Cleveland, USA
Severance Hall
Cleveland Orchestra
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus
Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)
Here was something truly special: a conductor who revelled in freshly imagining each sound.
The Times
Official Biography
Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä has held the position of Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2020 and Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris since September 2021. He assumes the title of Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in September 2027 and in the same season commences as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive Decca Classics artist, he has recorded Stravinsky and Debussy Ballets Russes with Orchestre de Paris. With the Oslo Philhharmonic he has released the complete Sibelius Symphonies, and Sibelius and Prokofiev’s first Violin Concerto with Janine Jansen.
Coinciding with performances at the Salzburg Festival and Musikfest Berlin, Decca Classics released Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic’s new recording of Shostakovich Symphonies Nos 4, 5 and 6 in August 2024. Shostakovich then continues as a main composer focus in Mäkelä’s fifth season in Oslo, with performances of Symphonies Nos. 1, 11 and 15, whilst the music of Bartók threads through the autumn, with Divertimento and Concerto for Orchestra, works they also perform at the Vienna Musikverein and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Additional programme highlights include Andrew Norman’s Play; Anders Hillborg’s new Piano Concerto MAX with soloist Emanuel Ax, and Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite.
With a focus on French composers and new works, Mäkelä’s fourth season with the Orchestre de Paris pays tribute to the anniversaries of both Ravel and Boulez and features music by Berlioz, Fauré, Debussy, Poulenc and Messiaen. New commissions see the premieres of Thierry Escaich’s Lux Aeterna and Charlotte Bray’s A Sky Too Small. In addition to the 10th anniversary celebrations at home in the Paris Philharmonie, they tour extensively, with summer performances at the BBC Proms and Lucerne Festivals, and guest performances across Europe. They complete the season by returning to Asia in June 2025.
Guest conducting engagements in the 2024/25 season include performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker. Mäkelä also makes his first appearance with the Wiener Philharmoniker in Vienna and on tour. This season he is focus artist at the Vienna Musikverein, and Portrait Artist at the Essen Philharmonie and Brussels Bozar.
As a cellist Mäkelä partners with members of the Oslo Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris for occasional programmes, and each summer he performs at the Verbier Festival.
Oslo, Norway
Konserthus
Oslo Philharmonic
George Enescu: Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1
Igor Stravinsky: Violin Concerto
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
Soloist: Vilde Frang
INFO
DECCA CLASSICS ANNOUNCES AUGUST RELEASE: SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONIES NOS. 4, 5 & 6 WITH THE OSLO PHILHARMONIC
Following their highly acclaimed cycle of the complete Sibelius symphonies, Decca Classics is thrilled to announce the release of Shostakovich Symphonies 4, 5, & 6 with Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic on 14 August 2024. To celebrate the release, the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä launch their 5th season with a special {…}
THE OSLO PHILHARMONIC ANNOUNCES 24/25 SEASON
The Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä commence their 5th season with a special concert in August, celebrating the release of their first recording in a new Shostakovich series for Decca Classics, featuring symphonies nos, 4, 5 and 6. The music of Shostakovich has been core to Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic’s programming from the start {…}
Shostakovich Symphonies 4, 5 & 6 album review – Gramophone “Editor’s Choice”
"What we have here is a telling snapshot of Shostakovich’s symphonic journey with all its socio-political implications. With the Fourth Symphony we tread the path he might have taken, with the Fifth we glimpse apparent compliance with a nod to the great Tchaikovsky, and the Sixth is flat-out wilful deception. He’d learned to work the Soviet system.
"This has to be the {…}
Orchestre de Paris – season opening
"La Philharmonie accueillait ce 11 septembre le concert de rentrée de l’Orchestre de Paris devant une salle comble. Depuis ses débuts en 2021, l’effet Klaus Mäkelä, qui entame sa quatrième saison de directeur musical auprès de la phalange symphonique parisienne, n’a cessé de croître et de se multiplier … Dansant et énergique, l'"Allegro con brio" (Beethoven Eroica) {…}
Shostakovich Symphonies 4, 5 & 6 album review – BBC Music Magazine
“What’s especially stunning about Klaus Mäkelä’s journey with the Oslo Philharmonic, who adore him, is the foregrounding of the lyrical. Every time I hear the apparently ramshackle Fourth Symphony, I grasp its symphonic shape better, and how much more so when what you might call the vast first movement’s second subject group tries to sing its way through the sulphurous {…}
