Chicago ends up second city, maybe third
OrchestrasAs the ink dries on the Chicago Symphony’s contract with frequent-flier Klaus Mäkelä, the young Finn is insisting he will share his time between Amsterdam and Chicago – with trips to his orchestras in Paris and Oslo ‘on a regular basis after my official tenures are completed’.
Where does that leave Chicago? Hanging out in the wind.
Joseph Horowitz quotes a European manager saying: Mäkelä perfectly serves a music institution without a purpose. Until the next sensation comes along.’ Alex Ross writes: ‘American orchestra subscribers have become resigned to a phony civic ritual: a foreign-accented maestro flies in a few times a season for two or three weeks, stays in a hotel or a furnished apartment, attends a flurry of donor dinners, and dons the appropriate cap when the local baseball team makes the playoffs.’
Chicago is going to have to get used to waiting in line for its music director. They won’t like that.
With Riccardo Muti (pictured), Chicago had bragging rights. Now it has to beg and borrow its shared time, like a telephone user in distant memory.
UPDATE: Promo interview:
Concerning the Paris Orchestra they are used to work with guest conductors. Harding left the orchestra few years ago by surprise and they made during several years concerts with guest with more than less sucess. But they will have like the Opera de Paris to think about a new personality. Roth will be very good for one of the two. not thinking about him would be a big mistake. I suppose he’s more interisted by the Opera.
Norman, Well said (whatever haters say). Confirming my comments under your “Does a conductor have agency?” article. Four world-class orchestras are going to become part of the same franchise. Is that the new business model for the classical music? Like McDonald’s serving exactly the same Big Macs wherever you go you will have now these top orchestras play Beethoven, Brahms or Mahler the same way? Makela never had a chance to prove himself as a conductor who would work with one orchestra to develop their individual and unique style. Truly depressing…
One Cheese Mäk with French fries, please.
“Become part of the same franchise”? How? He is at present chief conductor of two, and in three years time, 2027, he will become chief conductor of another two.
If two quite different orchestras in different countries share a chief conductor, does that mean that they become indistinguishable?
No, they don’t become indistinguishable. They have different musicians. Conductors have far less influence over orchestral playing than people think.
Thank you for this comment. It is the unrecognized truth of orchestras.
This is the heart of the matter with Mäkelä’s selection to be music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
He should have remained with the Oslo Philharmonic for seven more years.
Now, we will eventually (soon?) have an unending stream of commercial recordings from Decca Records, supposedly documenting Mäkelä’s rise to “greatness.”
It is far more likely to be a rise to inconsistency in interpretive prowess, like all conductors.
Won’t it be grand to have a new recording from Chicago? I haven’t heard one for such a long time.
Meanwhile I hear Chicago musicians can be hard to please, which is why they carry those violin cases around all the time. And yet they liked Makela.
Very depressing scenario indeed, trying to impress every Tom, Dick and Harry. It’s quality not quantity of the music that matters, let alone all the effects of such a barage of international flying and time zones on one’s body – and then on the music-making!
I expect to see announcements of revised schedules in Oslo and Paris in the coming months. This is a once in a generation opportunity for Chicago, arguably THE most important US orchestra, to reclaim it’s legacy and destiny. All of you pearl-clutchers can then ease up a bit.
The Oslo and Paris contracts run out when the Amsterdam and Chicago contracts start. There are no schedules to revise.
Yuja revised her schedule this week….easy peasy!
She is the biggest McDonald’s in the world.
Back and forth from. Chicago to Amsterdam then, and the endless long haul flights and jet lag. But Chicago chose him and he chose them. You make a bed, you lie on it. Nothing lasts forever.
Nothing of importance will be lost if you wipe Chicago off the musical map. The place has not produced a single important composer or conductor. Unlike Boston there are no commissions of note either except for maybe Lutosławski’s Third. The orchestra’s reputation is a marketing creation of the record companies of the past. In reality the playing is crude and seldomly in the correct style. A provincial band with an oversized ego.
It is true that Chicago doesn’t meet some of your weird and irrelevant criteria, but its ranking as a major orchestra is pretty widely accepted.
Orchestras do not create great composers; great composers create themselves. What great composers has any orchestra created?
It is perhaps slightly less absurd to say orchestras create great conductors, but only slightly so. Certainly Chicago has had a number of conductors generally considered to be quite important and other great orchestras, like Chicago, have had conductors that are generally not considered to be so great.
As far as commissions are concerned, you really should look up the facts before you comment. Stravinsky Symphony in C, Kodaly Concerto for Orchestra, Tippett Symphony 4, etc., etc. are all Chicago commissions. Other commissioned composers include Walton, Carter, and Milhaud.
You missed my point. Chicago, the city, is a musical desert (I’m talking about classical music only; for jazz it’s another matter). The fact that no important conductor or composer was nurtured in Chicago attests to this. The way the CSO plays most pieces with no awareness as to their style and context further attests to this. There is no real classical music culture in Chicago. The CSO exists in a vacuum.
“Certainly Chicago has had a number of conductors generally considered to be quite important and other great orchestras, like Chicago, have had conductors that are generally not considered to be so great. ” That is not what I was talking about. The conductors the CSO hired did not come from Chicago.
