeles, Munich, and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, as well as Chicago, Lucerne, BBC, Boston, and Tokyo Symphony orchestras among others. Recital appearances include performances at Carnegie Hall, Verbier Festival, the Wigmore Hall, Het Concertgebouw, and Suntory Hall, among other major stages.

As an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, Yunchan Lim’s acclaimed debut studio album, Chopin Études Opp. 10 & 25 has gone double platinum in South Korea and topped the classical charts around the world. The album won the 2024 Gramophone Award for Piano, and he was named Young Artist of the Year. His previous releases include his award-winning Cliburn performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Études (Steinway & Sons), which was also nominated in the Piano category at the 2024 Gramophone Awards; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (Universal Music Group); and his appearance on KBS’s 2020 Young Musicians of Korea album. Since January 2024, Yunchan has been an Apple Music Classical Global Ambassador.

About the Orchestra

Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie

The heir to the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire founded in 1828, the Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie gave its inaugural concert on 14 November 1967 under the direction of Charles Münch. Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi and most recently Daniel Harding have followed Münch as music director. Since September 2021, Klaus Mäkelä is the tenth music director of the Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie for a six-year tenure.

After many migrations in the course of its half-century of history, the Orchestra became Principal Resident of the Philharmonie de Paris when it opened in January 2015. It found this building designed by the architect Jean Nouvel a venue ideally suited to perpetuating its French tradition and tone colour. In January 2019, the Orchestra embarked on a new stage in its rich history by becoming an integral part of this cultural hub unparalleled anywhere in the world, as a specific department situated at the very core of the artistic project of the Philharmonie de Paris.

The Orchestre de Paris-Philharmonie, France’s leading symphony orchestra, gives around a hundred concerts with its 119 musicians each season, at the Philharmonie de Paris or on international tours.