So how good is Chicago’s next music director?
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
The Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, just 28 years old, is the hottest property on the circuit though still unrecognised beyond the orchestra fishbowl. Mäkelä is presently music director in Oslo, Paris and Amsterdam. He is also (I hear) about to be named chief conductor in Chicago. How he balances all those jobs is anyone’s guess….
Read on here.
And here.
“That could be tricky when it comes to eye contact. Forget what they burble on the radio: classical music and romance don’t go together.”
Makes sense to me personally. And yet there are former couples who pull it off very successfully. Marta Argerich and Charles Dutoit instantly come to mind.
They are very obviously not separated. Those who think so don’t watch their social media accounts close enough for long enough. I don’t know why Lebrecht insists on writing this. Is he hoping to provoke an on-the-record correction? He is not going to get one either.
What Klaus and Yuja do offstage is none of our business.
Is Mäkelä really a shoe in for the CSO music director? Now that Salonen is leaving San Francisco, I’d be surprised if they aren’t pursuing him.
I doubt Salonen has a prayer due to the uniform admiration the orchestra has for Mäkelä. Maybe LA will ask him to return.
Esa Pekka doesn’t want the gig…he cancelled his Mahler 2 this Spring as well.
Mauritius SO will snap him up before CSO says boo!
If he goes to Chicago, I suspect he will drop Paris, which would also be a good fit for Salonen.
Or Oslo? More off the beaten path. The nice thing for him is, Chicago doesn’t require much of its music directors in terms of an on-the-ground commitment. Muti would coast in for 2-3 weeks, twice a year and collect his $2 million (or thereabouts).
Can the classical music industry still afford the Heldendirigent? Look at those orchestras created by their conductors like the Orchestre Romantique et Revolutionnaire in the UK or Pygmalion in France, not to mention those youthful French baroque ensembles that seem to be springing up all over the place and which will happily pack up their theorbos and viols and zoom off to a local music festival to play in front of a churchful of people. They don’t have to worry about spending millions on conductors, guest conductors, assistant conductors, etc. They must lead a comparatively carefree existence and mebbe reach just as many people.
At this point in his career and fame, Chicago would do absolutely nothing more to burnish his resume, au contraire, it would hinder his development as a composer and innovative conductor.
LA and Paris fill those needs much more. Plus he has family in LA, he has roots on the West Coast. Paris is Paris.
He doesn’t have to drop anything. Yes it’s a tremendous responsibility to be in charge of four different orchestras, but if the same programs are played in each place, he will only have to master 6 different programs and bring them to each location during the year exactly the same way soloists do for the major summer music festivals.
He will drop Paris and Oslo when he takes the Concertgebouw. This has been announced before. For Chicago, I bet ion Salonen, which will I regret because this is far from Europe, where I live.
Or Oslo? More off the beaten path. The nice thing for him is, Chicago doesn’t require much of its music directors in terms of an on-the-ground commitment. Muti would coast in for 2-3 weeks, twice a year and collect his $2 million (or thereabouts).
Salonen has been coming a lot to Paris in the last year, in résidence with philarmonia or with orchestre de Paris. I heard a Bruckner 6 th so effortless and straight forward. He would be a good match… Makela is ok, I appreciate he would program Walton Belshazzar ‘s feast in Paris for example, but nothing to wake up at night…. the only concern would be Salonen repertoire is not that big…
From the review of the CD, “This conductor needs to save his naps for the plane.”. You certainly have a way with words.
Poor chap, he must be studying scores all the time. All work and no play.
Studying scores can be fun, if one is into it. I always wonder how jet setting musicians deal with the fallout from long flights and frequent changing of time zones.
Well, as far as I’m concerned, he’s no Barenboim.
cool. Barenboim, God bless him, was not Solti and started that whole “every performance is different and improvisational” bs.
Chicago has a sound and it needs to be driven by someone who isn’t cowed by anything other than his– or her– own compelling arrogance for creating great music sound.
