Breaking: Chicago Symphony names music director
OrchestrasAs foretold in Slippedisc.com, it’s the overcommitted young Finn, Klaus Mäkelä. (You read it here first)
Today, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the recommendation of the CSOA Music Director Search Committee to appoint Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä as the next Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO): the eleventh in the ensemble’s 133-year history. Following a term as Zell Music Director Designate, effective immediately, Mäkelä will begin an initial five-year tenure as Zell Music Director in September 2027. In this role, he will conduct the orchestra a minimum of 14 weeks per season: 10 weeks of subscription and other concerts in and around Chicago, plus four weeks of domestic and international tours…
This does not bode well. For the next three years he is split between orchestras in four different countries.
Mäkelä will be 31 when he commences his tenure as Zell Music Director in Chicago at the start of the 2027/28 season, coinciding with his inauguration as Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He explained: “From 2027/28 my main responsibilities will be my partnerships with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Until then I remain committed to my ongoing collaborations with the Orchestre de Paris and Oslo Philharmonic. I look forward to all the music-making we have planned for the next three seasons and to returning to both institutions on a regular basis after my official tenures are completed.”
Paris and Oslo will rightly feel snubbed.
The agent is Jasper Parrott. It is a really bad deal for everyone else.
Even Ronald Wilford never stretched a conductor so thin.
UPDATE: Sources in Chicago are saying: At least we got in ahead of LA Phil and SanFran Sym.
EDITORIAL: Chicago got a raw deal
So he plan to manage 4 orchestras for the next 3/4 years?
It seems he will keep his two current director posts, Oslo and Paris, while continuing to visit Chicago and Amsterdam once or twice a year like he does currently, along with other top orchestras. Come 2027 I assume this will flip: he spends most weeks in Chicago and Amsterdam while visiting Paris and Oslo as emeritus.
He won’t visit Oslo or Paris much. He will be committed to Chicago and Amsterdam and will occasionally visit Berlin and Vienna.
The Berlin Phil and the city’s critics gave him their legendary treatment a few years back, he’s not going back there soon. https://slippedisc.com/2023/04/berlin-phil-cold-shoulders-klaus-makela/
I get the nervousness, but it looks like he’ll essentially be Principal Guest in Chicago and Amsterdam until the other gigs run out. He’s oversubscribed, but not by crazy amounts. And now the orchestra world can look around and notice there are other good conductors with open spots on their dance cards.
He can do it. It’s not that big a demand if you program similarly in all locations. There’s what soloists do.
No, he plans to “manage” them, the same way King Charles “manages” the United Kingdom.
“He said he would step down from [Paris and Oslo] when his contracts expire in 2027 so that he could focus on the orchestras in Chicago and Amsterdam.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/arts/music/klaus-makela-28-to-lead-chicago-symphony-orchestra.html
The fight for the next four years will be over recordings, presumably. What, and with whom?
Those pesky Finns! Eh Norman?
This is beyond stupid. Both Klaus Mäkelä and the CSO have shown themselves to be deeply unserious.
I totally agree on the substance, but what all orchestras need now is to survive with cold, hard cash. And if it takes a young “phenom” to sell tickets, then that’s what they have to do. Good for Chicago for winning that contest.
Hope he turns out better than the evidence suggests so far (that dreadful Sibelius cycle…), but I just feel like a 20-something is nowhere near ready for a top-tier orchestra.
That is hilarious
^ +1
I love it when the sad internet denizens declare themselves more competent judges than the musicians who rehearsed and performed under the conductor in question.
That’s not the point. Even if he was the greatest conductor the world has ever seen – and by all accounts he’s not – for an orchestra like the Chicago Symphony to be led by a Music Director whose annual commitment is limited to 10 weeks a year (plus a few weeks of touring) is a travesty.
Hi Tim,
Facts are your friends. A music directorship with any major orchestra is a 10-14 week job. Mäkelä is signed up for 14. Not a “travesty”, but exactly the same job every other music director has done at every other major orchestra for the past several decades. Muti had fewer obligations in Chicago than Mäkelä will have.
