"... Mäkelä impresses above all by his uncompromising musicality. He melts into the moment with the piece he is conducting, without the rapture coming at the expense of analytical perfectionism. Mäkelä is also versatile. In Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3, he ensured a tight interaction with pianist Kirill Gerstein ... In Bruckner you saw his energy change instantly; from high to {…}

"Ce qui n’empêche qu’il faut absolument regarder cette exécution plus qu’impressionnante ... ce que réalise le jeune Finlandais, directeur musical désigné de l’OP, en termes de maîtrise de l’architecture, de dosage des équilibres, de fusion sonore (et quel son d’orchestre!), témoigne d’une maturité que l’on n’a décidément pas le souvenir d’avoir {…}

"Sibelius’ music is in Mäkelä’s DNA and it was exciting to watch him bring a fresh perspective to the work. He barely took his eyes off the players, turning his score pages from memory, sometimes a few at once, conducting with an unflustered and mature economic elegance drawing on contrasts and textures. The players responded wonderfully, from the beguiling clarinet solo through {…}

“Anchored by a medieval-sounding Dorian mode, gradually emerging from a very simple, four-descending-keys motif played in the first three bars by the second violins, Sibelius’ Sixth Symphony is not exactly the shiny vahana that young maestros prefer for displaying their exquisite technique. Mäkelä went beyond the somehow misleading four-parts structure of the work, underlining {…}

"Klaus Mäkelä und Igor Levit: starke und junge Überzeugungstäter im vorerst wieder mal letzten Münchner BRSO-Konzert … Man spielt einen Mozart ohne Ecken und Kanten, rasch, schwerelos, dabei besonders im ausdrucksvollen Moll-Mittelsatz träumerisch, versenkungsbereit, aber nie verzärtelt, gar sentimental. Der Ausdruck, obwohl tiefsinnig, bleibt sachlich. Levit mischt {…}