" ... Klaus Mäkelä conducts a concert that is more a musical exploration than a complete programme, moving from Pierre Boulez's Initiale (in the year of his centenary) to Debussy, a religious work by Poulenc, and even Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition orchestrated by Ravel. The sheer diversity of these works invites us to examine their connections, in a spirit of witty musical {…}
"Mäkelä is someone who knows exactly what he wants musically, who has a clear concept and who can also communicate it … The uncompromisingness and attention to detail with which he approached the one-and-a-half-hour colossus of a symphony was astonishing."
Hamburger Abendblatt, Elisabeth Richter, 19 December 2024"The wonderfully differentiated and intimately performed Andante {…}
"Saturday night’s concert began with Verklärte Nacht, the Schoenberg piece. In its opening measures, it was small but perceptible - you could hear the music clearly … Mäkelä conducted with an admirable straightforwardness. The music was not overindulged. The players tucked into it, unafraid … And Mäkelä and his players gave a lesson in ethereality without prissiness. It {…}
"It was Hollywood-like pathos in an evening full of colour: the Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Klaus Mäkelä made pure music ... They conjured an evening of colour, starting with a premiere work by former composer in residence Ellen Reid ... But the greatest admiration really went to Rachmaninov's Second symphony. This tad underrated composer wrote great melodies in a warm {…}
"The programme might have looked conventional on paper but there was nothing safe about Klaus Mäkelä’s debut with the London Symphony Orchestra ... From an impressionistic, hyper sensual opening (to The Rite of Spring), no detail was too small to escape his attention. The Games of the Rival Tribes erupted with a chilling ferocity while a surprisingly funky Procession of the Sage {…}
"Mahler that risks nothing is not worth hearing. Mahler that risks everything will almost certainly fall apart in performance and fail to deliver the composer’s insights. So, where is the right level of risk to be found? And does it extend beyond the stage? There is no question that Klaus Mäkelä’s reading of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 with the Cleveland Orchestra on this occasion {…}
