New online: Klaus Mäkelä’s double act
OrchestrasHow to conduct the Brahms double concerto while playing the solo part.
You know you always wanted to.
Comments
MOST READ TODAY:
-
Orchestras
Berlin Phil oboe’s US class arouses disquiet
A social media activist has circulated a video…
-
News
The billion-click pianist
A PR informs us this morning that the…
-
Orchestras
Barenboim quits Berlin concerts
The Berlin State Opera communicated tonight that its…
-
Orchestras
NY Times chief joins the Mäkelä sceptics
Zachary Woolfe, chief music critic of the New…
“Hey everyone, it is all about ME!”
I wonder if he is thinking about wearing short dresses!!!
Kudos to the concertmaster for holding this circus act together.
My niece Tabitha managed this when playing the Dvorak with the Soke Orchestra in Peterborough Town Hall in 1943, by the simple expedient of replacing the spike on her instrument with a pogo stick. Apart from the occasional territorial dispute with the tympanist I believe it went splendidly.
When’s he going to start singing? He can conduct, play, sing Villas-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras
he’s already dancing quite well with the Cso
Why can’t he be like everyone and just stick to rediscovering relevance?
Completely unnecessary.
This is interesting. Every video clip I’ve seen of KM as a cellist is in repertoire that seems carefully chosen not to give a true representation of his actual skills on the instrument. The fact is, you just can’t tell as much about a player in thickly-scored chamber works as you can in the standard concerto or sonata repertoire. The Brahms Double also doesn’t reveal very much because the cello writing is fairly unidiomatic throughout (and usually sounds it), and the piece itself is just never as satisfying as the Dvořák, no matter who’s playing.
I think this is on purpose. KM is undoubtedly a good cellist but nowhere near the soloist of international calibre that he might like to be. I wonder if he will have the cojones to schedule himself as a soloist with the CSO as Barenboim so often did. The difference is, of course, that Barenboim already had a flourishing solo career. Personally, I would like to hear KM in one of the Haydn concerti — that would be HIGHLY informative.
that it would…
Judging from the excerpt here, KM is not a virtuoso cellist. Then again, like the Beethoven Triple, the Brahms Double isn’t a virtuoso showcase, and the musicians appeared to be having fun, so I did too.
Be real, he is conductor of possibly the worlds 2 best orchestras. Maybe he knows he isn’t yo yo ma and chose something that works for him. So, what? Why so petty?
He doesn’t do himself a favour of doing such stunts. It could be just for fun with a simpler piece, but clearly both soloists are out of their league with Brahms here. Surprisingly even Lozakovich performs underwhelming.
He enjoys music making like you never will.
We have really hit peak “the emperor has no clothes” with Mäkelä.
He may hit all of the notes, but his playing lacks the style, sophistication, warmth, and wit of pretty much any notable cellist of the last 75 years.
A lot of conductors are very capable instrumentalists, but they recognize that their level of playing doesn’t rise to that of the soloists they accompany, and thus, don’t program themselves as a soloist. (Even YNS knows better than to book himself to play and conduct piano concertos!)
Not everything Mäkelä touches turns to gold and needs to be cheered on as the second coming.
News flash: armchair musician has just announced the world’s hottest conductor is not one of the best cellists of the past 75 years.
Stunning and brave!
Just from the clip of the third movement, I never saw any “conducting” as such. Sitting down, facing away from the orchestra and watching the violinist closely, where is the opportunity? Could the musicians follow his hair bouncing?
Well, he doesn’t seem to be performing any conducting duties. It’s like playing it without a conductor.
Great musical mind! Except for Bernstein and Barenboim, few great conductors maintain their performance chops.
Szell kept up his piano skills, but didn’t perform in public.
You can’t seriously compare Barenboim’s pianistic skills with Mäkelä’s cello skills, before both ventured into the conducting profession. Barenboim was a world class pianist (and kept much of this momentum for a very long time in parallel to his conducting). Mäkelä was a decent cellist at the conservatoire level.
I was there for the concertgebouw for this performance and it was fun! He was in almost constant eye contact with Daniel and the concert master and almost everything went smoothly. A leading Dutch newspaper gave 4 out of 5 stars and remarked it was like two friends in a garage band having fun, and it was; they were clearly having a good time and the audience loved it.