Klaus Mäkelä chosen for Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director

[Iota]

I definitely do not want mistakes/warts in my performances or recordings. See the pianists of today being able to play not just at a very high level but with tremendous creativity as well.

I didn't really mean mistakes when I used 'warts', more playing that was less 'dazzlingly' technically perfect and thus perhaps feeling more 'human'. I should perhaps have made that clearer. And if it also wasn't clear, I love many earlier recordings/artists, irreplaceable talents that I grew up listening to and who have shaped my musical thinking, but I also find a cornucopia of talent and individuality in today's artists too, despite many differences in approach and circumstance.

[Karl Henning]

I didn't really mean mistakes when I used 'warts', more playing that was less 'dazzlingly' technically perfect and thus perhaps feeling more 'human'.

It often comes down to how the individual receives the music, I expect. I recall there being criticism on similar lines of the Emerson Quartet's recording of the Bartók cycle, which I have always enjoyed, even while puzzling how technical fluency could somehow be a "negative."

[(poco) Sforzando]

I agree wholeheartedly but my local newspaper classical music critic passionately disagrees because he thinks too many of today's string quartets are "overplaying." It is hard to be fair to a view I disagree with so passionately, but he seems to think that no matter the size of the hall, quartets should continue to show the soft subtlety and restraint he believes 1800s ensembles displayed, without tending to loudness or excessive energy.

Phew. I can't believe I typed that. But there is at least one person who thinks it!

There is a case that chamber music should be played in a chamber. I heard the Emerson Quartet do all the Bartoks sitting in the top row at Carnegie Hall. Also at Carnegie Hall, the most absurd recital I have ever heard - James Levine and Evgeny Kissin going a program of Schubert 4-hand music at 2 grand pianos to an audience of 2800. Schubert intended those pieces to be played at a single piano in a small room, where the primo and secondo shared the pleasurable excitment of touching each other's hands.

[DavidW]

The sheer clarity of recorded sound these days only adds to this dehumanising/distancing I think, particularly for those preferring the less forensic sound of earlier analogue recordings.
Anyway, this is all conjecture of course, but sometimes I do feel artists' qualities get overlooked just because of their great technical facility.

I actually thought about that a great deal when listening to Vanska/Sibelius II.  Because I think the performances have emotional heft, but the sheer clarity of the sound gives it a dryness... and I was thinking if I could filter it to sound like a poorly mastered recording of old with limited dynamics that it would end up sounding warmer and more blended and even DH would like it more because it would just sound more engaging.  That it was really the sheer transparency that was getting in the way.

[Herman]

if I could filter it to sound like a poorly mastered recording of old with limited dynamics that it would end up sounding warmer and more blended and even DH would like it more because it would just sound more engaging.

To each his own, but isn't it a little weird people want to mess with the way their recordings sound at home, hoping it would sound more like something this crazy guy Hurwitz would possibly like?

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

There is a case that chamber music should be played in a chamber. I heard the Emerson Quartet do all the Bartoks sitting in the top row at Carnegie Hall.

Yeah, it's called chamber music for a reason. I heard the Emersons do the DSCH quartets in Alice Tully Hall, and even that venue was too large. Ideally a chamber music hall should be about 250-500 seats, I think.

[Karl Henning]

Fellow composer-conductor (although I say that, I don't think I'm in his conducting league) Kevin Scott pointed me to this:

[DavidW]

To each his own, but isn't it a little weird people want to mess with the way their recordings sound at home, hoping it would sound more like something this crazy guy Hurwitz would possibly like?

Ha!  Yeah true but I would like an equalizer or maybe warmer speakers?

[DavidW]

Yeah, it's called chamber music for a reason. I heard the Emersons do the DSCH quartets in Alice Tully Hall, and even that venue was too large. Ideally a chamber music hall should be about 250-500 seats, I think.

At the tail end of covid some members of the local orchestra formed a quartet and performed a concert before just a few dozen in a small hall.  It was divine.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Yeah, it's called chamber music for a reason. I heard the Emersons do the DSCH quartets in Alice Tully Hall, and even that venue was too large. Ideally a chamber music hall should be about 250-500 seats, I think.

Even Mozart operas (and certainly Handel) do better in a theater of about 500, such as the Drottingholm in Stockholm. Rosen makes the point that in a large opera house, the three little dance orchestras all in different rhythms in the first act finale of Don Giovanni get completely lost.

[Herman]

Even Mozart operas (and certainly Handel) do better in a theater of about 500, such as the Drottingholm in Stockholm. Rosen makes the point that in a large opera house, the three little dance orchestras all in different rhythms in the first act finale of Don Giovanni get completely lost.

problem is, obviously, that opera is a the most expensive form of classical, and you need vast subsidies if you want to do DG in a 500 seat theatre. In comparison string quartets are dirt cheap.