“As far as commissions are concerned, you really should look up the facts before you comment.” Perhaps you should check again. The CSO premiered Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, but did not commission it. Someone else paid. Tippett’s Fourth I do not consider as important as Lutosławski’s Third or the famous Boston commissions.
I wouldn’t say that…I grew up on Solti/Chicago records of Mahler and Strauss. I still love listening to them.
All dead composers today from the last century!
What a sophomoric and irrelevant take. Good lord.
Veronica (furious) : Jughead, that is so *juvenile*!
Jughead: It’s not juvenile, it’s sophomoric.
Absolutely agree!
Nonsense. Some of the greatest recordings ever came out of Chicago, not just of music directors such as Reiner, but also of guest conductors, Giulini for instance. Even more treasures can be found on their much missed From the Archives series.
As for their playing style, the conductors have a big say in it.
I would have to respectfully contend that based on such factors as how closely an orchestra can make Brahms 2 sound like one of their dusty 1950s records, then sure, the CSO is THE most important band in Chicago. If you think in terms of new music commissions, Grammys for performance, ability to cultivate a young audience base, and just having the coolest concert venues (and, not to mention, the occasional Disney+ special with Billie Eilish), you’d have to think the LA Philharmonic is THE new standard…
“ you’d have to think the LA Philharmonic is THE new standard…”
A telltale sign of one who thinks he/she is much smarter than he/she actually is.
He was merely mirroring the original comment, “This is a once in a generation opportunity for Chicago, arguably THE most important US orchestra, to reclaim it’s legacy and destiny”, a risible and preposterous take.
This is nothing new for Chicago. Solti rarely spent more than 8 weeks a year there, and also had the London Philharmonic. Muti was able the same, but without another position.
Chicago needs a more energetic conductor and a younger audience. So they made a choice that works for them. Cleveland generally needs about 12 weeks from its MD plus touring. So Klaus wouldn’t work there, but he is scheduled to conduct 2 weeks soon in Cleveland.
Reiner lived in Connecticut and flew in and out, bringing broadcast tapes with him to NY…..
Why the thumbs down? A simple statement of FACT
Well, you got even more thumbs down for questioning the thmbs down!!
(I added a thumbs up!).
I’m surprised by the raw emotions that this appointment has unleashed. Plenty of concerned readers are weighing in, and some are losing the forest for the trees.
This operation had one single objective: to relaunch the CSO after a Muti era that was very negative in the views of many. The Board truly wanted to turn the page on Muti; they picked someone who is perfect to do precisely that.
The concerns about the new Music Director not having enough time to dedicate to Chicago are real only for those who don’t know what Muti put into the orchestra and the institution: very little. He spent most of his time in the hotel occupied with something totally different (let’s not go there). The VP of AP typically had to beg to meet him once or twice (when lucky) per residency.
Jeff Alexander, with all his shortcomings, is doing a very nice job resetting the tone and the culture inside Symphony Center. This week, he is already addressing the new MD as “Klaus” in public (imagine if he addressed Muti by his first name). He has set-up a lunch event this week with admin staff only, to have them meet the new Maestro (Muti routinely ridiculed and sometimes insulted admin staff, except a special one).
Makela himself is sending clear messages. What does he say he liked about the CSO? “What I like about Chicago Symphony is there is quite a big part of it which still sounds like it sounded with Reiner”. Translate as, he likes whatever is left that Muti – who bragged about having changed the CSO sound into something more ‘mediterranean’ – did not ruin. He added that the future “needs to be something which is a very clear start, a clear new chapter … everything else than comfort zone”.
He said his models are Salonen and Petrenko because of what they dared to do with programming and new music … the opposite of Muti. He did not mention Muti once.
The website is completely rebranded with Makela. Even CSO Radio has removed the Muti recordings. Alexander has announced that the 2026 domestic tour will be led by Makela, not by Muti as originally expected. Retirement of the hard core pro-Muti musicians are upcoming.
The CSO is finally doing what it needed to do, and what should have been done 5, if not 10 years ago.
What Chicago sounds like and what Amsterdam sounds like is nothing alike. So Mäkelä likes both Reiner and Mengelberg — almost polar opposite — and everything in between. What a joke.
The only thing Mäkelä’s four orchestras have in common is that they all offered Mäkelä money. That’s it.
And the other common thing is (I guess nobody talks about) that they really enjoy making music with Mäkelä. What can you say the guy really inspires them.
We’re talking about Mäkelä’s point of view here. Why *he* chose these orchestras. As it turns out he has no criteria and no artistic principles.
They don’t sound alike but that doesn’t mean someone who loves music cannot enjoy both bands for what they are.
After all even Haitink told the CSO musicians that he considers the CSO and the Concertgebouw to be the best in the world.
Haitink also told the press he thought Berlin Philharmonic is the best in the world, and also his favorite. Such words from conductors cannot be taken seriously.
^Word!
Sorry, but your explanation makes this appointment sounds even more ridiculous for both parties.
I never understood why the CSO gave Muti the preposterous title “laureate for life”, it didn’t have to, and it isn’t using it for any discernible purpose.
As for Norman’s remark that “With Riccardo Muti, Chicago had bragging rights”, bragging what? That they hired someone who just got fired from La Scala that no one else wanted? Chicago threw Muti a lifeline, not the other way around, without Chicago, Muti would’ve retired early “for life”
Bravo
I admit to being behind the times in orchestras, but what did Muti do that made him think he had given the CSO a “more Mediterranean sound”?
