Mäkelä’s heroic survey in Chicago

Klaus Mäkelä is back in Chicago for one program before taking the orchestra on a week-long tour of the Northeast. A performance at Carnegie Hall—featuring the same program he conducted this weekend, a survey of two heroic depictions in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite—anchors the tour.

This isn’t Mäkelä’s first journey to Carnegie Hall with one of his orchestras. He has previously brought both the Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to the storied venue, receiving mixed but always passionate critical responses. Hopefully this next foray into New York’s unforgiving critical landscape fares better.

Based on Friday evening’s performance, it should. Both works chosen by the Finnish conductor hold deep historical connections to the Chicago Symphony. Theodore Thomas led the U.S. premieres of Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, and both “The Swan of Tuonela” and “Lemminkäinen’s Return” from Sibelius’s suite. And a few years ago, Mäkelä even programmed “The Swan” in one of his early guest appearances here. These scores clearly suit him.

Mäkelä excels as a conductor who thrives on the moment, meticulously crafting and refining sound in real time. This came through powerfully in his Mahler Third Symphony here in Chicago last year and in his dynamic take on Andrew Norman’s Play in Amsterdam. That hands-on, detail-driven approach shines brightest in works less tethered to a structural arc.

The Ein Heldenleben that closed the program showcased Mäkelä’s instinct for color and drama. Strauss’s autobiographical tone poem—its famous solo violin representing Pauline the composer’s muse and companion—became a vehicle for virtuosic display and introspection alike. Concertmaster Robert Chen delivered an outstanding portrayal of the “Hero’s Companion,” his tone alternately teasing and tempestuous, then swelling with ardor in the love scene before subsiding into whispers. Mäkelä shaped the surrounding orchestral commentary with precision and patience, allowing Chen’s violin to remain the compelling center of gravity.

Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite—four tone poems drawn from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala—chronicles the reckless hero’s adventures and near-death encounters. In each episode, Mäkelä conjured atmosphere in abundance. His dynamic sensitivities heightened expectation; in the quietest moments, the audience seemed transfixed by the near-total stillness. If they didn’t know “The Swan of Tuonela” before, they do now, and will remember this darkly luminous, elegiac performance, anchored by Scott Hostetler’s endless, flowing solos on the English horn.

Klaus Mäkelä conducts the RCO in “The Swan of Tuonela”

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Around Chicago:

Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune

“‘The Swan of Tuonela” — placed second in the suite for these concerts, as has become conventional — was a total reset. Mäkelä has conducted this excerpt with the CSO before, during electrifying 2023 concerts with the orchestra.

Thursday’s reunion reflected that experience and deepened it. This “Swan” seemed to grow out of English hornist Scott Hostetler’s long, searching lines rather than the reverse. Where Hostetler went, emotionally and musically, the CSO followed, then amplified it. (Fittingly for that interpretive reorientation, Mäkelä had Hostetler stand for his solo this time.)”

Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review

“From the blast of the beefy opening statement, the Hero’s striding theme went with brisk confidence and ample swagger. Strauss’s filleting of contemporary Viennese music critics (“The hero’s adversaries”) remains the most withering takedown in music history; the CSO high winds colorfully depicted his detractors as wheedling pipsqueaks, with the pompous mutterings of Dr. Dehring’s name in the tubas (“Dok-tor-Deh-ring”) making equally witty impact.”