You’d have to go back to the early 60s to see longer seasonal commitments for music directors, and those often featured multiple repeats of the same program over the season. I was astounded by the limited repertoire performed by Szell in Cleveland when I recently stumbled upon a historical season brochure.
What do you imagine a music director actually does? Do you want orchestras not to have any visiting guest conductors? When are they supposed to be fit into a September-June season?
Not a big répertoire, but what a polish. Cleveland Szell was exact opposite of what we see here …years and years of frequenting works , aiming to in ideal. Great deal for Makela, not for Chicago nor Amsterdam. I doubt Paris and Oslo will see much of him before some time…
The players were also very, very happy when Muti was signed. Actually CSO players have never had a good idea what they want or need. Barenboim’s tenure was also an incompatible disaster. These players just want the flashiest name out there to show everyone who is boss, and their music making absolutely reflects this crude mentality.
First of all, Bravo Norman, you scooped it.
Second of all, rarely should an agent be mentioned, but here, I think Mr. Parrott’s coup of getting Chicago and the Concertgebouw for his client deserves a kudos, and he yet may pull off a Hat Trick, scoring the Cleveland Orchestra for the triple crown for his client.
Third, Paris is now open for Salonen. I think they would be very, very, very happy with each other.
I think it first appeared in comments here in October 2023 so more a slow loader than a scoop.
Tempus omnia revelat and all that
Zero chance that Cleveland would engage KM now.
Salonen will likely never take another MD position after the fiasco in SF. He can easily maintain his lifestyle with the compensation he gets from guest conducting, has enough demand that he can pick only interesting engagements, and wants to spend more time composing.
Perhaps a good point to ask, and I am genuinely wondering: does he have a specialty repertoire or a composer(s) he particularly excels at? (Hopefully no one will reply with Sibelius just because he’s Finn, especially based on the negative reviews of his Sibelius cycle.)
There was a blind test of Sibelius 2 in France, and his recording did well although Vanska’s was even better. Maazel and Bernstein were immediately disqualified. One does not have to believe reviews, especially by crazy and malicious old men.
No such thing as “blind test” of recordings. I can immediately pick out Mäkelä’s recording from the ones you listed from sonic signature alone.
Fair; I was trying to prevent a knee-jerk “Sibelius because he’s Finn” answer. Regardless, I am sincerely asking if there’s a repertoire or composers he excels at.
Hasn’t Jasper retired…?!
“Sources in Chicago are saying: At least we got in ahead of LA Phil and SanFran Sym.”
Good. A conductor this undisciplined and stupid should stay clear of all but the most gullible orchestras.
Excuse me, but this is not serious at all. Really.
All the doubters need to wake up and realize that all the old guys are, well, old. The pipeline of conducting talent has got to be replenished. Stretched too thin, certainly. I do think it would be better if conductors stuck with one orchestra, actually lived in the city, and only occasionally guest conductor.
I read several nasty reviews and comments (even here) about his Sibelius cycle. Could any record company really release something so awful? So I bought it and gave it a listen. Then another and you know what? There’s some terrific music making there. Maybe the 2nd doesn’t scale the heights of Barbirolli or Szell, but the 1st is superb – dramatic as can be. The 5th is very fine and the 7th, too. Tapiola is hair-raising. The whole set won’t replace some old favorites, but it’s really very good and a lot better than the C Davis/LSO or Rattle sets. Chicago is lucky – but 14 weeks not enough!
14 weeks is quite normal. Most MDs (in Chicago and elsewhere) committed as little as 10-12 weeks to “their” orchestra. Holding two MD positions isn’t unusual. Barenboim and FWM did it too. Nelsons does as well.
It’s a Sibelius set in the best recorded sound as of today’s standards, quite decently conducted — not quite as uniformly good as Vanska in Lahti, not transcendental like the half-dead Szell in Japan, but MUCH better than the Maazels and Bernsteins, and better than the rather uneven Rouvali.
But certainly not better than C. Davis and Boston?
