It’s tough to speak about Klaus Mäkelä without mentioning his age. At twenty-seventh, the Finnish maestro already leads the Orchestre de Paris and Oslo Philharmonic, and has been announced as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s following director. But it’s hardly the meteoric rise it may seem. “I’ve always felt that things have gone at a very comfor pace,” he explains, “which has helped me perceive both comfor and confident in myself”. Mäkelä started conducting aged twelve, studying with the eminent Jorma Panula, whose former students comprise Esa-Pekka Salonen, Susanna Mälkki, Sakari Oramo, and Dalia Stasevska.
“Every Saturday, we conducted in front of an orchestra of our friends and colleagues,” Mäkelä explains, “and over time it became the most natural and comfor thing to be in front of an orchestra. And when you're natural and comfor onstage, only then can you communicate with the orchestra – you can’t force authority!” The genuine learning, he says, comes with experience. “When you start working with orchestras, that’s when you really memorise what to do and what not to do. It’s so much about psychology, and understanding what people need me in the moment”. He first conducted the Orchestre de Paris in two thousand-nineteenth, and scarcely a year later he was announced as its following music director. “We met for the first time playing Shostakovich,”
Mäkelä recalls, “and I was blown far by their musical intelligence and sensitivity – it was different any other orchestra I'd conducted before”. He officially took up the Music Director role in two thousand twenty-first following a two-year transition, a period which he recalls fondly. “We initially thought it'd be a kind marriage, and it turned into something very special. Starting this season, I don’t know what happened – we very unexpectedly had a second honeymoon! I suppose it always takes a few years to construct this kind of deep connection, but now we're in a moment it feels very special to play together every single time.” The life of a touring conductor is a active one, and this season alone Mäkelä makes his debut with the NY Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Gewandhausorchester among others. He's speaking to me backstage following a rehearsal with the Cleveland Orchestra.
“This orchestra is an absolute miracle,” he enths, “and you can’t even characterize how it feels to hear it onstage. We’re doing Mahler five which I’ve done many times, but today in rehearsal I just thought it sounded totally different every time I’ve done it before.” How does he switch between orchestras, sometimes on a week-to-week basis? “I’m a tourist – I always get a small something with me when I leave – a special moment or sound that I cherish. And the following time I do a piece, I've this bank of different sounds that I remember.” But the Orchestre de Paris obviously has a special space in his heart. “It’s an orchestra of personalities!” he enths. “There’s the most wonderful style, very French, and it's to do with the fact that everyone is French or French-trained so there is a very homogenous sound.”
He’s particularly excited about the woodwind section, well-known for their French-trained sound. “It’s one of the greatest woodwind sections in the world! I'd think I wanted a solo played a certain way, but then I’d hear the principal flautist Vincent Lucas do something else that I couldn’t have even imagined in my wildest dreams – it’s absolutely mesmerizing and so much better than what I originally wanted!” As portion of their spring/summer European tour, Mäkelä and the orchestra travel to Lugano this May, with a demanding programme of Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. The Shostakovich represents a homecoming of sorts, as Mäkelä’s first concert with the orchestra featured the composer’s Fifth Symphony. “Shostakovich has always been a composer that's near to my heart,” he recalls.
“When I was youthful I always loved his Cello Sonata, and I played it a lot. I grew up considering Shostakovich as one of the great composers”. This time they carry out the demanding Seventh Symphony, nicknamed the Leningrad for its programmatic subject matter. “It’s a very powerful historical document, and totally terrifying,” he explains. “It has this exhausting shape – which makes sense given the subject matter – and it’s very tiring emotionally and physically to perform. You necessity to give so much emotion and focus, and you really perceive as if you’ve been drained as a performer.
And then you've the most glorious reward at the end!” Mäkelä and the orchestra have just come a tour and recording of Stravinsky’s ballets (released on Decca at the finish of March). Shostakovich was the obvious following step. “We tend to think of Shostakovich as being brutal, nearly blasting at times, and French orchestras tend to be the complete opposite,” Mäkelä observes. “They bring a different colour to Shostakovich which is really interesting, but with number lack of burning intensity.” It also seemed a timely piece to programme, as he explains. “It’s a very powerful journey absolute darkness to light, and a required one to share today with the war in Ukraine. It feels love something we should play now.”
