Klaus Mäkelä: How to conduct two of the best orchestras in the world at 28 years of age

Youth and overwhelming talent prevail over maturity and experience at the podium of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). The Illinois orchestra on Tuesday named 28-year-old Klaus Mäkelä to succeed the legendary Riccardo Muti as music director, although he will not start his term until 2027 when he will be 31 years old. This is a role directing one of the most outstanding orchestras in the United States and one of the top five in the world, as established by Bachtrack magazine last September, after consulting a panel made up of critics from leading international newspapers, including EL PAÍS. The ranking also listed Finn as one of the top 10 conductors in the world, ahead of Christian Thielemann and Riccardo Chailly.

Mäkelä will be the Chicago Symphony’s 11th chief conductor in its 133-year history. A list that, since 1950, has included figures such as Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim. But Mäkelä — the current conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and the Paris Orchestra — will not take up his new position until the 2027/28 season, when he will also be inaugurated as chief conductor of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, another iconic ensemble ranked among the best in the world.

The announcement of Mäkelä's appointment coincided with his third visit to Chicago, where he will conduct a program focused on Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony on April 4, 5 and 6. These performances also include an example of his interest in contemporary music, with the U.S. premiere of Batteria, by the young Finnish composer Sauli Zinovjev. Mäkelä debuted at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, in April 2022, with a striking version of the complete ballet of Stravinsky’s The Firebird. But it was his second visit, in February 2023, where he conducted Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, that sparked a wave of euphoric reviews. Critics from the Chicago Tribune and Classical Voice North America said there was a powerful chemistry between the conductor and the orchestra.

That performance appeared to have won over the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Last June, Esteban Batallán, who has been principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony since 2019, confessed to EL PAÍS that Mäkelä was his pick to succeed Muti. More names, however, were being considered, such as Vladimir Jurowski and Jakub Hrůša. “Mäkelä with this orchestra reminds me, in some way, of the historic moment when [Georg] Solti joined it. Obviously, I wasn’t here then, but it’s the feeling I have,” added Batallán, almost predicting what was to come.

Today, the trumpet player continues to think this. “I was just saying this to Mäkelä after our rehearsal with him. The same feeling is in the air as in 1969, when Solti started and catapulted this orchestra, so there is mutual joy.” Batallán is referring to the legendary Hungarian maestro, who passed away in 1997 after holding one of the most successful and longest-lasting partnerships with the orchestra in its history.

But Solti was appointed music director at the age of 57 and the Finnish director will be 31 when he takes over. In fact, Muti himself privately expressed his concern over whether such a young conductor could lead the CSO. Critic Alex Ross, from The New Yorker, was also quick to question Mäkelä's elevation to the status of “intercontinental musical Messiah.” A status no one has reached so quickly, and especially when the conductor is, according to Ross, “a gifted young musician who exhibits assured technique on the podium but has yet to find a distinct interpretive personality.”

This is not an opinion shared by the CSO’s Music Director Search Committee, which has just appointed him Zell music director, as the position has been funded by the foundation of American philanthropist Sam Zell since 2014. His widow, Helen Zell, who chairs the aforementioned committee, said that “those who have heard him with the CSO know that the atmosphere becomes electric — you leave the concert hall transformed and inspired.”

The committee’s vice chair, assistant principal bassoonist, William Buchman, said that there was widespread excitement in the orchestra: “From Klaus Mäkelä's first moments on the podium, the musicians of the orchestra recognized that we were working with a conductor of extraordinary ability.” And there was no shortage of praise from Jeff Alexander, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association: “It quickly became clear that he was the ideal choice to lead the orchestra into the future.”

Mäkelä said he felt honored to be picked to direct “an orchestra that combines such brilliance, power and passion.” Starting in 2027, he will have a five-year tenure in which to deepen his relationship with the orchestra. In fact, it has already been announced that next season he will conduct Mahler’s Third Symphony and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Daniil Trifonov, who will be artist-in-residence in Chicago. And, in the summer of 2026, he will make his debut at the Ravinia Festival, the orchestra’s summer home.

But the Finnish conductor’s immediate agenda hasn’t changed. He will guest conduct the Cleveland Orchestra on April 11-13, and will then return to Europe to conduct and record Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony in Oslo. In fact, in 2021, Mäkelä became the third conductor to ever sign an exclusive contract with the Decca Classics record label, after Georg Solti in 1948 and Riccardo Chailly in 1978, former chief conductors of the CSO and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, respectively.

Mäkelä has released three recordings since 2022, one per year. He started with an excellent comprehensive of Sibelius’ symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic, which he is now conducting in the complete set of Shostakovich symphonies. He released a pairing of Stravinsky’s The Firebird and The Rite of Spring in 2023, with the Orchestre de Paris. And his latest record of Petrushka and two Debussy pieces, that were recorded with the French orchestra. He will visit Spain, in the next edition of the Granada Festival, with the Orchestre de Paris and, in January 2025, he will conduct the Royal Concertgebouw in Barcelona, Oviedo and Madrid.

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