I’ll never doubt Norman again.
It’s utterly ridiculous.
This is almost a travesty for the many other more capable conductors and music director possibilities that were out there, for both the Concertgebouw and the Chicago Symphony.
Someone like Anna Rakitina, who was almost certainly not being considered for the music director position, has far more natural talent as a conductor than Klaus the jet-setting “wunderkind.” Why go with a talented conductor in her 30s when you can go with a “marketable” “pretty boy” who is still in his 20s.
Then again, the lure of what remains of Decca Classics and the ashes of the Solti legacy was almost certainly part of the equation.
Anna Rakitina is fantastic! Her recent Shostakovich 10 in Vancouver was utterly masterful.
Vancouver?
It is still news to some of the so-called cognoscenti of the orchestral concertgoer world, but orchestras like the Vancouver Symphony, the Utah Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, etc. can play with the “best” in the world nowadays on any given night. Stick to the Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall if you think that is where the only “world-class” (such a bogus term) orchestral playing lands on planet earth in 2024.
Actually I am aware that the so called (or better said self proclaimed) “music centers” are not the only places where one can hear world class performances. In fact, in the DC area where I live I regularly attend both the concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra and of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, none of which are regarded among the greatest in the world. But not once I heard more satisfying concerts from them than from more famous bands.
I was just being sarcastic, that’s all.
P.S. One of the best recordings of the Brahms 2nd symphony that I listened to was that of the Columbus Symphony under Alessandro Siciliani.
What in the world happened to him, anyway?
A province in Western Canada.
Good evening Mr. Neidorf. How was your day so far?
Canada?
Anna Rakitina will likely find a music director or chief/principal conductor position in the next 3-5 years, most likely in Europe I suspect. She is a talented conductor.
I submit the following: Klaus Mäkelä received an exclusive commercial recording contract with Decca a few years ago because he has an image, crafted mostly by others, that he is somehow on a path to being a “great” conductor. There is no such thing in today’s orchestral world.
Being given the opportunity to make commercial recordings nowadays is not at all directly and only related to how skilled a conductor is on the podium, either in rehearsals or in concerts.
“There is nothing wrong with old people,” Mäkelä said.
“I’m not terrified of the weather, being Finnish,” he said. “It seems pretty cozy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/arts/music/klaus-makela-28-to-lead-chicago-symphony-orchestra.html
Not. one. single. word. from. Muti.
I sense a future quote, something like:
“So they hire a child 55 years younger? What does this mean? Is the food of today so good he can automatically conduct Beethoven Missa Solemnis without serious years and study?”
Why the F would anyone care about his opinions? He was past his sell-by date when he started in Chicago.
He is not going to like it, probably. But at least we will be finally seeing other Italian conductors in Chicago, because he blocked them all during his time: Gatti (probably not because of his me-too history), Luisi, Chailly, Rustioni.
Gatti is exceptional. I still remembert a Mahler 6 I saw him so in NY in 1996.
Not. one. single. word. ABOUT. Muti. either.
Not from Makela, not from the CSO board, not from the CSO administration, not from the CSO musicians.
I’ll be there to see them Thursday evening.
Me too — and I am fortunate to have a ticket to tomorrow’s rehearsal. Call me crazy, but I am always grateful to be in the audience when the CSO is on the stage. Even the “melodius cacophony” during the pre-concert warmup is a treat. 37-year subscriber and planning on attending as long as I can. Thank you founding music director Theodore Thomas for your very high musical standards (including repertoire) and for setting the CSO “gene pool” very high from the get-go and still going strong. And thank you CSO musicians for carefully maintaining the high standards. AMAZING musicians. Chicago is one very fortunate city when it comes to hearing live classical music.
What? Not a they/them? She/it? No intersex projecting femme, yet butch baller? Blasphemy.
They never offered *me* a private jet
Ask Putin — he could give you a SU.
It’s amazing how easy millions of dollars in conducting fees can make one’s splitting of time between multiple countries. He’s young and it’s not like he’ll be flying coach.