[Atriod]

I actually thought about that a great deal when listening to Vanska/Sibelius II.  Because I think the performances have emotional heft, but the sheer clarity of the sound gives it a dryness... and I was thinking if I could filter it to sound like a poorly mastered recording of old with limited dynamics that it would end up sounding warmer and more blended and even DH would like it more because it would just sound more engaging.  That it was really the sheer transparency that was getting in the way.

This has never occurred with me. Some of the most emotional and/or musical performances I've heard had stunning recording quality. I love the one with Lahti, I heard a handful of the Minnesota symphonies years ago but can't recall much about them, I will check out the second.

[lordlance]

I don't have an opinion on Makela yet but he has lots of performances on YouTube. Something people might not know is that in the internet era it is entirely possible for a conductor's legacy to be on YouTube or on other digital streaming platforms like Estrada/Frankfurt, Saraste/WDR, Bychkov/WDR, Altingolu/Frankfurt,  and, of course, Rattle/BPO on DCH (Yes he's recorded some albums with them but his true output is on DCH)

My own search reveals performances of at least 20 works so there is no shortage of options.

[DavidW]

I don't have an opinion on Makela yet but he has lots of performances on YouTube. Something people might not know is that in the internet era it is entirely possible for a conductor's legacy to be on YouTube or on other digital streaming platforms like Estrada/Frankfurt, Saraste/WDR, Bychkov/WDR, Altingolu/Frankfurt,  and, of course, Rattle/BPO on DCH (Yes he's recorded some albums with them but his true output is on DCH)

My own search reveals performances of at least 20 works so there is no shortage of options.

One thing Bruce has taught me is how ubiquitous the live performance stream has become.  I think it is no replacement for being there, but still pretty neat!

[Herman]

conductor's legacy to be on YouTube or on other digital streaming platforms like Estrada/Frankfurt, Saraste/WDR, Bychkov/WDR, Altingolu/Frankfurt,  and, of course, Rattle/BPO on DCH (Yes he's recorded some albums with them but his true output is on DCH)

Dima Slobodeniouk and the Sinfonia Galicia is another example of a big youtube footprint.

[MishaK]

I have no doubt of a 28 year old producing brilliant performances with top-tier orchestras. But the best music directors are orchestra builders, and I wouldn't image that someone with little experience would be prepared for that.

In any case, I wish him well.

An orchestra of the caliber of the CSO doesn't need an orchestra builder. It's as "built" as it gets. It needs a superstar to sell tickets and sell out tours because he's a household name. Last weekend's CSO concerts were sold out. Not bad for the post pandemic arts scene. I'd say the CSO got what it wanted.

[MishaK]

Aaaanywaayyy.... getting back to the CSO and Mäkelä... here is the radio broadcast of his most recent CSO appearance prior to this season. There's a terrific Mahler 5 with David Cooper in top form. The second movement is one of the best paced and structured I have heard:

https://soundcloud.com/chicagosymphony/sets/makela-conducts-lopez-bellido-mahler-5

[Roasted Swan]

An orchestra of the caliber of the CSO doesn't need an orchestra builder. It's as "built" as it gets. It needs a superstar to sell tickets and sell out tours because he's a household name. Last weekend's CSO concerts were sold out. Not bad for the post pandemic arts scene. I'd say the CSO got what it wanted.

There's an interesting video online of Makela being introduced to the orchestra for a rehearsal just after the announcement of his appointment.  A couple of things to note; 1) the reception by the orchestra is genuinely warm and lengthy from the whole group - from which the conclusion has to be that the players are definitely on-board with the appointment at this time. 2) Makela says a few well-chosen words about his pleasure excitement etc but also says - almost as a throw-away - how much he's looking forward to all their tours and recordings together which definitely chimes with what MishaK references in his post.  To be honest why shouldn't an orchestra be pleased at the opportunity to maximise their collective and individual incomes!

Back in the day a cynic at the BBC NOW said the best thing about Richard Hickox was his recording contract with Chandos....... make of that what you will........

PS:  I would disagree that any orchestra doesn't need "building".  Fair enough they already play brilliantly but any Music Director worth their salt will introduce different priorities musically, different style, different repertoire.  Any orchestra can and should grow from where they currently are......

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I read somewhere (perhaps it was in a link that someone here had given?) that the PTB conducted a survey of who the musicians wanted as their conductor--top three.  One of the musicians wrote Mäkelä's name in the three spaces allotted. 

[Spotted Horses]

PS:  I would disagree that any orchestra doesn't need "building".  Fair enough they already play brilliantly but any Music Director worth their salt will introduce different priorities musically, different style, different repertoire.  Any orchestra can and should grow from where they currently are......

It calls to mind advice the Simon Rattle said that Karajan gave him, "The sound of an orchestra is like one of your English Gardens, you have to take care of it every day. Not only do you have to water it and encourage it, but you have to weed it as well."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ceXbC9SF1E