After many years, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will have a new conductor: Klaus Mäkelä – only 26 years old – will be its chief conductor from 2027. Until then, the Finn will hold the position of ‘artistic partner’. news hour Mäkelä already spoke in Hamburg about his upcoming appointment.
Mäkelä leads more top orchestras, is the most in-demand young conductor and has previously been a guest of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The world of classical music runs away with him. CEO Dominik Winterling: “It is very difficult to find someone at this level. A talent like Mäkelä rarely comes along.”
The appointment has been eagerly awaited – at home and abroad – for a long time. The orchestra has been without an artistic director for four years after the last chief conductor, Daniele Gatti, had to leave in 2018 due to a MeToo matter.
Top-3
Mäkelä calls his new orchestra unique. “When I performed with them for the first time in 2020, it was a special moment for me. Their sound is very special, sensitive and layered. It has a warmth that no other orchestra has,” he says.
Together with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Concertgebouw Orchestra belongs to the absolute top 3 of the best orchestras in the world. “It’s a very big name that you really grow up with as a musician,” says Mäkelä.
But because he is also chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the French Orchester de Paris, a construction has been chosen in which he first becomes an ‘artistic partner’. “We are now going to build up a relationship with him and give fantastic concerts. It will be both a romantic and a contemporary repertoire. In 2027 he will then become our new chief conductor,” says Winterling.
In the world of classical music, the appointment is a mega transfer.
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Klaus Mäkelä: ‘Age is unimportant’
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Mäkelä is the eighth in a row in the orchestra’s 130-year history. The musicians interfered intensively with his appointment. “It is tradition for orchestra members to choose the chief conductor themselves,” says solo trombonist Jörgen van Rijen. As chairman of the ‘artistic committee’ he organized exploratory discussions with the 121 orchestra members. “This candidate came out with an overwhelming majority.”
Top talent
From the start, the collaboration with Mäkelä impressed the orchestra, right away during his debut concert in 2020. Van Rijen: “You expect a young talented conductor who may be a bit nervous, he was only 24 years old at the time. But he calmly stood up. , started conducting, and after half an hour we all knew: this is a top talent!”
“He stands with a natural authority above the material and the parties,” says Van Rijen. “He is demanding and knows exactly what he wants, but in a pleasant way. He gets everyone to do what he asks.”
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Wherever he performs, every orchestra asks him back. “He has had fantastic successes with all the major orchestras,” says Winterling. “And there are still great debuts to come.”
Extremely young
The fact that his young age is often mentioned is not a problem for Mäkelä. “The great thing about music is that age or gender don’t matter. It’s about who you are and what you do.” He also expects a good match with the Dutch. “Because, like the Finns, they are very honest.”
The Concertgebouw Orchestra has a strong tradition of long-term collaborations with conductors, including Willem Mengelberg, Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly, from an early stage in their careers.
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