On the other hand, at least the millions are for artistic talent and not for kicking, throwing, running with, or hitting a ball.
The talents you disparage are just as rare as those of Mr. Mäkelä as those with them have just a few years in which to monetize them.
Moreover, their value is determined by criteria far more objective than who their agent is, or musical politics, or who slept with whom.
On the other hand, at least the millions earned by the guys kicking, throwing, running with or hitting a ball are paid for by people who’ve chosen to spend their own money to watch them play.
Oh really—-and would you like to have a serious discussion about dark money via Russian oligarchs and Arab emirati and sports teams? Does the most recent iteration of the World Cup ring a bell? Or maybe a little chat as to the level of state, federal and municipal subsidies of stadiums and arenas for popular entertainment and professional sports, while at the same time we’re incapable of funding a healthcare system? Or how in the States folks have to pay $75 a month to get their one cable tv news channel, so that they can be forced into underwriting MLB, the NFL and the NBA and the feudal families who own them? Or how the working classes and the urban poor are now being lured into ruination via sportsbooks? Yeah, right, classical music is so elitist.
He’s been in loose partnerships all along.
“UPDATE: Sources in Chicago are saying: At least we got in ahead of LA Phil and SanFran Sym.”
And Cleveland.
“To devote his attention to those posts (Concertgebouw and Chicago), Mäkelä told the (Chicago) Tribune his guest conducting days are essentially over. He’ll make exceptions only for the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics… even as Mäkelä was courted by the Cleveland Orchestra, a peer ensemble to the CSO with whom he’s enjoyed a longer, deeper guest affiliation.”
Ouch. That’s COLD! He treats his ex-orchestra like he treats his ex-girlfriend.
It’s not “his” orchestra.
Cleveland is “a peer ensemble to the CSO with whom he’s enjoyed a longer, deeper guest affiliation.””
I think Makela has conducted here two or three times, and he’s due again in April. That’s “long and deep”?
He won’t go to Cleveland because U.S. music directors (at least of the Big 5) usually are bound by exclusivity clauses (i.e. they can’t conduct another U.S. orchestra). Berlin and Vienna seem to fall outside such restrictions. Solti generally didn’t conduct other U.S. orchestras when he was at the CSO, and Giulini – despite a yearslong relationship with the CSO – didn’t conduct them again after he went to LA.
That is patently false. Gilbert guested at Cleveland all the time while director of NY. Bernstein at Boston while the same in NY. That’s just the top off my head. It wouldn’t surprise me if Barenboim conducted NY while head of CSO.
Barenboim conducted a portion of a Pension Fund benefit with the NY Phil while he was in Chicago, and no more than that.
Who says that the Berlin Philharmonic will invite him again?
They will next season, but for Baden-Baden only, possibly as a courtesy to him so that local audience will get to know him, as he will conduct Concertgebouworkest the year after in residence in Baden-Baden during Easter. But Berlin Philharmonic may indeed not invite him again after that.
Berlin kept inviting Alan Gilbert, and Gilbert sure ain’t better than Makela.
Gilbert is a musician with substance. Mäkelä is not.
It’s unfair. It could be good old Marin, she could certainly squeeze it in between LA and her other engagements.
Please. After her total failure in Vienna? She is an interesting, intelligent woman. But she can’t actually conduct.
At last someone said it!
Somehow I can picture this phrase being tossed around in the boardroom: if he is good enough for the concertgebouw, he is good enough for us. What a disgrace. On the other hand, now that the dust is settled, I sincerely hope Makela can rise to the challenge and prove me wrong.
Well, I’m big enough to admit when I’m wrong. And Norman was right.
But I still can’t believe they did it – I would have thought the CSO would look at Makela as an impressive kid, and tell him to come back in 20 years once he’s proved himself. I was sure they were going to spring a surprise and say they signed Thielemann or Riccardo Chailly. Or despite his recent cancellation, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
As for those grousing about four orchestras: So until 2027 he’ll do 3-4 weeks each in Chicago and Amsterdam, and maybe 10 weeks each in Paris and Oslo. Still leaves time for vacations or maybe another guest gig. Quite manageable.
