Chicago ends up second city, maybe third

As 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: