Consolation for Klaus Mäkelä after Vienna Phil debut
OrchestrasThe over-booked Finn had a hard time at his Vienna Philharmonic debut this weekend with Mahler’s sixth Symphony. The experienced critic for Der Standard, Stefan Ender, found the performance ‘incredibly loud’, resulting in ‘a levelling out of most of the subtleties and ambiguities’.
Ender concluded: ‘It is surprising that the Philharmonic Orchestra, which is so keen on its interpretative traditions, unconditionally submitted to the one-dimensional verve of the 28-year-old debutant.’
Susanne Zobl wrote in Kurier: ‘When you have long since left the Musikverein and can still hear the sound after a subway ride, then it is clear that something happened at this concert.‘
Walter Weiderinder has an interesting conclusion in Die Presse: …’ what happened musically? Mäkelä has a penchant for Mahler’s relentless drama, but also for colour, for the often garish, gruesome effects: in the scherzo, for example, when the horns howl like gloating hounds of hell. The ironic, terse reminiscences of limping minuets of yesteryear were no less successful for the strings and woodwinds – spiced up by the bassoon with an exquisite pinch of humour. Practically the entire brass section was impeccable, with the horns leading the way in both solos and tutti. Unfortunately, the tuba was temporarily lacking in depth.
Our 2am team reports that after the concert. the debutant went to dinner at the Hotel Imperial with visiting family and friends, including his current girlfriend, the Norwegian orchestra violinist Amanda Håoy Horn.
(Our original Instagram image has been removed at family’s request)
photo: Wiener Philharmoniker / Benedikt Dinkhauser
Congratulations to the new couple! I look forward to Klaus and Amanda playing together in Chicago. Brahms Double Concerto would be the perfect repertoire with the CSO!
and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Yuja.
A master pianist, a third-rate cellist who could win an audition in Oslo if he practiced, and a student-level violinist who couldn’t(didn’t) win any auditions in Oslo? The most poorly balanced Beethoven’s Triple Concerto of all time and I would pay good money to see that comedy. Bonus if Yuja conducts.
For a foretaste of the new power couple on stage together: https://www.verbierfestival.com/en/show/vf25-07-23-1100/
Thank you for sharing, this is so ridicolous, as if you put a 3rd league player into a Barcelona squad.
How many hornists are surnamed Violin?
I have a violin student named Viola!
“Ender concluded: ‘It is surprising that”
Once again, yet another critic who is bewildered by the choice of the orchestra for Makela, it perfectly illustrates the gulf between musicians and critics, those who actively engage in music and those who passively listen, those who can and those who can’t, those who are in the harem and the eunuchs who serve the harem.
Maybe critics need to spend playing one hour in front of Makela instead of sitting 2 hours behind him.
A strange comment.
Surely, critics are supposed to opine from the perspective of the audience, not the musicians.
I have not played in front of Mäkelä, but I love Mahler and have attended many excellent performances of his symphonies.
The one on Friday, in my opinion, was not one of them.
“those who actively engage in music and those who passively listen” Orchestral musicians don’t know what the audience hears. They like that Mäkelä smiles, doesn’t actually rehearse much and make them work, and they can’t hear the end product. Their managers look at Mäkelä’s dance routines and think he will look good on social media, and they don’t care about the end product. Easy choice for all involved.
Right; no matter what happens, the money’s the same.
I was there on Friday.
The less said about it, the better.
I also see Karl Bohm on the extrême left (quite unusual for him)
What does this mean?
The picture has been removed…
Unless you put your full, real name to your comments, they don’t mean a thing! Quite honestly I wouldn’t put my name on most of the “opinions” above……..
Awful, just awful. Shame on the VPO for inviting him. His recordings are terrible. Decca will be able to see that in the poor sales too. Audiences can vote with their feet.
A more reasonable conclusion that anyone on slippedisc could ever make:
“So let him continue to gain experience, also with the Vienna Philharmonic. After all, youth is the only mistake that diminishes with every passing second.”
I heard him conduct Mahler 1 with the Concertgebouw at Carnegie Hall recently. I would offer similar criticisms to the Viennese critics. It was very much “young man’s Mahler” (which is perfectly reasonable he is 28) – too loud in climaxes and not very idiomatic though clearly trying for spooky effects in the third movement and getting them. Second movement very good. Harmonic transitions certainly not managed as say Kubelik used to do.
I was not at the concert but I think that it’s suprising to start a relationship with a big orchestra like the VPO and first to play Mahler 6th the most difficult and complexe of him. Something less tough should have been better maybe and we know that Vienna has a relationship with Mahler complicated even today enven if fortunatly we are no more in the 60’s when Bernstein wanted to play it. I would have imagined KM to play Richard Strauss.
I really wish we had a culture of music criticism like this here in the US, where multiple people, all deeply versed in the music being performed, weigh in on interpretations and performances.
I know, I know–elite, out of touch, undemocratic, who needs them when we can all leave comments, etc., etc.–but dang, these excerpts make a wonderful read.
‘It would therefore be unfair to categorise Klaus Mäkelä as excessively overrated. So let him continue to gain experience, also with the Vienna Philharmonic. After all, youth is the only mistake that diminishes with every passing second.’
It’s not whether Mäkelä is untalented, neither if he is overrated. It is that he enjoys *immense* privilege that conductors from basically any other background would never have.
For a young male conductor from Finland, “youth and inexperience” is seen as something that person can grow out of if you just keep giving him opportunities with the Vienna Philharmonic, as the writer suggests.
That could be true. Although for any other conductor from any other background, this many consistently bad reviews, of performances and CDs, specifically citing “youth and inexperience,” would tank a career. Good luck being welcome anywhere! Somehow for Mäkelä it has the opposite effect.
As a classical music fan, I hope Mäkelä is able to use this privilege to make a positive mark on the industry in the long run.
Time will tick, however — only so much time one can be considered “young and inexperienced.” Even for him, eventually people will have expectations. There will always be another “young phenom” waiting to enter the PR pipeline.
You should quote the more numerous positive reviews
The same can be said about every music school graduate but only one gets paid to take over the CSO and Concertgebouw. What gives?