Since you mention Salonen – don’t forget that there was considerable skepticism about him back in the distant 1980s. I remember a pair of concerts with a riveting Sibelius 5, some quite clumsy concerto accompaniments, and another standard rep piece that was uninspiring and forgettable. But – there was that riveting Sibelius 5. Even when you’re talented, experience makes a difference.
As a somewhat old person who attends symphony concerts, I am glad to see Klaus quoted, in the New York Times article, as saying that “there is nothing wrong with old people.”
No, not just “glad.” That is an understatement.
“Blessed.” “Honored.” And, of course, the colorful if less mellifluous “gobsmacked.”
I mean, that someone of Klaus’s magnificence would actually deign to affirm that there is nothing “wrong” with a person of my age buying concert tickets to any orchestra where His Klausness may be conducting . . . well, all I can say is that I got out of bed this morning thinking that life no longer had meaning, but now my faith has been restored. I will lift up mine eyes . . .
Replace the Board…the CSO and The Titanic had one thing different…the Titanic had the lights on when it went down!
So the CSO board is committed now to doing 4 weeks of touring every year of his contract? That’s how it sounds. Ten weeks in Chicago, four on tour.
I wonder how many of those tours will include US cities other than New York and the occasional Midwest college town. I bet not very damn many.
They actually tour a lot in the Midwest. (Well, certainly 1000% more than the orchestras of Boston or Cleveland or NY or Philadelphia or LA or SF). So the CSO is very accessible and locally minded that way. And believe it or not, they are also profitable, so it’s a win-win.
That’s how it has been always. Muti had 10 weeks in Chicago, 4 for touring, 3 for international tours and 1 for Florida residency in the recent past, or 2 shorter domestic tours like in 2017.
Why would Paris and Oslo “feel snubbed”? His contracts there will be out by then.
So the “Music Director” of the Chicago Symphony will only be in Chicago for 10 weeks each year? Leading an orchestra of that stature used to be a full-time job – it certainly was for greater and more experienced conductors than Klaus Mäkelä. Same goes for the Concertgebouw, possibly even more so.
What a joke.
Not so. Solti rarely spent more time there (maybe 12?). In his last seasons it was often more like six.
10 weeks is literally the job of a music director at every major orchestra
Here’s the bottom line. Musicians with orchestral jobs respect him and like him. He’s a musician’s musician. Why do you think Cleveland and all these other orchestras were after him? It’s not just boards who make this decision. The era of MDs “belonging” to one orchestra (like Muti) are over.
I imagine he’ll be a dream come true for musicians with orchestral jobs in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After all, they’re much less likely to get fired by a Music Director they almost never see or play for.
This is basically right, see many other very good conductors, who, like Mäkelä have several commitments and can honor them properly. The question is rather the level of maturity and the knowledge of the repertoire – conducting important repertoire for the first time with a first range orchestra that has played that very piece often and with the best conductors can put a lot of pressure on a young conductor. I hope that Jasper, who is known for sort of exploiting his artists, can be the right advisor for Klaus.
I suspect that there are more than just a handful of conductors out there who are “a musician’s musician.”
Nowadays, at least in the US, when a major (top-30 in terms of annual budget) orchestra hires a new music director, both the board and the musicians usually have something much closer to a co-equal role in the decision. The odds of a truly horrible choice are thus much less likely, but, I would argue, the odds of making an “inspired” choice are also less likely.
However, if either the board alone or the musicians alone has the “final say,” it can still end up making a retrospectively mediocre choice.
Finding a new music director in the US for these top-30 or so orchestras that turns out to have a positively transformative tenure for the orchestra is akin to turning lead into gold.
Exactly. I think CSO had a strong number of musicians involved in the search. Yeah, he’s young, but the reports from musicians in Europe are outstanding. So I’m going to wait and see what they see.
