"This is the third time Klaus Mäkelä has come to the Lucerne Festival, and the second time he has led this orchestra. Under his baton, the magnetism of the Abbado years is reawakened ... In Stravinsky’s The Firebird we encounter the same interpretive crucible as at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023, in a reading that is increasingly inspired, developed, and {…}

“ …  Klaus Mäkelä triumphs as a Richard Strauss conductor with Die Frau ohne Schatten … leading the superbly prepared Orchestre de Paris from a lyrical opening into a richly colored orchestral splendor, producing magnificent waves of sound.”Krönen Zeitung, Stefan Musil, 5 July 2026“This “Frau” is a triumph …  a miraculous alignment of talent and committed {…}

“But how was the performance (of Bruckner Symphony No. 8) in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie with the Concertgebouw Orchestra? To spoil it: an absolute triumph with standing ovations and cheering at the first bow. Under Mäkelä, the Dutch top orchestra proved that it still belongs to the world's top, that Bruckner is still known like the back of his own hand, and that they had {…}

"In just under 80 exhilarating minutes, Klaus Mäkelä led Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Philharmonie with the Orchestre de Paris and Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris, revealing once again why the work remains the most formidable of choral–orchestral undertakings: spiritually uncompromising, structurally unwieldy, and stubbornly resistant to anything resembling {…}

“Not every clas­sical listener will be delighted with Shos­takovich's eighth ... All the more impress­ive how the musi­cians built up the ten­sion under Mäkelä – and kept it! The Great Hall, per­fect for this music, seemed to shine over the massive Tut­tis in the hellishly glor­i­ous apo­ca­lypse of the third move­ment."Die Presse, 24 January 2026, Jens F. {…}

"Christmas came early for Chicago Symphony audiences on December 18. I refer not to the orchestra’s holiday music concerts ... but to what was the first of three regular subscription performances of stunning virtuosity and uncommonly thought-provoking programming … The CSO sounds remarkably transparent under Mäkelä’s baton. We feel like we can hear every single instrument that {…}