Klaus Mäkelä New Principal in Chicago

[richardfinegold]

Don’t know what to make of this. I’ve enjoyed the few recordings of his that I’ve encountered. However, he is only 27, he is going to retain his other significant posts, and he just broke up with Yuja Wang. At the very least I don’t see how he will have the time to deepen as an Artist; at the worst I fear he might be handed his head

[Pulcinella]

Don’t know what to make of this. I’ve enjoyed the few recordings of his that I’ve encountered. However, he is only 27, he is going to retain his other significant posts, and he just broke up with Yuja Wang. At the very least I don’t see how he will have the time to deepen as an Artist; at the worst I fear he might be handed his head

Wiki says he's leaving both Oslo and Paris at the end of the 2026–2027 season, and taking up Chicago at the start of the 2027–2028 season.
But he'll also be chief conductor of the RCO from that season too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Mäkelä

(I took the liberty of giving his surname its accents!)

[Petrushka]

He's also going to be in charge of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam from, like Chicago, 2027. Posts he currently holds in Paris and Oslo will be given up at that time.

I really don't know what they are doing in either Chicago or Amsterdam but looks to me as if they are chasing after the latest flavour of the month for PR instead of solid musical accomplishments. Is the conducting talent pool even more shallow than I thought it was?

It's only fair to remember that Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink and Leonard Bernstein also started at a similarly young age and they didn't do too badly. On the other hand, his recordings have been panned by some critics (listen to Dave Hurwitz, for one) and I get the feeling that he is musically too immature, as yet, for important posts like this.

Perhaps, the CSO and RCO were hoping for the Makala/Yuja Wang package but they've apparently split up so that won't be happening.

He's either the Second Coming or he'll crash and burn. Only time will tell.

[HighlandDougie]

One wishes him luck trying to balance the demands of his present two orchestras, at least one of which (O de P) has not had the happiest of relationships with its musical chief in the past few years. And even more luck with the KCO and the CSO. Andris Nelsons seems to manage Boston and Leipzig but in the context of encouraging collaboration and joint activity between the two orchestras. Maybe Mäkelä will attempt the same. His recent Pétrouchka/Jeux release has come in for a bit of a critical drubbing (the Jeux is a bit all over the place by comparison with, say, Cluytens, Boulez or Haitink) which I fear may not bode well. On Finnish conductors, I note also that Esa-Pekka Salonen has fallen out with the apparatchiks of the San Francisco Symphony.

[bluestateprommer]

Having heard his recordings of Sibelius and Stravinsky (but never having seen him live), I can see the point of Hurwitz's reactions to those recordings, as extreme as his rhetoric can be, because the recordings sound distinctly lame to me. However, in this analysis from the NYT, Zachary Woolfe manages to square the circle, IMVHO, with how orchestras can go crazy for him while he makes extremely sub-par recordings:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/05/arts/music/klaus-makela-chicago-symphony-orchestra.html

By way of mini-prologue in Woolfe's evaluation (a split infinitive aside in his writing):

'When I watched him rehearsing with the New York Philharmonic before his debut with the orchestra in December 2022, it was obvious why players like him.

'Orchestral rehearsals can be draining, largely because of all the stop-and-start pauses to go back and work a spot, the conductor’s “uhs” and “hmms,” and the deflating time it takes to flap the pages in the score and find the moment in question.

'Mäkelä’s rehearsing felt uncannily free of all that. He managed to give his comments - succinct, specific, smiling - as he turned the pages; he seemed to know what he wanted and how to cordially, clearly get it. The soufflé never sank, and, without seeming rushed or harried, the energy never ebbed."

ZW then squares the circle in one sentence:

"He creates a happy workplace for players, which is not necessarily the same thing as creating good music for audiences."

Or to quote what Glenn Dicterow once said of Lorin Maazel some years back:

"He's respectful and thorough, and doesn't waste time."

In terms of musical maturity, Makela strikes me as nowhere near ready for orchestras like the Concertgebouw and the Chicago SO. But if nothing else, for marketing and potentially appealing to younger audiences, he may well be a huge shot in the arm for firing up fresh audiences. Plus, both orchestras have at least bought themselves time to look further ahead, on the general principle that orchestras always need to be in search mode, however, informal, for music directors / principal conductors (i.e. "the time to look for a new music director is when you hired the last one").

[oliver sudden]

I remember an orchestral player once replying to the question “what do you like in a conductor?” with “someone who lets us go early”. Dicterow’s “doesn’t waste time” very much reminds me of that. And sometimes ‘respectful’ is the flip side of ‘doesn’t ask us to do anything differently’.

Personally I often find conductors who don’t stop for their comments somewhat annoying, depending of course on the length of the stretch being rehearsed. Sometimes one does actually need to write stuff down. And to hear it in the first place.

[Barbirollians]

Good luck to him - tow very big jobs at such a young age - but if the ghastly Hurwitz hates his recordings sounds like they are worth listening to.