With respect, Makela cannot, at his age, know what the CSO really sounded like under Reiner, other than via some now ancient recordings – however good they may have been in their day. A depressing thought that he wants to make them sound like a record ….presumably vinyl if he wants to appear, erm, modern.
Some of those recordings are still unrivaled.
Compared to what?
Amen. I wonder if Lebrecht and the other Jeremiahs on this site have ever heard a Makela concert live. They seem to have their knives out with no real evidence that the CSO made a bad appointment. Makela’s Chicago performances have been thrilling. I watched him rehearse yesterday and he is a stark contrast to Muti, who barely rehearsed. After years of Muti phoning in performances, the CSO needed a young, dynamic conductor to shake out the cobwebs. How many major conductors are full-time residents of the city where they conduct? Give the guy a chance! And, yes, Chicago has not been a center of new music, in part because Muti had no interest in conducting works he didn’t already know. Maybe Makela will help change that. I’d like to know whom the naysayers would have hired.
I haven’t heard Makela, so I can’t possibly question your opinion of his. But why did the CSO need a young conductor? What can a young conductor do that a middle aged or older cannot? Any reason to assume that Makela be any less effective in 20 years, when he is less young?
Yannick was and still is young and dynamic. With what purpose? To say and achieve what? Philadelphia sound? Forget about it. Dynamic hamsters turning their wheel…
Ok about Muti bashing, much too long there, he had said everything after 6 or 7 years. But not Ok about Makela praise … I see what the orchestra can bring to him, not the opposite…
Fact of the matter is this will transform Klaus as much as it will the CSO. He’s massively talented, instinctive, nuanced and confident.
The late great art critic David Hickey once said: “Art is not good for you, It’s not necessarily therapeutic. It’s supposed to be exciting. It’s not penicillin. It’s more like cocaine. It’s a drug. It gets you excited and makes you want more.”
I suspect this will be a pairing for the ages, when all is said and done.
Whether it works for them will not be clear for at least 4 or 5 years. The same as to drawing a younger, or more enthusiastic crowd. May look good to the marketing department, but does he truly have that kind of magnatism? Time alone will tell.
Solti spent only four years as music director of the London Philharmonic.
Another problem is that Mäkelä has a flat repertoire profile, like Shani.
There are 52 weeks in a year. Chicago will need, say 12-13 counting rehearsals, planning, and non-concerts (say 10-11 weeks concertizing). It worked for Solti, Barenboim, Muti, (it may not be ideal but is the decades old standard). He will ramp-down Oslo and Paris . . . of course the interesting period is his ramping up time here in Chicago.
I disagree. Here’s the concert date – rehearse well, play well. A great orchestra can do that, no problem. There’s really not much more to it than that.
Too few conductors hold too many positions
orchestra administrators are either lazy or cowardly or plain ignorant
Makela just needs to take a three-hour train ride if he wants to do an engagement in Paris once he’s at the Concertgebouw. Short flight if he wants to visit Oslo. I appreciate that he wouldn’t leave them entirely behind once he’s hit the super big-time.
For Chicago, yes, he has to cross the Atlantic.
So he’ll have two primary jobs – which is pretty standard – and maybe he’ll visit Paris and Oslo once a year each just to keep in touch. And a week each in Berlin and Vienna. It’s manageable. Hardly a Gergievian workload.
That said, I wish he would have just spent a few years with a less-heralded orchestra and putting his stamp on them, as Sir Simon did in Birmingham, or Gergiev did in building the Maryinsky into a globe-striding orchestra.
what’s wrong with you guys, he is just talented and not only audience like him but it seems also the orchestras – you must be joking about Gergiev who even missed the start of performances as he was jetting in and out but this is the past for the Putin admirer at least in the solid West – Klaus is an amazing talent and he will manage it like jet setters named Barenboim, Levine (Salzburg and Bayreuth) even Boehm jetted around so nothing new
repertoire? Who cares when thinking of Carlos Kleiber who tops all the one mentioned here who only conducted a small one though he knew it all – forget bloody wokeism for once as it will be over soon anyway and very much one should neglect the liberal media as hardly anyone got some knowledge – what a world
After two guest appearances Makela was the orchestra member’s overwhelmingly first choice for MD. Maybe, Norman, they know something you don’t. What is the problem?
A good guest conductor does not necessarily make for a good music director. Especially one in the US considering all the extra fund-raising obligations. You might think what worked for LA (hiring young shooting-stars) might also work for Chicago. Not so. LA had a very strong management (decades of Fleischmann then Borda) and is the least charity-dependent major US orchestra. Do you have a strong management right now? Do you have a Hollywood Bowl that guarantees at least 50 millions every year? Everything about this deal spells disaster.
James Gaffigan, Karina Canellakis and Marin Alsop are all Americans who were getting regular dates with the CSO but came up empty in this search. But none are European-accented maestros. Makela is a fine conductor who I expect will do great work, but this is a sad commentary on our musical life in the States.
Great conductors are few and far between these days let alone good ones. it’s pretty much a sea of mediocrity and charlatans. I’ve worked with all three Americans you just mentioned in multiple orchestras, and none of them would’ve gotten an overwhelming majority vote for music director. Makela has the goods or he would not have been the overwhelming musicians’ choice in the CSO.
