A real breeze! The previous week, he was in Helsinki, with his family. The day before, he was stopping over in Berlin for a concert. Back in Paris for a series of rehearsals, he followed up with three evenings in Vienna, Amsterdam and Hamburg. One morning on the banks of the Seine, the next day in New York to accompany his pianist companion, Yuja Wang… the young Klaus Mäkelä can’t stand still.
Coveted by the greatest philharmonies in the world, which invite him to stand on the podium for one-off concerts, the Finnish conductor spends his life in airplanes. Let us judge. He conducts both the Orchester de Paris and the Oslo Philharmonie, and combines these functions with that of musical adviser to the Concertgebouw in the Netherlands, of which he will become conductor in 2027. But he may well accept , at the end of his current contracts, the direction of an American formation, in parallel. As he is courted by the biggest institutions across the Atlantic.
This June 21, however, it is under the pyramid of the Louvre that he gives an appointment to the public for a concert by the Orchester de Paris, on the occasion of the Fête de la musique. And, on Whit Monday, it was in his dressing room that he received us at the Philharmonie de Paris to talk about it. Privilege of age (he is only 27), the fatigue of these recent trips is not read on his face. Impeccably ironed trousers and shirt, the smooth face of a young first, he is affable and available even though he got up at dawn.
He has just released a record*: a fiery version of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird. We have fun that he chose to record this work written by an Igor Stravinsky who was just his age at the time of its composition. He smiles. “If I chose this piece, it is above all because it has a strong link with Paris, where it was created in 1910. Its author may be Russian, but I am convinced that this music, in its mad modernity , has something very French about it. It’s like a goulash that would mix several ingredients: there is, of course, a Slavic inspiration, but also a French influence”, he asserts greedily. When he talks about music, Klaus Mäkelä multiplies culinary metaphors – “maybe because I’m a big eater and I love to cook”.
“I am at a time in my life where I like to dive into invigorating works that open up vast horizons and make deep chords resonate within me. These days I delight in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 and Cello Concerto No. 2 [which were performed, with Sol Gabetta on cello, on May 30 and 31, at the Philharmonie de Paris, Editor’s note]. I love the dramatic intensity of these pieces which, for me, echo William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. Which takes me very far, into a world full of fury expressed well by the almost hip-hop sounds of its composition, “he continues.
Educated in a German-language school (from where he no doubt derives the impressive discipline he demonstrates on a daily basis), Klaus Mäkelä took intensive music lessons from an early age. Those close to him remember a surprisingly mature child who listened to difficult works over and over again, starting with that of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), the “giant” of Finnish music. It is precisely at the Sibelius Academy that Klaus will study the cello, forming himself in parallel to the art of conducting an orchestra, under the authority of Jorma Panula, Susanna Mälkki, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vanska.
He was just 22 years old when the Oslo orchestra recruited him. And has just moved to Norway when he receives a call from France. “I came to Paris for the first time in June 2019 and I loved this stay. When the Philharmonie asked me to take over from Daniel Harding, I was on cloud nine. I remember very well when I received the call. I was on a train, the landscape was magnificent. It was the starting point for a second “honeymoon” with your country. »
Even if he arrives in France in the midst of a pandemic, the transplant takes quickly. It’s that Klaus knows how to transform the constraint of confinement into an asset. “For someone, like me, who travels all the time, I have to say that the Covid crisis has been an extraordinary moment. I was able to breathe and reconnect with my close entourage. So think! I had no more planes to catch. I was able to focus on a single priority: to create a close bond with each of the musicians,” he slips. After the health crisis, the tour of Japan he is doing with the Orchester de Paris in the fall of 2022 further consolidates this relationship.
Today, the chef, whose young age some might have feared on his arrival, is unanimous. “It’s important for me to establish a dialogue with the instrumentalists before rehearsals, because once on the podium, I usually don’t talk much. When I direct, it’s a bit like playing ping-pong, it’s my body expressing itself. On second thought, it’s true that he throws the drums like he’s performing a smash!
“I now dream of playing more French composers: Debussy and Ravel, Messiaen who I listened to a lot when I was younger. But also Dutilleux and Dusapin. I also share with him the taste for photography, “says the chef, who publishes pictures almost daily on his Instagram account.
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For the summer, he plans to land a few days in Provence. But not necessarily for vacation. Invited to the Aix festival, he will also conduct the Orchester de Paris for a series of exceptional concerts. On the program: The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The three great ballets of Igor Stravinsky will be accompanied by new cinematographic creations by Rebecca Zlotowski, Bertrand Mandico and Evangelia Kranioti (July 8, 10, 11 and 12 at the Vitrolles stadium). “I haven’t seen all the films yet but I know it’s going to be amazing,” enthuses Klaus Mäkelä, aware that this mix of video and music will bring him a new audience.
On July 13, the Finnish chef will alternate plays by Ravel, Bruch and Dvo?ák at the Grand Théâtre de Provence before setting off on a grand world tour: playing leapfrog between Europe (he is announced at the Verbier festival at the end of July with a Strauss-Rachmaninoff combo), America and, perhaps, Asia. Klaus Mäkelä is not about to drop off his luggage.