Concertgebouworkest / Klaus Mäkelä

Outstanding young conductor

Klaus Mäkelä is only 25 years old but he is already one of the most sought-after young conductors around. He has been chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2020, and began his tenure as music director of the Orchestre de Paris in 2021. The Helsinki-born conductor also takes charge of other top orchestras on the side, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest, which – with its silky sound and flexible playing culture – is regarded by many music lovers as the ultimate orchestra. The outstanding young conductor now comes to the Elbphilharmonie with two highlights of the symphonic repertoire. With its rebelliously contrasting movements, Dmitri Shostakovich’s epic Sixth Symphony unsettled Soviet critics in 1939. In contrast, Tchaikovsky’s deeply melancholic Sixth, with the telling epithet »Pathétique«, was – ten days before his death – his farewell to the world.