That may be interpreted in at least two opposite ways or possibly in both of them combined.
what a comment – Barenboim was always overrated and luckily escaped the media from ‚me too‘ – they generally were mild with him as lots was superficial
If he was, that’s hardly a compliment.
Yes, he’s no Barenboim—you’re right about that. Makela is consistently consistent, and produces incandescent performances that uniformly excite audiences. Barenboim was consistently inconsistent, was not a great orchestral trainer and produced very few performances and recordings which were in a descent, let alone memorable. Most of his recordings were perfunctory, shapeless entities with the exception of his Bruckner in Chicago which had many many moments of greatness.
What a strange comparaison to take a conductor who was never really one …. compare him to Solti or Muti…
And Barenboim was no Furtwängler.
And Muti is no Solti.
Surely he can’t be music director of FOUR different orchestras at the same time (?)
He isn’t and won’t be. He’s not starting in Amsterdam until 2027 and same is rumored for CSO. By that time he’ll be leaving Paris and Oslo
It certainly is unlikely, but we live in crazy times.
Mäkelä’s commitments to Paris and Oslo will both be over by 2027. At that point he would only have the Amsterdam and Chicago music directorships, not that that wouldn’t be a full plate as well. I’m still not convinced that he’s a shoe in over Jakub Hrůša, who just conducted two more fabulous programs with the CSO in the past week, although he too has commitments to other organizations (Bamberg Symphony and Covent Garden). Salonen may have taken himself out of the running by canceling his appearances this May with the CSO.
CSO musicians are having good chemistry with Hrusa in past couple weeks. You could tell not just from the music output but also visually how the orchestra reacts to him (compare to others, say Marin Alsop…)
Young Makela would probably bring in more new audience and potentially recording contracts. Chicago couldn’t go wrong either way if those’re the final candidates they’re down to.
Why not? Those orchestra managers don’t expect him to be prepared or conducting well or have any knowledge of anything. All they need is him to show up for the concert, if he can’t make one of the rehearsals, looking good, wet hair, well dressed and his cologne preceding him by 3 minutes as always. The orchestras are so good, he doesn’t really matter.
Why not? He’s there to give frissons to the blue rinse set, attract more sponsorship, and, we hope, larger audiences.The actual conducting duties will have been carried out by the concert masters and assistant conductors days before the performance. And half the time it will a guest conductor who gets to bounce up onto the rostrum anyway.
Well, something had to be given to Finland in return for making themselves a prime target for Russian nukes by joining NAZO. (And don’t call me surely.)
Muti was a lion…he is a kitty cat!
A lion? More of a donkey I’d say. Good riddance.
Muti is no lion, trust me. And at least this kitty cat will spend his afternoons working for the organization, not hunkered down in his hotel eating … tart, on the house.
Young, seductive, intelligent, handsome. Open to modernity. Energetic, open minded, with wide repertoire. Speaks excellent English, does not memorize silly Latin quotes to impress pet journalists. Does not make audiences fall asleep, does not make Brahms sound like Haydn. Displays character and integrity. All in all, and above all, a decent person.
What’s there not to like?
If an MD pick could be engineered that embodied a 180 degree turn viz-a-viz the last 14 years; or that could symbolize being teletransported out of the depths of hell into an alternate shimmering universe, lifted up even to the vertigo of paradise … this would be it.
And that is why Muti is so angry right now. 🙂 He knows Chicago could really go for a loud and scathing repudiation of all that he represented. If this deal comes through, Muti will be so deeply offended -to use one of his favorite expressions- that he’d probably not come back to Chicago ever again.
Fingers crossed the deal is signed immediately. I might just become a subscriber again after over a decade.
— we can only hope.
Makela should be fine for Chicago, but this reveals him to be somewhat of an ingrate and the musicians of Concertgebouw should take note – and work on finding somebody else.