We absolutely love him in the Oslo Phil!! The same goes for the musicians in Paris and Amsterdam. He is the real thing! Just wait….you’ll see;-)
Figaro qui, Figaro qua.
It looks very bad, and I don’t even know the guy.
Musicians of orchestras he conducted are eager to work further with him and he can choose any he wants. They all want to collaborate with him. Is this not at least questioning the critics? His age means nothing, he knows scores better than many and work on them like the most experienced conductor. Pity that jealous old men do not have ears. Amsterdam and Chicago audience will enjoy his talent and his genuine love for music.
He is that good.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnaxelrod/p/is-makela-really-that-good?r=3m1of0&utm_medium=ios
Conductor John Axelrod is an eclectic one. I have never seen him conduct live, in person, so I remain respectful. I have none of his commercial recordings.
His comments on Mäkelä in his article are certainly not to be dismissed, but the vast majority of them are not unexpected. Indeed, his observations on Mäkelä’s conducting skills and/or talent are rather generalized for all the apparent detail. That does not of course make them irrelevant or inaccurate.
Like all (I repeat, all!) conductors of major orchestras in the world today, I predict and expect that Mäkelä’s tenure will have its high points and low points. He is and will be excellent to outstanding in some repertoire and only good or average in other repertoire.
No conductor, young or old, on the scene today, is a “god” or “genius” who can do no wrong in terms of interpretations and performances that they elicit from orchestras. No conductor ever was such a thing in all of history.
However, Mäkelä does have the “gift” of an exclusive (lifetime?) recording contract with the commercial record label Decca (Classics), so his musings on repertoire, both standard and eclectic, will be preserved for posterity on a more consistent basis than the vast majority of most conductors both young and old.
And on that subject, I hope that the CSO Resound commercial record label will not die a quick death just because of the supposed glory that Decca (Classics) will likely document. CSO Resound should document Mäkelä’s more eclectic repertoire choices and the interpretations of those compositions. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Decca will try to shut down the admittedly intermittent pipeline of commercial releases from CSO Resound.
I have no vested interest in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s choice for its next music director. My local orchestra, the Utah Symphony, is also looking for a new music director, and the search has been ongoing for a few years. I suspect that the German conductor Markus Poschner might be named music director here in the next year or so, but if he is not selected, the Utah Symphony could invest in its own leap of faith, and think of selecting Anna Rakitina as its next music director.
Anna led two excellent performances in Maurice Abravanel Hall in downtown Salt Lake City last weekend, in late March 2024. The 1st Symphony of Sibelius actually was made to sound like Sibelius, not Tchaikovsky, her accompaniment for the Dvořák Violin Concerto with William Hagen had excellent balances and drive, and she led Šárka from Má vlast with finesse and power.
I fully admit that Markus Poschner has more experience than Anna Rakitina, and in that sense he is perhaps the more “logical” choice. He is a talented conductor. And so is Anna Rakitina. And so is Klaus Mäkelä. But such talent never invariably leads to spectacularly compelling interpretations or even performances night after night. That is impossible.
In any case, best wishes to the Chicago Symphony and Klaus Mäkelä ; the CSO in the windy city will probably need some of that aura for the foreseeable future.
Thank you Mr. Axelrod for your insightful article. I was getting a bit tired of the comments from the armchair critics.
I’m not going to predict how he’ll turn out. But it would be interesting to time travel ahead 20 years to see what his reputation will be like then. Will he be a great or a disappointment? I can see it going either way. He clearly has qualities that are attracting the best orchestras. I don’t think they’d do it just for his name. But that’s so young to have such positions. We’ll see.
Awful choice and he’s absolutely useless, his recordings show it. What on earth on they thinking?
Yuja: “I love Chicago guyz but not that much!”
I always find the comments very entertaining, maybe even more than the original post! Lol. I only get to watch YouTube recordings, and he appears very energetic. How do you guys compare him with Dudamel?
I just hope that people will vote with their bums and not turn up, I urge them. The audience can make and break a ‘conductor’.
By not attending, they can also break an orchestra. It’s not about 1 person.
what is the correct pronunciation of his last name?
