yesterday in Oslo, the music director played cello in the Brahms double concerto, opposite the Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovoich. They are about to tour together to Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and Ludwigsburg.
photo: John-Halvdan Olsen-Halvorsen / Oslo Filarmonien
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This may be his true calling…
I’ll be at the Paris concert tomorrow. Mäkkela is very gifted conductor . His Bruckner 5 in Vienna with the COA was excellent. Mahler 3 less so.
How does Mäkelä’s cello skill compare to that of, say, the Oslo PO principal cello?
Maybe a look at the faces in the cello section pictured gives you the answer.
Maybe a look at the (happy) faces in the cello section on medici.tv (from Wien) gives You etc.
without question far below but it’s sell tickets no matter what
This is good to see. So many conductors hang up their instruments and lose contact with how they got started. I wish more baton wavers did this.
Mäkelä should return the Giuseppe filius Andrea Guarneri cello loaned to him so that it can be played by a decent cellist worthy of the instrument instead.
Exactly. So he doesn’t play like Yo-Yo Ma or even the principal cellist of a world-class orchestra. But he’s probably not embarassingly bad. Osmo Vanska was undoubtedly a terrific clarinetist in his day. At his age and given how little he probably plays or practices compared to 40 years ago, he’s not what he once was. But there’s still enough there that he’s worth listening to, even if the clarinet players in any orchestra he conducts are far superior.
Nice. BTW I have just seen the program of the RCO, and there there is no need to worry about KM’s participation.
It was actually two concerts, repeated on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st May. I was there on the first night. I would say it was a reasonable performance, despite the normal snarky comments in this blog, but the Oslo audience gave it a standing ovation and lots of rhythmic clapping. Makela is very popular, of course, and perhaps that’s what they always do anyway.
On the Friday, I’m told there was a medical emergency, but since the conductor was facing away from the orchestra, he didn’t see it, and the performance continued.
I can understand conducting from the piano, violin, and a few other instruments, but somehow cello is awkward to combine with conducting. I’m not sure it added a lot to the performance, other than demonstrating that it can just about be done.
Bad news Mr. Lebrecht/Slippedisc: the performance in Oslo was superb!
Makelangelo !
He should stick to conducting…
Reiner,
Was there anyone finer
In the Beethoven C minor?
If there was and you own it, then loan it to me, oh
Reiner,
With his Magyar eyes flaming,
How I hope he isn’t aiming,
To throw a sousaphone at me.
Ev’ry night why do I shake with fright,
In case that Reiner might
Say I’m in the wrong clef,
Reiner,
I’d enlist for a sailor,
Play the ‘cello with Makela,
Just to be with Reiner, F.
Doesn’t scan or rhyme properly. “Just to be with with Reiner, F.” Beyond lame.
Dinah,
Is there anyone finer?
In the State of Carolina?
If there is and you know her, then show her to me, oh
Dinah,
With her Dixie eyes blazin’,
How I love to sit and gaze in,
Into the eyes of Dinah Lee.
Ev’ry night, why do I shake with fright,
In case my Dinah might
Change her mind about me?
Dinah,
I would travel to China,
Even hop an ocean liner,
Just to be with Dinah Lee.
I suppose this doesn’t scan or rhyme properly either. Beyond lame.
There is an excellent recording of ‘Dinah’ by The Temperance Seven on You Tube. I suggest you give it a listen.
He should stick to playing a duet encore with a visiting soloist every now and then as a novelty, the way e.g. Sakari Oramo has occasionally done. Conductors acting as their own orchestras’ soloists is distasteful, a bit like composer-conductors programming excessive amounts of their own works is.
Some of the greatest performances I have ever taken part in featured Barenboim conducting Mozart and Beethoven concertos from the piano.
Indeed, Barenboim playing and conducting the Beethoven concertos, with the Berline Staatskapelle, blew my away almost 30 years ago.
But I can’t think of anyone who combined a dual soloist/conductor career as successfully as Barenboim.
Petros, I would mention Ashkenazy as another who conducted from the piano very effectively, if not nearly as often. His Mozart concerto set, playing and conducting, holds up to anyone’s, I would say. His Beethoven set is also first rate. Granted, he is more revered as a superb pianist.
Mikhail Pletnëv.
I don’t know how he plays today, but Oramo was CM of the Finnish Radio Symphony, so clearly is a very capable player.
I was at the Paris concert yesterday. Brahms 1 was thrilling. The Double was bad. Poor first violin really conducted the orchestra with Makkelä looking to her from time to time when he was not playing. His playing was ok but Lokazevich’s was substandard.
What a joke this Klaus Mäkelä!!!
I heard him in Paris. Bland time-beater and semi-professional cellist!!!! What an insult to play the cello in front of a great orchestra and close to one of the world’s greatest conservatoires!!
This young man needs to grow up in every sense and realise that an orchestra is not a toy. Go and learn your profession, then come back in 15 years time!!!
Daniel Lozakovich is not great either.
These two should go to a church talent show!!!
The music industry and its money making priority together with stupid politicians are destroying the arts!!!
But heqas very good in Brahms First.