Plunging straight into icy waters seems a typically Finnish thing to do, so perhaps it was no great surprise that Klaus Mäkelä opened his London Symphony Orchestra debut with Tapiola. Sibelius’ final tone poem is set deep in the ancient, brooding pine forests depicted in the national epic, the Kalevala. The Finnish conductor, who has a fine Sibelius track record with the Oslo Philharmonic, led an account that gripped from the very first bars in a reading where dramatic intensity and frosty silences were well balanced.
It was obvious that Mäkelä had struck up an immediate rapport with the musicians. The LSO is a supercar of an orchestra and it doesn’t need a new mechanic to burst in and rip out the engine. With small gestures, a fluid beat and an unerring sense of pulse, like applying the lightest pressure on the accelerator, Mäkelä simply let them play and they responded with power and class. Gnarly low woodwinds chilled and tremolando strings pierced at the climax before the consoling warmth of the close.
Then came Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, not featuring a star soloist but one of the LSO’s leaders, Andrej Power. It was a reading that was intensely musical and sweet-toned, spinning a sugary cantabile line in the central Andante assai redolent of Romeo serenading at Juliet’s balcony, but one that was reticent, Power not quite imposing his personality on the score. As if to emphasise his collegiate nature, Power teamed up with leader Benjamin Gilmore for a charming Spohr encore for two violins, a lovely touch.
As well as Sibelius with his Oslo orchestra, Mäkelä has recorded the three early Stravinsky ballets with his Orchestre de Paris. Here he brought The Rite of Spring to the Barbican in a reading that had the primal savagery that his Parisian account often lacked. A few woodwind smudges apart, the playing was outstanding – Chi-Yu Mo fearless on E flat clarinet – and the frenzy whipped up in the Dance of the Earth, Mäkelä finding his inner Bernstein with hip swivels and scything baton slashes, was bestial.
Quieter moments impressed too: the plaintive opening bassoon call; or the eerie entwining of cor anglais and alto flute in the Ritual of the Ancestors. Mäkelä has a terrific ear for balance and teased out the beauty in Stravinsky’s barbaric score. But he didn’t stint on the drama and the closing Sacrificial Dance was properly shattering. Mäkelä’s busy diary may not permit a visit next season, but I can’t believe the LSO won’t invite him back as soon as possible.