Only a 6 month relationship? Maybe a “Hollywood” romance: Cary Grant, Rock Hudson?
He has contracts with two of those or hestras (Oslo and Paris) until 2027. Count on him dropping one or both of them. That being said, my concern for Chicago is that CSO will take a backseat to his Concertgebouw job. Chicago is too good an orchestra for that. If Makela does indeed end up in Chicago, I hope he does great things there. My concern is he is taking on too much; the kid is going to burnout at this rate. I am a longtime Cleveland Orchestra subscriber. I think it would be great if he ended up in Cleveland or Chicago, since I see CSO 4 or 5 times a season. If/when he does get announced as next CSO MD buckle up! It’s gonna be a ride!
I’d love to see Salonen in Chicago although he might be a bit much for the bluebloods there. Really, Makela? No way he can handle three top line orchestras.
Music Director and Chief Conductor are not the same titles, at least in Chicago. Bernard Haitink was a Chief Conductor.
The appointed title will be Music Director.
Let’s see if he can bring in the younger folks to classical music.
Popelka is much better
“[He]is presently music director in Oslo, Paris and Amsterdam. He is also (I hear) about to be named chief conductor in Chicago. How he balances all those jobs is anyone’s guess.”
Answer: He doesn’t. No real “balance” is possible with those kinds of commitments. Either he gives up one or more of them (preferably more), or, on average, he can only devote 1/4 of each year per orchestra. Which, in my opinion, would be ludicrous and render the quad-titles of “music director” almost meaningless in any practical managerial or artistic sense.
Meanwhile, as I’ve observed in these comments previously, I think it’s regrettable that celebrity conductors backed by record labels and publicity machines have become “the hogs at the trough,” crowding out many other very talented conductors who might be more willing to actually devote themselves to an orchestra and its community.
Marketing wins the game. (He is great, but this is overstretch by any means)
It seems that this kid is taking over. It’s utterly bizarre how Mäkelä has risen up the ladder as quickly as he has. I’ve only seen him in action on tv – his Walton Belshazzar’s Feast at the 2023 Proms was pretty underwhelming – and in YouTube videos and don’t think he’s anything special. When you consider the conducting giants that have held the principal rôles of the orchestras this whipper-snapper is now piloting, it makes you wonder whether he’ll last or will just burn out in time like many others have before him. It’s quite alarming how he has gained this sort of ascendency without having spent the necessary years as an understudy or repetiteur. For me, he just hasn’t done enough to earn such a starry reputation.
Are they still an item? Anyway, he has talent in spades.
I heard him at Carnegie last night. You’re right. He’s terrific.
Overpraised, over hyped. Not fit for a top job yet.
He’s not very good- but the world’s ‘very good’ orchestras are getting increasingly desperate.
I disagree. I heard him live last night in a Stravinsky program. The Sacre made the BSO/Nelsons performance a couple of months ago sound very pale indeed…………..
But it’s simple: playing all the music extra fast.
Toscanini was a master at this
As was Kleiber. Mind you, anything is better than boring and there’s a lot of that about. It can be fast and boring but in my experience that’s a rarity.
How true as ever John. I recently listened to Makela’s reading Debussy of L’Apres Midi with The Paris Orchestra. You will hear none of the seductiveness of Boulez’s classic account with The Cleveland Orchestra or even Bernie Haitink’s with the Concertgebouw.
Mezzo has put out a collection of his performances.
I hate to admit it, I was always a doubter, but he IS that good. It is NOT hype. It actually is scary how good he is given his age, because he is that good given ANY age.
If true, no one can argue Chicago made a bad choice, even if one could nitpick whether it made the BEST choice, because it is nonetheless an excellent choice.
Norman, he better be named by Chicago, because this will really test your credibility as a journalist!
….or the credibility of the source………..
In days of yore players used to subject suspect conductors through the wringer in the form of a few missed notes as well as wrong ones here and there. Wonder if he would pass the test……
I confirm that it will be announced very soon.