The umlauts over the “a”s are pronounced like the German umlauts. So you could say that Mäkelä rhymes with map-a-clap
It’ll be interesting to see how Dutch, Norwegian, and French media report on this story.
In Norway, we had heard rumours about Chicago and, in any case, realised that after 7 years with him, he probably would be snatched up by another orchestra, in addition to Amsterdam. We have loved our almost 4 years now with him and are proud that we were the first ones to take a chance on him despite his youth. But really, it takes no more than 10 minutes in rehearsal before you have completely forgotten his age. We wish him the best in Amsterdam and Chicago and I hope you will take good care of him! Everyone on this blog is so sceptical of his motives and qualities. He is a sincere, wonderful person with a conducting talent that comes along once in a century. He has an enormous working capacity and has exceptional social abilities. He knows exactly what he wants and knows how to work with the musicians to create amazing concerts. I just wish everyone would calm down about his appointment and look forward to some amazing years with him in Chicago!!
He’s as white as they come. Is that going to be a handicap?
Only for Democrats.
Do you often remark that a jazz player is as black as they come and if that’s a handicap?
I just got done watching him at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestre de Paris conducting Stravinsky and he was energetic and charismatic and very entertaining. Over time he’ll develop the genius that goes with experience, but in the meantime he’s got the sizzle to sell seats and every arts organization needs that right now.
If he turns out to be a once-in-a-generation talent like Bernstein, then maybe all the nay-saying is wrong and Chicago (orch and audiences) will be glad to have experienced his early explorations of the cornerstone repertory. Can’t say I’ve heard indications of this yet, but you never know…..Toscanini, at the same tender age, was very much in demand.
Everything has its relative day in the sun and then eventually grinds apart.
The CSO is well past it’s apogee which happened with Reiner followed by Solti and Guilini.
Since then it’s been an inevitable decline, the Mussolini – sorry Muti, era just an inevitable step on the descent.
Is it really so surprising that a relative mediocre and unseasoned talent has in 2024 been named their incumbent music director?
Get with it people, this is a reflection of the times we live in.
Lots of stuffy, know-nothings on this site. Time to join the 21st century. lol Congratulations, CSO!
A quick glance at CSO.org reveals this had been in the works for some time now.
Now I am wondering if we will see a music director working 5 posts in the future?
Do musicians in each of these orchestras roll their eyes as well?
Absolutely not. Mäkelä has been clear about his timelines. Contracts in Oslo and Paris until 2027 and starting new contracts in Amsterdam and Chicago from 2027. No rolling eyes anywhere.
This seems rather a hasty choice. given the length of time the CSO took after Barrenboim bolted.
It was four years from the time Barenboim left until Muti took over.
Now that he broke up with Yuja, he can marry Mikaela Shiffrin.
Then she’d be Mikaela Shiffrin-Makela.
That’s it! Henceforth, I will block slippeddisc from my feed, because you are such a prophet-of-doom, always a negative critic, and basically, one with a “hater” disposition when it comes to so many things in the classical music world. Basta!
To those in the know: what happened to Christian Thielemann?
MD at the Berlin State Opera. A very natural, comfortable position in his home town. He hates travelling too much and despises “jet set conductors”, as he calls them. Conducts as a guest in Vienna (a lot) and BerlPhil ( some).
I’m sure these obligations will be amicably balanced. These are professional business people.
He really just isn’t that good!
If that’s true, he’ll soon be found out. Orchestral musicians are a tough crowd, anywhere in the World.
Klaus may not be a great interpreter, yet, and there appears to be more style than substance, but he’s certainly adventurous with his programming. He’s the only conductor on the planet who has Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs in his regular repertoire, and that’s a good thing because Max’s music hardly gets performed now.
Given his sloppy and bland Sibelius cycle, he still has *a lot* to learn.
the real problem is he is not that outstanding. the travel and pressure will result in a meltdown.
He’s not stretched thin, he currently has 2 music directorships which end before he takes up the 2 new ones.