"Some programmes are like a declaration of intent. To inaugurate the 2022-2023 season of the Orchestre de Paris (OP) at the Philharmonie, the music director, Klaus Mäkelä, opted for audacity and generosity. The generosity of a particularly dense programme, highlighting the full orchestra through two of the most physical works in the repertoire: Strauss' Zarathustra and Scriabin's {…}

”To be honest I can't remember ever having heard a more intense and sparkling orchestra performance in the Oslo Concert Hall. The chemistry between the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä is extremely good ... It's simply moving to see what effort and energy every single musician contributes to the collective, but nevertheless extremely {…}

"The opening concert could not have been more musically captivating, more convincing …  Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Sixth with burning intensity, the contrasting power of the first movement in the most inflamed body tension, the illusory idyll of the Andante in all its ambiguity, the Scherzo as a grimly beautiful rhythmic obliquity and the Finale in the compulsion to destroy all {…}

"In Mahler's exhilarating Sixth Symphony, both Mäkelä and the orchestra pulled out all the stops  … It was a Mahler full of melodiousness and testosterone; fierce and earthy, in the heavenly vistas less ethereal than imaginable … The final movement, with its nightmarish harps and deadly knocks, was ominous and overwhelming."NRC, Mischa Spel, 20 August 2022 "Have we ever {…}

"Finnish music from mythic forests set us off — Sibelius’s Tapiola. It began with the Oslo strings growling portentously, a deeply satisfying sound from the bass up, aided by Makela’s imaginative placement of the violas on his right, facing the first violins. There were breathtaking pianissimi chords and, towards the end, a violent, startling crescendo. These expressive {…}