2023-06-18 10:00:00
Un real draft! The previous week, he was in Helsinki, with his family. The day before, he stopped over in Berlin for a concert. Back in Paris for a series of rehearsals, he continues 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.
Music Festival at the Louvre
This June 21, however, it is indeed 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 cannot be 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.
READ ALSOMusic – Karol Beffa beyond the notesCajoling his visitor as if he had plenty of time, Klaus Mäkelä apologizes for having made him wait while he ate on the go between two rehearsals. “My schedule is a bit constrained at the moment, but France is my home. This is where I spend most of my time [comprenez deux semaines par mois, NDLR] he emits in fluent English.
He has just released a record*: a fiery version of Rite of Spring and of Fire Bird. We have fun that he chose to record this work written by an Igor Stravinsky who was just his age when it was composed. 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 – “perhaps because I’m a big eater and I love to cook”.
The revelation at 6 years old
“I’m 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 revel in Suite for the Jazz Orchestra No. 2 and the Cello Concerto No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich [qui ont été donnés, avec Sol Gabetta au violoncelle, les 30 et 31 mai, à la Philharmonie de Paris, NDLR]. I like the dramatic intensity of these pieces which, for me, echo the Belshazzar’s Feast by William Walton. Which takes me very far, into a world full of fury expressed well by the almost hip-hop sounds of its composition,” he continues.
Born into a family of musicians, Klaus Mäkelä has a cellist father; his mother, a pianist (Taru Myöhänen-Mäkelä), is the daughter of Tapio Myöhänen, a great Finnish violist… Klaus Mäkelä did not hesitate for long on the path to follow. “When I was 6 years old, during a rehearsal of Carmen in the choir of the Helsinki Opera in which I sang, I knew that I wanted to become a conductor”, he laughs. His gaze escapes for a short moment into this memory and he describes in a muffled voice this “sensation of hypnosis” which seized him when he saw that a simple gesture could be transformed into sound.
German discipline
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 with the art of conducting an orchestra, under the authority of Jorma Panula, Susanna Mälkki, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vanska.
READ ALSOMusic: Kaija Saariaho, the North Star always shinesKlaus Mäkelä does not finish his course. Spotted by the Swedish agent Jasper Parrott, a world reference in classical music, he began to tour Europe and quickly made a name for himself by creating, across the Atlantic, several works by the Peruvian composer Jimmy López Bellido. In the summer of 2019, everything is accelerating. He had his first triumph conducting the Cleveland Orchestra for the Blossom Music Festival. Three months later, he replaced the Dutchman Jaap van Zweden at short notice. And imposes a supercharged version of the Seventh Symphony of Beethoven who establishes his celebrity. In the following months, performances in Chicago, Minneapolis and New York completed making him a rising star on the international music scene.
Installation in France
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 must 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 link with each of the musicians”, he slips. The past health crisis, the tour in Japan that he is doing with the Orchester de Paris in the fall of 2022 further consolidates this relationship.
Music like table tennis
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 reflection, it’s true that he throws the percussion as if he were doing a smash!
READ ALSOBenjamin Bernheim: “We must democratize access to lyrical art” If he chose three pieces by Puccini and Gabrieli for the program of the concert which will open the “Été du Louvre” festival on June 21 is that the management of the museum wanted to offer spectators a trip to Italy as a nod to the exhibition Napoli to Paris which has just started. Klaus Mäkelä will nevertheless slip between these pieces a piece by the Hungarian György Ligeti (Atmospheres) which served as Kubrick’s theme music in 2001, a space odyssey. And will end the evening by launching its musicians in a disheveled interpretation of Fire Bird (in its 1919 version).
Projects
“I now dream of playing more French composers: Debussy and Ravel, Messiaen, whom I listened to a lot when I was younger. But also Dutilleux and Dusapin. I also share a taste for photography with the latter, ”says the chef, who publishes pictures almost daily on his Instagram account.
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. In the program : Fire Bird, Petrouchka et 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 Vitrolles stadium). “I haven’t seen all the films yet, but I know it’s going to be incredible,” enthuses Klaus Mäkelä, aware that this mixture of video and music will bring him a new audience.
On July 13, the Finnish conductor will alternate plays by Ravel, Bruch and Dvořák at the Grand Théâtre de Provence before leaving for 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.
* The Rite of Spring and The Firebird by the Paris Orchestra (conductor Klaus Mäkelä), Decca, €17.9.
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