[richardfinegold]

I’ve streamed the Stravinsky and the Sibelius in the past week . Stravinsky definitely underwhelming, the Sibelius was passable without any major insights. I also wonder if Finnish musicians imbibe Sibelius at an earlier age than everyone else, and how much credit we should give to them for mastering that composer at a tender age

[Alison]

Must say I actually enjoyed the new Petrushka, maybe the fairground music could ideally be more exuberant but I held concentration more than normal during the more eerie sinister puppet stuff. Hurwitz’ view was entirely predictable and totally and offensively OTT. In my view Makela is far preferable to Rouvali in another recent Petrushka release.
There is certainly a dearth of conductors approaching greatness right now and I’ve not seen a credible alternative name put forward for Chicago.

[mikealdren]

I remember an orchestral player once replying to the question “what do you like in a conductor?” with “someone who lets us go early”. Dicterow’s “doesn’t waste time” very much reminds me of that. And sometimes ‘respectful’ is the flip side of ‘doesn’t ask us to do anything differently’.

Personally I often find conductors who don’t stop for their comments somewhat annoying, depending of course on the length of the stretch being rehearsed. Sometimes one does actually need to write stuff down. And to hear it in the first place.

My nephew (who played under him with the Oslo Phil) tells me the orchestra are enormously impressed by him and his ability and knowledge which are exceptional for someone so young. He seems to have all the required talents and I'm sure he will 'mature with time', in the meantime, let's enjoy shat he has to offer now.
We certainly don't damn soloists for being too young, why do conductors have to be in their 90s before we take them seriously.

[bluestateprommer]

I should perhaps have clarified that I listened to Makela's Sibelius set without reading or listening to any reviews of it, Hurwitz or anyone else. As I listened, to be honest, my dismay at how lame the set is (again IMVHO) increased with each symphony. It did not get better going from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, and so on. The only glimmers of OK-ness for me were in the Three Fragments, and in Tapiola, but those moments were quite few. If you can't stand Hurwitz, that's OK, but don't confuse the very abrasive messenger with his message here, which is a lot more accurate than some might want to admit. For anyone else who dives into the Sibelius or other Makela recordings so far, it'll be interesting to hear your reactions.

Another expression of dismay about Makela's recordings, specifically on the Stravinsky album with the Orchestre de Paris, is from David Allen in the NYT here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/music/classical-music-albums-april.html

Allen notes how Makela's super-fast rise to working with top-flight orchestras before "paying his dues", so to speak, has this danger for his potential as a conductor:

"He has given himself no time to grow, and nowhere to hide."

This is in contrast with a young conductor only a few years older than Makela, Thomas Guggeis, who was profiled in the NYT last year:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/arts/music/conductor-thomas-guggeis-profile.html

In that article, Joshua Barone pointedly notes an implicit contrast with Makela, without naming the latter:

"Things are happening quickly - Guggeis starts as the general music director of the Frankfurt Opera this fall - but he is trying to maintain a steady development that some of his peers have abandoned in favor of peripatetic celebrity."

On the "nowhere to hide" situation with Makela, the contrast with Guggeis comes in this passage from Barone:

"[Guggeis] has also tried to test out famous pieces like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony away from very public stages like the Philharmonie in Berlin or the Musikverein in Vienna. He has conducted the Beethoven, but in Italy, in a five-concert series with the Milan Symphony Orchestra, following advice he once heard attributed to Herbert von Karajan, that regardless of where you lead this work, the first 15 times won’t be good; so start early."

In other words, the contrast between the two is that:
(a) Guggeis has been developing his experience with core repertoire out of the spotlight, with not-quite-top-of-the-line ensembles, which is normally the case for a young conductor working his / her way up.
(b) By contrast, Makela is risking too-soon comparison with the big names who worked with the big orchestras only after getting experience away from those big orchestras at the start.

The big general risk is that Makela may well be "starting at the top and working his way down", a phrase said of Orson Welles in a different artistic realm. I hope that this isn't the case, but it is a risk. Although, if nothing else, once Makela wears out his welcome in Chicago, Cleveland may well sign him next, in 12 years or so, by which time Chicago and Amsterdam will hopefully have helped mature the vintage, as it were.

[richardfinegold]

Very well put, bsp. I and others have been also expressing concerns here that this to much to fast but the links you provide help add context

[Rjw]

Just been watching Klauss Makela and Yuja Wang playing the Ravel Piano concerto on Arte. Amazing!

[Roger Webb]

Just been watching Klauss Makela and Yuja Wang playing the Ravel Piano concerto on Arte. Amazing!

Yes, in fact both concertos.....but I wonder if they'll repeat this collaboration now they are no longer an 'item'?!

I was halfway through the live Igor Levit Beethoven Sonata series, they've now taken them off....which is irritating!

[richardfinegold]

Yes, in fact both concertos.....but I wonder if they'll repeat this collaboration now they are no longer an 'item'?!

I was halfway through the live Igor Levit Beethoven Sonata series, they've now taken them off....which is irritating!

She canceled 3 years of planned concerts with KM