Back roller- only true to a point- the first part ‘Few great conductors nowadays’. Yes. ‘Let alone good conductors’. No. There are plenty of good conductors out there- beyond the age of the ‘pretty boy’ ‘pop marketable’ aura of Makela & his ilk. Trouble is- the powers that be in the Classical Music industry (namely agents like Parrot) are only interested in young things whom can make them a lot of dosh in the process.
With all due respect, not one of the conductors you name is anywhere near the same echelon as KM. He was the unanimous choice of CSO musicians by far, and his appointment doesn’t really come as a surprise after over a year or so of rumors.
Klaus Mäkelä is not some sort of conducting “god.” He is simply inexperienced for his recent “big-time” appointments.
Whatever else you want to say about James Gaffigan, Marin Alsop, and Karina Canellakis, they all have more experience that the “posh” Finn.
Orchestral musicians can also start to believe their own “hype” for certain conductors. That is why a second look from boards, search committees, and indirectly even audiences is more than mere due diligence.
One thing is without any doubt: Mäkelä is the most gifted conductor of his generation. Period. Gaffigan is a good conductor, not nearly that talented, Canellakis is too young for such an important job (yes, also Mäkelä is too young) and not nerly that talented, Alsop…. nobody wants her as MD of a major orchestra (see her total failure in Vienna). But being a MD is a different thing than being a good and young conductor: you need social and human skills that a young guy like him simply can’t have – yet. And a knowledge of repertoire. And a good and mature understanding of what is requested to balance the needs of an orchestra, the needs of an institution and the needs of a musical/stylistic vision.
All this crap about Reiner is just marketing and something his agent put in his mouth.
Time will tell, if he is up to this. Personally I think it is too early for him to balance Chicago and Amsterdam properly – which means not only “conducting” them, which is the easiest part of the job, but “managing” them as a MD is a different task.
I just want to say that Klaus has genius social and human skills. I’ve never experienced any conductor like him. Oslo, Paris and Amsterdam completely love him. Chicago was lucky to get him. You’ll see….
So in other words, a weasel?
No, just a mensch….
Chicago went from boomer to Gen Z. I was surprised Chicago hired him, however, although lack of experience has played in KM’s favor, as it does most of Gen Z.
We must consider also recency effect: next to Muti, KM presents a cleaner slate. Sure, the YJW relationship —when the tiger became a cougar— had mixed artistic benefits.
How many blonde guys conduct these days? I was hoping SFS would chase KM and build it up much like MTT did. Chicago, known for its winds and brass, needs some boost in the strings; at least KM is a cellist who can play more than a Breval Sonata.
I am often reminded of a quote by a great architect colleague:
NBA stars pick their team. Conductors cannot work with monogamous limitations. The good conductors want to be better than the NBA stars.
In comparison to NBA stars, conductors’ needs just make cents.
Other than God, certain hyped, en vogue, and seemingly indispensible conductors are omnipresent these days. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The coming seasons will tell whether Chicago and Amsterdam fare well. Thankfully, there are now the technical means to hear music performed by really great conductors, whether alive or dead. I concur with Alex Ross. We will be served the same blandness over and over again, wherever one happens to be, with each orchestra sounding just the same as all the other ones across the globe. Of course Klaus will get recorded and marketed as Recording Artist One MUST have – only to discover that his recordings, with the odd exceptions, add nothing to anything. He’s “barely out of his nappies”, as the Dutch saying goes, and already thrown into teh grinder of the Music Industrial Complex, without ever getting the chance to really grow and mature over time. What a shame to witness such a talent being thrown under the bus(ses)….
The technical means you mention have really changed the whole landscape for classical music. I have so much recorded music in my iTunes library – 15 solid months’ worth – that I’ll obviously never listen to it all. I can fit a compressed but very high quality transcoded version of all of it onto a card the size of my pinky fingernail, pop that into my phone, and listen to it whenever I want, with a fidelity as high as my ears can still discern. The streaming services offer even greater convenience, at modest cost. I haven’t been in a concert hall in many years, and I’m certainly not alone in that regard. Would Klaus Makela bring me back (if I was in Chicago)? No, but I suppose they’re hoping he might generate a buzz amongst others. Probably not, but I guess we’ll see.
If, as you say, you haven’t been in a concert hall in years, I pity you. There is simply no comparison between a live performance and the best recording. For me, the pandemic didn’t end until I got to Powell Hall in St. Louis for a stupendous Nielsen Fourth. As a glowing musician told me afterwards, “A performance without an audience is a rehearsal.”
For what it’s worth, Michael Butterman is currently music director of orchestras in Colorado, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Of course they are much smaller but one wonders how he can give all of them equal attention.
He doesn’t. No one can.
I don’t understand this obsession of just slamming your schedule to take as many appointments as possible.
Having a couple smaller orchestras is one thing, but having multiple top tier orchestras is unnecessary, IMO.
Why are we bringing a conductor whose 4 orchestras combined don’t even play as many subscription weeks as the CSO into this conversation? Add the budgets of all four of those orchestras together and you’re still comfortably an order of magnitude below Chicago.
You’re basically comparing a high school football coach to an NFL coach.
