He is undoubtedly the greatest conducting phenomenon since the appearance of Lorin Maazel at the end of the 1950s. The Finn Klaus Mäkelä will conduct his Orchester de Paris at the Maison symphonique on March 19, a opportunity also to discover the phenomenal pianist winner of the Van Cliburn competition, Yunchan Lim, in the 2e Concerto by Rachmaninov.
Klaus Mäkelä was 22 when he became music director of the Oslo Philharmonic, and 25 when he made the same mark in the history of the Paris Orchestra. He will be 31 years old in 2027 when he officially takes the helm of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and, as if that were not enough, the worst kept open secret in the musical world is the ardor with which the Chicago Symphony Orchestra wants to make him the successor to Riccardo Muti.
Klaus Mäkelä’s trajectory has nothing to do with a media or fashion phenomenon, hence the very conscious and assumed parallels with Lorin Maazel, who at the age of less than 30 recorded dazzling records with the Berlin Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon, and, before him, Guido Cantelli, shooting star, such a promising conductor who died at the age of 36 in 1956 in a plane accident.
A documentary
The presence on stage in Montreal on Tuesday will not be the only trace left by the Finnish chef. Indeed, as part of the International Festival of Films on Art – whose classical music section, devastated like never before in two decades, is not even worth a presentation article -, a documentary by Bruno Monsaingeon, Klaus Mäkelä. Towards the flamewill be presented on Friday, March 22 at the Maxwell-Cummings auditorium of the Musée cinema at 6:15 p.m. and at the Sandra and Alain Bouchard auditorium of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec on Sunday, March 24 at 1:30 p.m. film by one of the greatest musical documentarians, who made himself known through his complicity with Glenn Gould, allows us to better know the conductor, who we even see conducting in his childhood and adolescence.
In support of these images, it appears that Klaus Mäkelä, who also studied the cello, seems to have been almost programmed to become a conductor. Did he have any doubts, at the age of 11, 13 or 15, about his future? Could he have become a cellist rather than a conductor? “I always wanted to become a chef. The process happened naturally. I studied the right things and I loved studying them. I invested a lot in learning the cello, because I realized that a good level on the cello also taught me to be a good conductor. And then you can never know. Learning the cello was therefore a security,” said the conductor at Duty from his dressing room at the Philharmonie de Paris, where he has just rehearsed the 11e Symphony by Shostakovich.
The rehearsal process has an important place in Monsaingeon’s documentary. Mäkelä argues that when the concept is clear and the leader is confident, the conductor-orchestra tandem can go somewhere and there is no need to talk much. But how can you make a concept clear if you don’t speak (it’s true that orchestras don’t like loquacious conductors)? “As surprising as it may seem, we can convey a lot of things through elements as simple as posture, presence, the way of looking at the musicians, the nature of the gestures. We can thus control the atmosphere of the music. »
Klaus Mäkelä makes a point of guiding the character, the form, through certain gestures. “For example, in The Rite of Spring, you will have to find the primal tension and rhythmic force through certain types of gestures. There 11e Symphony by Shostakovich is program music. The first movement is a moment of suspense where motifs repeat themselves tirelessly. Then comes the 2e movement, where things really begin. The verbalization is simple; a word, in fact. The first movement is “suspense”, the 2e movement is “action”. This is what we basically need. »
Photoshop
Klaus Mäkelä’s Finnish origins certainly helped him. Not only because his teacher, Jorma Panula (born in 1930), was an experienced teacher, but also because of his musical environment. The young conductor emphasizes the extent to which he was supported by the members of the Helsinki Philharmonic for his great debut. In other countries (including France, not to mention it), equivalent orchestras would have delighted in tearing apart the rookie. “It’s true that I was lucky to be able to work with people who were ready to help me. The Helsinki Philharmonic knew me, because I had already played with them quite a few times as a young cellist. They therefore welcomed me like a member of the family, with as much kindness as when I had come as an instrumentalist. I also learned from my teacher, Jorma Panula, to trust the musicians and to think that they will do their best. »
Bruno Monsaingeon’s film contains an intriguing and difficult to decipher scene during which, after a concert by the 5e Symphony of Shostakovich in Oslo, Klaus Mäkelä goes to a booth to refine the sound and the interpretation of what appears to be a recording. But there is no disk of the 5e Symphony by Shostakovich with Oslo and Mäkelä. “It’s before the 2e or 3e concert ; I listened to what I could do better in the concert. We were going to do a hookup session the next day anyway. » Connections? “Yes, it’s a complete Shostakovich in Oslo, but it hasn’t been announced yet! » replies the chef.
Alongside the Stravinsky recordings in Paris, including Petrouchka succeeds these days to Fire Bird and at Sacred already published, Decca will therefore publish Shostakovich recorded in Norway. Oddly enough, in this booth, Mäkelä seems to shape the sound beyond what he might do in concert. What is his view on his recordings? Does its design include only musical nuances or does it accept a technical boost by adjusting sound parameters?
“When we record these days, everything has been done over and over and done very well. We therefore want to push our concept as far as possible. The priority is obviously music made on stage recorded during concerts and patching sessions. This is the heart of the CD and it is pushed to the maximum. But then the question arises: “How much more can we refine things?” » At this stage, Klaus Mäkelä is particularly interested in scales. “We record with a lot of microphones, which allows us to refine the scales slightly. Post-production, I love it. You have to take the best shots while maintaining the illusion of a single take. My ideal is to make the music on stage as best as possible and improve it a little bit. » A sort of sound Photoshop? “In a way, yes,” he says.
After 2027
To finish his complete work in Chicago, Klaus Mäkelä will have to hurry. We can already see him taking the reins of the Chicago Symphony, where he will go in April. The chief, obviously, does not confirm anything, nor does he deny it. On the other hand, it sheds light on what is possible and what is not. “After 2027, I will definitely be at the helm of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Currently, I am with the Paris Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic, two relationships that I greatly appreciate and which we are improving,” tells us the man who is also, in the meantime, “artistic partner” of the Oslo orchestra. Amsterdam. “What will happen after 2027, we will see. Two orchestras is the right mix. We need to see how we define a partnership; how one finds the right partnership. Being musical director of two orchestras is possible; three is too many. »
In Montreal, the young and tall Finn, who looks like an albatross when he extends his arms, will lead Fire Bird by Stravinsky. “I think things have changed since the recording. The concept is the same: for me, it is the last piece of post-romanticism with one foot in impressionism. The difficulty of Fire Bird is to find the narrative over 50 minutes and preserve the tension. But we’ve played it so much that it’s more unified, more coherent, more free: we know what we’re talking about. »
And if Berlin and Vienna call him, does the young Finn, who tries to practice his cello every day, still have time to accept their invitations to come and conduct them here or there? “I have a few slots for a few orchestras: Vienna, Berlin and the United States, my favorites, Cleveland and Chicago, those are the four orchestras I try to accommodate. »