An interview with Klaus Mäkelä

The Sibelius symphony cycle is a bit of a rite of passage for a Finnish conductor, isn’t it?

Yes. It’s music we feel very close to. They’re all masterpieces, and in so many ways. I think Sibelius actually offers more opportunities than your average composer for different interpretations. Because there are so many themes you can decide to have more audible, and balances and textures that you can treat in so many different ways. I think it actually offers lots of variety for conductors.

Did your time as a cellist give you a different perspective?

I used to play the symphonies in the Helsinki Philharmonic – the orchestra where most of them were first performed – and many of the string players played with a certain bowing. It’s important to pass on that tradition to the Norwegian musicians. So there is a little bit of that, but I think freedom is still most important in music. You should always have a good argument for anything you do, musically; it’s a balance.

The pandemic offered an unusual situation for this recording, didn’t it?

We were supposed to make this album in a series of concert recordings, but when the pandemic intensified we realised that we just had to start recording and abandoned the original idea. We completely immersed ourselves in the music of Sibelius during the spring of 2021. I must say the Fourth Symphony possibly benefitted the most from the situation. It’s a deeply melancholic symphony which feels like a very personal statement, and in those conditions it somehow came together in a very special way.