I had an interesting conversation with a fellow conductor colleague as to how this current structure of MDs and ADs not being present during most of the year causing a bit of a generic sound with major orchestras these days.
I remember when you could blindly hear a recording and know exactly who you are listening to.
I’m also over this obsession with 20-somethings getting major appointments.
Same thing with opera singers. I used to be able to name a singer blindfolded or at least their nationality but not anymore. Everybody went to the ‘international school’ of singing.
I’m fine with “international school” as long as it isn’t verismo- or Heldenhowl-style singing. I’m no fan of Puccini or Wagner, but I’m finding the IS (i.e., lyric) singing of their operas makes them more appealing to my ears.
Check out the old-school verismo singing by Rosa Raisa (first Turandot), Rosina Storchio (first Cio-Cio-San),…and many others on Youtube. They all sang in belcanto style as Puccini and Wagner should be sung. I think there’s also a Lohengrin with Tebaldi (sung in Italian) somewhere in the internets.
Alas, at which hour young Mäkelä becomes chief in Chicago some of the current musicians will have retired.
The biggest irony of this whole thing is that, had Klaus Mäkelä been born in Chicago instead of Finland, he would stand NO chance in his entire lifetime of being appointed Music Director of the Chicago Symphony in his entire life, let alone in his 20s.
Talented as he may be, his “meteoric rise” is aided significantly by an ecosystem that gives massive privilege to young conductors from Europe who manage to secure well-connected agents and publicists who know they can package phenomenal promotional materials that US-based orchestras will eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Well, if he had been born in Chicago he wouldn’t have benefited from the amazing musical education that the Finns have for their conductors. I think that is the key here….
I don’t know about that. We have Juilliard, Curtis, Eastman, Michigan, and heck, Northwestern (right in Chicago!). How many conducting students at Northwestern right now are shaking their heads at the hype around this guy and his Finnish credentials?
I don’t know if you are aware of the amazing musical education and musical support in Finland. In a country of 5,000,000 they have 30 professional orchestras, 14 of which are symphonies. The conducting class has their lessons each week in front of an orchestra from the Sibelius academy. Mäkelä began in this class with Jorma Panula at the age of 12. When he was all of 21 he was invited to be principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Orchestra and at 22 to be the chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic. If you think there are a lot of bachelor students in the USA (or anywhere except Finland) with these credentials then we can talk. There is something special about the Finnish conductors and Mäkelä is about as special as they come.
Had he been born in Chicago, he would have received absolutely no attention from agents, publicists, press, or anyone else, no matter his talent level. Talent is one thing, and he has it. But to make it HUGE in conducting as Klaus has, you need a massive apparatus behind you, pushing and marketing you, and there is no pathway to that in the US system.
Had he been born in Chicago, he would have graduated top of his class at Juilliard, Eastman, Peabody, hell even Northwestern right down the road. Everyone would tell him (rightfully) how talented he is. He’d develop an amazing technique.
On the basis of his abilities, if he were lucky, he would get an assistant conductor position at a major orchestra. If he CONTINUED to be lucky and if the MD were supportive, they might let him conduct a few education-based concerts or perhaps a movie. MAYBE a subscription week.
He’d spend his off weeks as a cover conductor at other major orchestras where he’d be labeled “young and learning.”
His two years at that orchestra would expire. Agents would pay no attention to him because, despite his talent, he would be labeled “not serious” and “needing more time to develop”
The top of his career, if he worked incredibly hard and networked to the best of his abilities, would be as music director of a decent regional orchestra in the United States. In his whole life, he might get one major subscription week at a big US orchestra.
That is simply the reality for talented conductors in the US system. This is NOTHING against Klaus. I’m just saying, because he comes from where he comes from, he is offered an unbelievable amount of privilege and industry-led support that many other conductors (especially those in the US) could never ever see.
Can we get a timeshare of Lise Davidsen at the local opera company too? I think I would l like that more.
I was lucky enough to attend Makela’s recent debut at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestre di Paris. All I can add is that I have never seen so many members (any members, for that matter) of an orchestra literally smile during a performance, at each other, at their conductor. Maybe it’s them, maybe it was Makela. Just an observation.
Final note: in my opinion, the longing that an orchestra’s music director set up house in the neighborhood, etc., if those days ever really existed, seems a bit silly in 2024.
I saw him in Amsterdam in December and the same thing was happening.
I was there as well, they love him with some real passion; I’ve hardly ever seen a bigger stomping ovation for a conductor than at the end of that concert… well except for last week when I happened to be in LA and got the see the SFS on tour at Disney Hall give Salonen a full, instruments down, standing ovation before the encores.
Dudamel of the frozen north. With less experience. Chicago deserves better. At least it’s not a DEI pick.
These are all on point comments, and the first one is funny.
It was just announced that he is dropping Oslo and Paris before assuming his Chicago and Amsterdam jobs in 2027.
That’s been understood since he signed with the Concertgebouw; no sensible person thought he would lead three or maybe even four orchestras at once.
Paris can’t seem to keep anyone, including Dudamel who lasted ony a year.
Macelaru is still there. And Mikko Franck lasted almost a decade.
From Today’s NY Times article on his appointment in Chicago. “Mäkelä, one of the industry’s most in-demand conductors, already leads the Oslo Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. He said he would step down from those ensembles when his contracts expire in 2027 so that he could focus on the orchestras in Chicago and Amsterdam.”
