“ ‘Precocious’ is the wrong word for Klaus Mäkelä,” writes Kevin W. Ng in Friday’s (12/9) Bachtrack (U.K.). “The Finnish 26-year-old already leads the Oslo Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, and was recently announced as the next Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Despite his young age and quick rise to stardom, Mäkelä’s debut with the New York Philharmonic proved that he is no mere child prodigy. Rather, he proved himself equal in skill, maturity and artistic vision with many of his more senior colleagues, culminating in the best Pathétique I’ve heard in years…. Mäkelä drew clean, transparent playing from the NY Phil, and his interpretations were thoughtful rather than revelatory. But what was most striking was his confidence in letting the orchestra play itself—there were times where Mäkelä simply stood on the podium after giving his downbeat—and the players responded wonderfully to this implicit trust.” Mäkelä led the Philharmonic in Jimmy López Bellido’s Perú Negro and the sixth symphonies of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.
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