Klaus Mäkelä RCO 2027

[Herman]

Tomorrow (friday) it will be announced that the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä will be the Concertgebouw's chief conductor starting in 2027, when he's served his contract with Oslo and Paris.

[Brian]

He must be very charming and likeable and a good leader of people, because the very small amount of recorded evidence (the Sibelius) suggest a pretty immature, unformed artistic mind. He pays loads and loads of attention to string phrasing and balance but almost none to wind/brass. And those recordings are generally about 5% too slow across the board.

But maybe he's a really gifted leader and communicator! And maybe in concert his programming is fascinating. Hope so.

Hard to judge a music director off a single inconsistent album. Jaap van Zweden was good for Dallas but is erratic at best on CD, while Andrew Litton is irresistible on CD but was mostly disliked by our musicians.

[Mirror Image]

God help us! They'll let anyone be the chief conductor of the Concertgebouw these days. Why not let someone from a local fast food restaurant lead the orchestra, because that's their next stop after Mäkelä.

"Excuse me, I've been waiting for 15 minutes for my order. Could you tell me what's going?"

"I'm sorry, sir. I don't have time to talk, I'm going to go conduct Beethoven's 5th with the Royal Concertgebouw!"

[Customer looks at employee with a puzzled look...]

[Fast food employee jumps over the counter, throws his apron on the floor and rushes out the swinging door.]

[Roasted Swan]

Tomorrow (friday) it will be announced that the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä will be the Concertgebouw's chief conductor starting in 2027, when he's served his contract with Oslo and Paris.

Wow - he must be doing something right!  Even Haitink was in his (early) 30's before he got the Concertgebouw.

[DavidW]

He pays loads and loads of attention to string phrasing and balance but almost none to wind/brass. And those recordings are generally about 5% too slow across the board.

Sounds like the spiritual successor to Karajan!  Maybe he should have been given the BPO instead.

[Que]

[Gramophone]

"Finnish conductor to become Chief Conductor in 2027

Klaus Mäkelä, one of the most talked-about conductors of his generation, will become the next Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw, starting in 2027. What's being described as a 'long-term collaboration' will begin next season however, with Mäkelä joining as Artistic Partner.

The Finnish conductor will become the acclaimed Amsterdam orchestra's eighth Chief Conductor. He first conducted the ensemble in 2020, and according to Jörgen van Rijen, principal trombone and chairman of the artistic committee: 'I speak on behalf of all my fellow orchestra musicians when I say that we wholeheartedly choose for a long-term collaboration with conductor Klaus Mäkelä. Rarely have we experienced such an overwhelming support from our musicians for a new chief conductor.'

Klaus Mäkelä is currently Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of Orchestre de Paris and Artistic Director of the Turku Music Festival. An exclusive Decca artist (the first conductor to sign to the historic label since Riccardo Chailly made his debut in 1978), Mäkelä has recorded the complete Sibelius symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic as his first project for the label.

An Editor's Choice in Gramophone's April issue, Edward Seckerson wrote about the set: 'We all have favourite recordings and cherished performances of the Sibelius symphonies but Mäkelä's cycle is all of a piece, accomplished, insightful and full of the beauty and intrigue that make these works so perennially exciting. An uber-auspicious debut.'

Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic have recently performed the Sibelius symphony cycle in a residency at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and have also given concerts at the Paris Philharmonie and London's Barbican, all to highly enthusiastic reviews.

Mäkelä studied cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski, and conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula. As a soloist, he has performed with several Finnish orchestras and as a chamber musician with members of the Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian RSO and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He is scheduled to appear as a cellist at this summer's Verbier Festival alongside Daniel Lozakovich, Klaus Mäkelä, Martin Fröst, Lucas Debargue, Daniil Trifonov and others."

[Que]

Wow - he must be doing something right!  Even Haitink was in his (early) 30's before he got the Concertgebouw.

He must be super talented!   
The musicians of the RCO always picks their own conductors, and it seems there was a large consensus on this.
One of the orchestra members commented that if he is this good at 26, he can only get even better...

BTW by the time he gets the title of chief conductor, he will be in his early '30s as well.