This shows the tragic state of classical music globally…
Guessing we’ll need to revive the old joke: when he gets in a cab and is asked “Where to?”, he responds, “Doesn’t matter – they want me everywhere.”
Calm the fuck down everybody, it’s a FIVE YEAR contract, a five-year contract is less than Finland’s president’s term (6 years), less than Netherland’s monarch’s term (for life), and if/when Chicago realizes it made a horrible, horrible mistake, it will be a lot easier to get rid of Makela and throw him out of the country than it is to get rid of Trump, I assure you, Makela will not lead an insurrection against the Chicago Symphony or steal autographed scores from the orchestra library and claim them to be his personal property.
And this is how x-year contracts work in real life:
-Dudamel broke his with the Paris Opera just because he felt like it
-Harding broke his with the Orchestre de Paris just so he could go fly a plane
-The Concertgebouw fired Gatti with no evidence
-The Berlin Philharmonic forced out Karajan because they got tired of him
-Salonen declined to renew his because he hated the board
-van Zweden wanted to leave early but the NY board urged him to stay 2 more seasons
Point is, if things don’t work out in real life for either party, either party can act unilaterally to terminate the relationship early.
The worst thing that could happen in the Klaus-Chicago relationship would be they end like Klaus and Yuja, they unfriend each other on facebook, block each other on instagram, and each side moves on.
What does the Chatty Rat say?
It’s all so bizarre. Klaus clearly wants to be a multi-media star like Dudamel (why else would you try to date Yuja Wang, who’s now going to derail his career), so why he failed to get a single guest conducting job at LAPhil (or apparently any real consideration there as MD) is strange and telling.
He did guest conduct SFS once, so perhaps Salonen waved the LAPhil off from him? Funny that although Makela –let’s say it — totally steals a bunch of Salonen’s signature conducting moves, Salonen is never credited with teaching him… which again it telling.
Funny you mention Salonen. Even funnier is that in Cleveland this October, Salonen and Makela will be conducting back to back weeks! Salonen goes first with Sibelius’ Fifth, followed by Makela with Mahler’s Third.
That’ll be a fun two weeks …
They both studied under Jorma Panula, as did other distinguished Finns. No surprise and no stolen moves.
Panula does not teach “moves”.
Actually he is one of the Finns least physically influenced by other Finns. Mäkelä himself has said he owes more to Chung whom he greatly admires. You can see a lot more Salonen influence in someone like Susanna Mälkki. Mikko Franck was heavily influenced by Leif Segerstam. The real funny one is the young Tarmo Peltokoski. You can see mannerisms by Rouvali, Salonen and…Mäkelä when you watch him conduct, quite a peculiar mixture
Poppycock, and more nonsense from the armchair critics. I know Jorma Panula and managed his conducting classes in our summer program. He taught dedication to the score and the understanding of the physical orchestral environment. Unlike others that teach their students one way of holding the baton, or one style of gestures, Panula encouraged awareness, individuality and growth. You see the results in the many different styles of conducting in his former students; say between a Salonen and Saraste, or Vänskä.
I do not want to be a multi-media star and yet I would date Wang.
The reason Mäkelä never conducted in LA might simply be that his agent Jasper Parrott prevented him from doing so and withheld him from LA. Parrott already lost Susanna Mälkki to Mark Newbanks in 2020, and she was considered a likely candidate to succeed Dudamel in LA back then. Newbanks’s other artists are Dudamel and Salonen. Parrott probably had a fear that should Mäkelä and LA Phil get too close he is going to lose his star artist to Newbanks again. That’s why Parrott would ruch this deal with Chicago (and screw over his artist in the process).
Why is Leonard Slatkin always overlooked? He has more experience than that vunderkid. He’s a decent man, world experience, respected, champion of American music.
He’s also 80.
Leonard Slatkin is approaching the “twilight” of a storied career. In that sense, he is likely now no longer a prospective candidate for music director with any major orchestra worldwide, except perhaps in Japan. He could be considered a “great” conductor, if one even considers such a designation to mean anything substantial.
And on the subject of American music, somehow I doubt that the wunderkind Klaus Mäkelä has any interest in reviving the seven symphonies of Howard Hanson, the eight symphonies of Walter Piston, the eleven symphonies of David Diamond, the ten symphonies of William Schumann, the three symphonies of Andrew Imbrie, the four symphonies of Lukas Foss, and the 13 symphonies of Roy Harris.
The American music on tap will likely be Gershwin, Bernstein, and perhaps a dab of Samuel Barber. Plus the usual array of compositions by “living” composers.
What should we expect to be on the leading edge of Mäkelä’s commercial recording agenda — you guessed it — two complete Mahler symphony cycles on Decca, one with the Royal Concertgebouw, and one with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Watch. Wait. Do not be surprised by such a career “development” and public relations move.
U.S. orchestra board CEO’s don’t like American conductors. The grass is greener across the pond or southern border.
Leonard is indeed a fine conductor but remember his age and history of heart problems. I’d be surprised if he would even be interested at this stage in his career.
And he’ll be 80 this year.
You’re bringing back wonderful memories of his time at the St. Louis Symphony, both from broadcasts of concerts as well as recordings. He deserves a beautiful twilight.
