"In taking these momentous scores back to their Parisian roots Klaus Mäkelä, as expected, engages his keen ears and sense of orchestral drama to hear and to project their startling innovation. This Rite is all about inner parts in high relief and rhythms that are truly physical and always point to a bodily expression. We should be reminded that this is a ballet before it is {…}

" 'Show more, talk less.' That's the Finnish conductor's motto, so to speak, and what he's showing his Orchester de Paris here is incredible. Crisp orchestral energy, and by that I don't mean volume at all, but actually the concentrated, almost concentrated orchestral power, meets lyrical and exquisitely chamber music-like passages and sections. Klaus Mäkelä takes us as listeners on {…}

"Stravinsky spoke of musicians as craftsmen who should reproduce the composer's intentions, and his own intentions have a square matter-of-factness about them. Parts where the musicians can excel with superb playing that sucks in the stomach are absent in his music. Regardless of whether we are dealing with his neoclassicism or his primitive style, the music is about balance - and the {…}

"How many conductors have recorded Stravinsky's "Sacre du printemps" and  "Firebird" on one disc? It feels like there must be hundreds; Amazon.de spits out about 50 hits for the corresponding search terms. One thing is certain: anyone who wants to add another recording to this list has rather poor chances of causing a sensation with it. And he demonstrates about as little {…}