As we all read, Muti dared the CSO board on the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/arts/music/muti-chicago-symphony-classical-music.html): “If you choose somebody that really I don’t like, then I don’t know if I come back”.
Well, he really does not like and does not respect the upcoming music director. From his point of view, this appointment is a direct affront to him; to make matter worse, nobody asked for his approval — an unforgivable infraction on the part of the CSO. On Muti’s clunky official website, his 2024 calendar does not display the October/November dates already contractually committed to the CSO (while it displays the October dates with the Philadelphia Orchestra, planned during the week before his Chicago return).
https://www.riccardomuti.com/events/2024-10/
Coded message in plain sight? Watch this space because Muti could cancel his future commitments in Chicago.
Makela is a magnificent musician for anyone who’s not deaf.
May I be allowed some wild untethered gossip in this momentous occasion? My guts say, along with this young maverick superstar Maestro, our Chicago audience will see and hear MUCH more from a certain young superstar pianist who was vetoed by a certain sexist old conductor and derided for her clothing which exposed “frog legs”. And … If YNS only knew what a certain homophobic old conductor says about him, when he hangs out with a certain author of books about Toscanini, I bet the undeserved Philly invites would be scrapped too.
Of course most conductor hate other conductors, if they view them as competitors and usually only speak well of the dead. Muti fits that mould. Small minded.
—again, we can only hope.
He is popular with audiences and that’s reflected in the box office. I expect he could juggle four orchestras although the Chicago board might not be happy with that.
Oslo sounds like the AAA team for Chicago. Why would he keep it?
He’s not going to lead four orchestras! Even when he signed on with the Concertgebouw it was very clear that he was taking over in 2027, when his contracts in Oslo and Paris end. At which point he could potentially extend one of them but if he took over the CSO (which still strikes me as implausible) that and the Concertgebouw would be his two jobs.
This Klaus dude seems to be a stand up guy, I give thumbs up.
Lots of folks w/ Scandinavian background in Chicago and the Mid-west, this fits.
If this is all true, the Italian old dude must be a very unhappy m***r right now. He’s history now.
Finland is not part of Scandinavia. It’s a “Northern” country. Scandinavia is Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Defined by linguistic and ethnic commonalities.
Amazing coup by Chicago.
Meanwhile, here in Italy Muti has been publicly asked to take over the Festival of Sanremo (pop music). https://news.italy24.press/celebrities/1335644.html
Not exactly a glorious hypothesis. He has not yet declined.
Why doesn’t he do himself, and audiences, a favor and gracefully retire to private life?
Still not buying Makela coming to Chicago, and Salonen’s recent comments that he doesn’t want a regular gig again anytime soon combined with him cancelling Mahler 2 to collect a prize tells you a lot. Hrusa would be fantastic – he’s been an absolute sensation over the last couple weeks. CSO and Covent Garden has been done before…
Agree Hrusa is fantastic and would do well in Chicago or Cleveland…….or San Francisco……
F Awesome. Now just bring back David Cooper and the Chicago party can seriously start.
Yes! This!
What does the old Muti have to say about all this? In the last several years, his repetitive interviews seem to have three main themes: resentment towards cancel culture, fear of metoo, and lack of appreciation for young conductors guilty of having too much hair, of jumping and gesticulating too much, and according to him of not studying enough. He can’t be at peace with this.
Yes, but nobody cares what Muti thinks. He is leaving. I was told that the new CSO MD was chosen months ago but not announced, maybe not to piss of Muti any more than he already was…………
What a grossly overrated and overhyped stick weilder. I heard him three times live . Twice in Paris and once at the Proms. . Watch the recording of Belshazzar- so fast it’s inarticulate at times and look at the musicians faces. Unimpressed.
Oh come on this was just click bait to get us looking at the review.
Why does everyone automatically assume Mäkelä won’t renew in Paris? He renewed once in Oslo. He might also renew in Paris.