I saw in a box with Slatkin’s agent at Hollywood Bowl last summer and a critic from Japan. We had a nice chat. Slatkin conducted Dvorak 9th and a new work by his wife. And no he’s not taking any new jobs.
Yeah it would be nice to have a conductor who lived here in Chicago. That last happened with Frederick Stock, who died in the 1940s. I’m baffled by this line of attack. Makela will trade two current music directorships for two new ones. A Music Director in current times is a commitment of 14 weeks a year; two such positions take up a bit more than six months of the year.
Anyone who doesn’t have other commitments probably doesn’t have them for a reason, and would not be of much interest to an orchestra like Chicago.
He’s an extraordinary talent, has superb baton technique, is skillful in personal interactions, has a solid understanding of string technique as a first rate cellist, and demonstrates a wonderful imagination for tone color.
There is no guarantee that anybody will succeed in this position, of course. But to predict Makela will fail, for the reasons stated, is absurd.
Never noticed that classical music fans are rabid bitter old men all seemingly converged on this site?
The “reasons stated” hide something subconscious and pathological, who knows what the real reasons are for their animus.
Read the NYT comments section on this same subject, and you find a much more respecting, positive and sunny discussion, but then again, the NYT deploys an army of moderators, and commenters are on their best behavior…you know…as though they were attending a concert!
Here’s what I don’t understand about this “debate.” I’ll admit I was surprised by the rumors of someone so young coming to the podium. But the members of the CSO appear by all accounts to greatly respect Mäkelä. These are some of the greatest musicians in the world. And I’m just an internet commenter with a comparatively glib knowledge of music. So who am I to judge? I’ll let the music this magnificent band makes speak for itself. They suffer no fools whatsoever.
As an Amsterdammer who regularly cycles to the Concertgebouw …. my first reaction was one of disappointment that KM was choosing money over his own personal development; the second disappointment that he would be a truly part-time conductor in Amsterdam (having to randomly share important dates like Christmas and New Year with somewhere far away). And an odd thought …. does his recent break-up with Yuja Wang have anything have anything to do with his decision – a form of ‘let me get distracted with other things’ therapy ? We’ll never know (or not for 40 years), unless he realises his mistake sooner in which case who knows what happens.
I get what you mean but he’s more than capable of being chief in 2 orchestras at the same time, we see it at the moment. My worry, if anything, would be about the number of guest appearances elsewhere. There’s not a single orchestra who wouldn’t like to have him for at least a week per season.
Also, unless he says so himself I don’t believe for a second that this is about money. His endless motivation and energy can’t be derived from greed.
“having to randomly share important dates like Christmas and New Year with somewhere far away”
Rest assured, the music director of Chicago NEVER gives ANY of the holiday concerts, not Muti, not Barenboim, not Solti, they leave them to guest conductors or the musicians themselves (brass section, lol) to organize.
Second, he and his agent and Chicago and the Concertgebouw, I am sure, went thru their calendars with a fine tooth comb to make sure there are no major conflicts, like same opening nights.
Look at it on the bright side: Chicago will now add Amsterdam to its European tour, whereas in the past, Muti never did Amsterdam or Berlin, was he afraid of the comparison?
Solti recorded a wonderful and underrated Messiah.
What a wasted opportunity. There are so many American conductors who would flourish in this position. Here was a chance to mine the deep well of American talent, most of it unknown to the international music world, and in ignoring that, CSO admin shows that making music is not their first priority. Another european mediocrity leading an American orchestra; history repeats.
Agree totally. One of the reasons NYP wanted Dudamel (regardless of his conducting capabilities) was to reach Latino audiences and to build a youth orchestra similar to what he did in LA. Why American orchestras (with the exception of the Baltimore program which died for lack of funding) can not build outreach programs and work with schools the way for example the Bavarian Radio Sympony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic have done for years is inexplicable. Given that Simon Rattle initiated the education program in Berlin with an outreach dance project of Rite of Spring when he began his tenure there, one can only surmise that only government supported arts system as they exist in Europe can bankroll and sustain these programs. That is the reason why it is so important to have American trained conductors as MD, so they can build community. As an exampleof a German “maestro” who failed badly: Michael Gielen in Cincinnati. A brilliant man and conductor, but could not woo the board or audiences not did he care to.
“to reach Latino audiences”
Let me be blunt and factual from 20 years of data from LA: Latino audiences will never be robust enough to pay your bills.
As a longtime LA Phil season subscriber I can say that the Hispanic audience in Disney Hall has not increased during Dudamel’s tenure there. It was practically nil and remains practically nil. Ever since the BLM craziness, recorded announcements are in both English and Spanish which is both condescending and unnecessary, but I suppose manangement thinks it makes them look inclusive.
Why is everyone taking it out on Makela? This is a prolific problem that permeates the American orchestral scene. With rare exceptions (Baltimore, e.g.), there is a flagrant lack of any commitment to home-grown talent where it comes to filling the post of music director.
Please don’t use talent when referring to Alsop. David Zinman, well, that’s another matter. Also, Comissiona was naturalized. He never was in Zinman’s class, but he was a good builder who put the orchestra on the map.
