Klaus Mäkelä books himself as solo cellist
OrchestrasThe incoming Chicago Symphony chief has just published next season’s plans for one of his other orchestras, the Oslo Philharmonic.
Among some bold and ingenious programming – the start of a Shostakovich cycle, a Rautavaara symphony and a new piano concerto by Anders Hillborg – the music director has put himself down to tour as cellist in the Brahms double concerto with violinist Daniel Lozakovich.
The tour vists Amsterdam and Paris, two other cities where Mäkelä is music director.
Agent will be thrilled. Double fee.
Make that triple fee. The other soloist for the Brahms double concerto is Daniel Lozakovich — another Parrott puppet. I feel sorry for the audience.
What’s the tempo marking? Allegro vomitamente?!
Well – Shani is playing the piano in his concerts here and there – so what’s the problem with Mäkelä the cellist doing the same thing a few times?
Difference is that Shani is an exceptional pianist, not superstar, but top tier for sure. I don’t think I could say the same of the kid.
He can’t be worse than Lozakovich, at least.
https://www.verbierfestival.com/en/show/vf24-07-23-1830/
Going the Barenboim route? One hopes not! One fee to conduct, one fee to be music director, and as soloist.
I’m allowing it.
Orchestra Manager: So you would like to program the Brahms Double. Who will play cello?
KM: I couldn’t find anyone good enough but I have an idea about who to ask!
OM: Really? I’d like to hear who you are thinking of.
KM: Me.
But he is really NOT that good!!!
Great, I hope he will find time to study also.
There’s an old Chinese saying, “If you stop studying for 3 days, your face will become abominable.”
Another example of filthy corruption in classical music that makes the blood of the old guard boil. It really used to be about the playing.
Its good a conductor to remind the musicians and the public that they can actually play an instrument well, when they can.
In this case, the public will be reminded why he did NOT make a name for himself on his instrument.
In case of a, say, Sawallisch, yes you can.
(And how modest he was about it!)
[Sarcasm alert] I am repeatedly moved to tears by Klaus’s extraordinary self-effacing modesty.
And Klaus counts Blomstedt as his role model. (Not sarcasm. He really does.)
LMAO
As soon as I saw this item, I knew there would be a bevy of snarky comments by the Makela haters. My question is, have any of you actually heard him play? For me, any chance to hear the Brahms Double Concerto is a blessing, and I hope he brings it to Chicago.
Yes, and it’s very average, I’m afraid to say. Go on YouTube. And I think taking cello playing like that to Chicago would be career suicide – you’ll get teenage kids studying with Jensen at Northwestern who play 10 times better.
They are writers, not listeners
I am not part of the musical world, and after reading “comments” under almost any Slipped Disc article, I’m glad! Why so much enjoyment in being snarky?
Bernstein auditioned but failed to be admitted as a piano student at Curtis (he wanted to study both conducting and piano at Curtis), which never stopped him from programming himself as piano concerto soloist and conductor with the NY Philharmonic.
(James Levine was a better pianist. Muti is abominable.)
Mäkelä too would fail to be admitted as a cello student at Curtis. Curtis recruits from a much larger pool (North America plus far higher name recognition worldwide) for about 1/10 of the number of students studying at the Sibelius Academy.
This is not correct; Bernstein was a double major at Curtis, also studying piano with Vengerova.
Bravo maestro! I always encouraged my conducting students to continue to perform on their instrument as soloist and in ensembles. They must not forget the experience on the other side of the podium. It’s also important not to forget why you have a career in music! I am a member of the CSO Alumni Association and I am very excited about his tenure in Chicago! A great opportunity for him and the orchestra. The union will achieve greatness!
Sorry all you armchair critics. The ‘kid’ can play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL1JXx_lhwQ&ab_channel=medici.tv
That was 2 years ago. He has had very little time to practice since then. And even then he wasn’t very good.
He seems decently competent here, though it’s probably not the most challenging rep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADiVdt8VD98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkp9scT0eZ8&t=8s
KM did something similar in Amsterdam, putting himself in a chamber music setting.
The sudden hate here for Klaus Mäkelä is rather juvenile… and boring.
Anders Hillborg, making his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic as far as I can tell. (Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong here.) Good for him. The only advocate of his music I know of other than second rate Swedish conductors is Esa-Pekka Salonen. It’s quite clear that Salonen, in addition to Mäkelä’s agent, also strongly pushed for Mäkelä to accept as many jobs as he can (preferably outside of orchestras Salonen already has a direct influence over) so that there is an additional paying orchestra for Salonen’s music and his clan of commission seekers.
He will play the Brahms double this June in Paris with Oslo. Brahms 1 in the second half.
And Beethoven’s Triple next July in Verbier (Kavakos, violin, Shani, piano and Rattle conducting)
Trusting he has booked aside a formidable amount of practice time….both the ‘cello solo parts of the Beethoven Triple and the
Brahms Double are bears…………
Why not go and plays at some billionaire’s tacky birthday party?
“This” is classical music! A bunch of performing monkeys making big bucks!
In the face of all the invective appearing below, maybe Mr Makela will turn out to be a tolerably good cellist, and that the publicity attached to this event will attract a larger audience?
Anything that keeps him from conducting is welcome. The CSO made a big mistake.
I don’t get all the animosity toward Makela. Admittedly, I find it hard to imagine that he’s the best of about a dozen Finns leading orchestras around the world or that he’s really the best pereson to lead both the CSO and the Concertgebouw (and please, once and for all can we stop this “four orchestras” thing and understand that once he’s in charge in Chicago and Amsterdam, he will leave the other two?
That said, a lot of very good musicians are quite taken with him so I will defer to their judgment. And a conductor still interested in playing his instrument is something we should encourage. Who cares if every CSO cellist (and ever some of their students) is better than him? He’s a good musician and he’ll do his best, understanding his best instrument is the stick. Osmo Vanska is a wonderful clarinet player but he’s definitely not better than the clarinetists in the orchestras he leads – at least now that he’s about 70 and probably doesn’t have a lot of time to practice – yet nobody seems to blow a gasket when he pulls out his clarinet.
Just heard Mäkelä and Daniel Lozakovich in the Brahms double concerto in Vienna. It was a fine performance!