Berlin Phil cold-shoulders Klaus Mäkelä

First reviews of the young Finn’s debut are discouraging.

Berliner Zeitung: In Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Mäkelä finds some striking new phrasing – he takes back the ornamented repetition of the four-note main motif, as if this ornament were not intensification but disguise. He varies the repetitions of the secondary theme, which floats somewhat unfamiliarly above the first movement, by carefully treating secondary voices – but here, too, the lyrical power is dismantled, so to speak.

Morgenpost: The chemistry with the chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra was probably not right. The orchestra gave him the cold shoulder.

Tagespiegel: This (Pathetique) reading is provocative, diametrically opposed to the harrowing interpretation with which Kirill Petrenko made his debut as Philharmoniker chief conductor in 2017. But also in a pleasantly carefree way. So easy.