Please lay the contracts of Muti and Makela side by side: which one has the biggest time commitment? They are equal, Muti was here the same amount of time as Makela will be, he did all sorts of other jobs, everything is planned years in advance, there is no waiting in line. CSO and Makela both got what they wanted, they are mutually happy
The CSO needs more than capable conductor..,they need a new board…
There are many dynamic conductors biding their time in professional regional orchestras, who have won international awards.
I would suggest Chicago look in the near suburbs of your big east coast and west coast cities and you may find your hidden gems.
Hey, if he was the “unanimous ” choice of the musicians, I would totally respect that. Not some management pencil pusher..
Hey, where’s Yannick in Philly ? Canceling the Met for an appearance in Hollywood ?? Very few of these guys really care about orchestras they are in charge of. Sad state of affairs, but I certainly hope for change in Chicago!
Yannick missed a MET Chamber Ensemble concert to attend the Oscars. Because he conducted much of the soundtrack and helped the star/director. Furthermore, people are always whinging about how classical musicians don’t get mainstream attention. Now when one goes to a mainstream event like the Oscars, the trolls on SD complain about that. Can’t win.
It is past time for Chicago Symphony to have a new conductor. I do wonder if they took a serious look at any American conductors. And I wonder if the new conductor needs more time and experience before taking on the Chicago Symphony. Hopefully though, the orchestra really likes him and wants to rehearse under him. It is a big plus he is a string player.
At the moment Makela is not capable of ‘building up’ any orchestra, more likely they will be building HIM up as in teaching him on the job, as LA Phil had done shaping up Dudamel in effect for his upcoming NY job.
Nothing wrong with that model. Vienna built up Muti, he says so himself. Chicago self-sustains its legendary sound, it is like Cleveland, Vienna, Berlin, the Concertgebouw, in that sense of self discipline. It is not like NY which falls apart into competing sections if it doesn’t have a strong music director.
Muti was rubbish. Arrogant and unfriendly. Thought he was a god. Good riddance.
The CSO musicians didn’t think that way, neither did the audiences. Muti would have gone to the NY Philharmonic, but they didn’t want to pay his bill, Chicago did. The NY Philharmonics loss after Masur. Instead they got Maazel at the end of his life who at that point was not inspiring and then inexplicably Alan Gilbert and then Jaap. Realizing the orchestras slumber, they are finally back on course with Dudamel and paid to get him as they should have done with Muti.
Muti had no sense of programming, no direction, no thinking behind it, no excitement or occasion to draw in an audience, no understanding of the audience, it was “it’s me on the podium, that’s all that matters”. Well, attendance was disappointing even when he was on the podium, and never returned to pre-pandemic levels as other orchestras have.
Above all, his programming was timid, like he’s afraid of failure or comparison. Take his farewell concerts at Carnegie Hall and on the European tour, they were not programs to show off the CSO or what he accomplished with the orchestra after 13 years.
Even the Corriere della Sera, his dependable cheerleader, said it was disappointed, that the famed Chicago sound was missing.
Such a sad coda to his decade long helm at Chicago.
I don’t think Music Directors do the programming anymore, they have administrators with Bachelor’s degrees only doing it. They just show up and conduct ineffectually.
Say what you will about Muti in orchestral music, but he is Italian opera god, the best we have today.
I suggest reading his autobiography, a most entertaining and informative read.
I heard a rumor that GOD thought he was Muti!
Ok…OK…I re-thought this for a couple of days and I feel it is a ineffective choice…I think of the direction of a seasoned musician being told they are playing the piece wrong by a 28 year old…yikes…and he is no Muti level conductor as far as visual appearance…both the conductor, fans and CSO are being set up for failure by the board of trustees…
Scroll up, see my last post. More likely they will be telling him he’s conducting wrong and giving him lessons.
American arts institutions are becoming less interesting to the jet setting artists of the world. Many important
American artists have moved their residences to Europe as there is more work there more interesting projects and far less if any diversity inclusion and equity demands on the producing organizations.
Now that it’s a done deal, I genuinely hope for the best possible outcome. I have no vested interest and certainly bear no ill will. But there will be no acceptable excuses for either party should any potential issues arise which were clearly evident from the start and that should have been properly identified and addressed prior to the offer being made (and its subsequent acceptance). Outcomes are the result of actions, not intentions, and to that end, KM and the CSO knew exactly what they were getting into. Be it success or failure, they understood the risks and bear full responsibility for whatever is to come. That said, the orchestra has far more at stake with their decision here and hope they don’t come to regret it.
What does the peanut gallery not understand about the CSO musicians themselves overwhelmingly voting in favor of his hiring? THEY are the orchestra, the history, the talent, the artists that so many of you are saying are the ones being short-changed in some egregious manner. Wake up. This is not heresy. It’s a group of artists choosing their artist of choice. They know what they need.
Does he have a private plane? How does he think to ensure his arrivals and departures? Chicago gets a lot of stormy weather. Pretty naive, if you ask me, and greedy. Anything to keep a colleague from getting a job. Each conductor should have only ONE orchestra.
Not an ideal deal. Mäkelä is surfing on his youthful charm of wunderkind, but musically speaking the results haven’t been as brilliant. However, the kid is a lucky guy: not everyone gets to gain experience and apprenticeship at the expense of such orchestras. Mäkelä already seems to me to have graduated cum laude in finance.