Mäkelä returns with a thrilling and exuberant Mahler Third
One can’t say Klaus Mäkelä is taking the easy road in his concerts leading up to becoming music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Opening his first Chicago appearance of the current season, Mäkelä, who will officially take the CSO reins in 2027, led the orchestra in a single work Thursday night, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.
In addition to being the longest symphony in the regular repertoire (at one hour and forty minutes) Mahler’s most expansive creation is also a daunting work to bring off for conductor and musicians alike. The Third is cast on a vast scale—six movements, the first of which runs 35 minutes alone—and scored for huge forces including two sets of timpani, a vocal soloist, and women’s and children’s chorus.
Mahler’s love of nature is to the fore in the Third Symphony, a characteriatic jambalaya of pantheism, German philosophy (the mezzo soloist sings a Nietzsche text), aggressive marches, nostalgic music, arching lyricism and whirling bravura. Even if the overall structure doesn’t quite hang together as a cohesive entity, the Third presents some of Mahler’s finest and most radiant music.
On Thursday night Mäkelä was an even more dynamic podium presence than in previous CSO stands—not in a show-offy or performative way, but to better lead and drive the musical narrative. The 29-year-old Finnish conductor was consistently on top of the mammoth score’s myriad challenges, cueing entrances, encouraging, coaxing and communicating the big moments with his energetic body language.
From the eight horns’ majestic fanfare that opens the 100-minute journey (“Summer marches in”), this was a boldly projected and full-voiced performance, very much a young man’s Mahler. Yet the long movement unfolded as a single whole without ever losing concentration or intensity. Under Mäkelä’s attentive direction, every timbre and dynamic shift came across, from the softest bass drum taps to the grandest tuttis for the massed forces. The march-like main theme was taken at a measured pace that allowed its various permutations to make an impact, from ominous to stormy, lyrical to quirkily charming. The playing here was phenomenal even by local standards, with a thrilling exuberance that gave a clear sense of the musicians wanting to be at their best for their incoming conductor. Climaxes were overwhelming in force and sonic impact yet meticulously balanced by Mäkelä, with the crazed coda thrown off with whirlwind ferocity.
The ensuing Menuetto made striking contrast, the rustic atmosphere palpable yet rendered in a straightforward way without lily-gilding. Stephen Williamson and William Welter provided avian-like charm in their clarinet and oboe solos, respectively, and Mäkelä ensured the passing shadows were also felt amid the bucolic moments.
Extremes abound even more in the scherzo-like third movement, and all contrasts were effectively charted. The offstage “posthorn” solos by principal trumpet Esteban Batallán were atmospherically distanced and beautifully played, if not quite spacious enough to convey the requisite eloquence and sense of repose.
More literal metaphysical doubts enter with the human voice in the fourth movement’s setting of Nietzsche’s poem “At Midnight.” From the hushed opening, soloist Wiebke Lehmkuhl proved ideally cast for this music, both in her dark contralto tone and ominous expression of this Erda-like warning of worldly pain.
Mahler’s deployment of women’s and children’s choruses for just four minutes of music in the fifth movement may be profligate, but the music makes the necessary contrast of innocence with its cheerful, bell-tolling motif and promise of heavenly joy for all. (The thematic and musical connections to the finale of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony are manifest since that movement was originally written for the Third Symphony.)
The voices recede and the orchestra has the last word in one of Mahler’s most deeply felt and beautiful finales. Oddly, this was the one part of the performance that left room for doubt. Mäkelä began the movement with playing of gentle delicacy yet the expression felt too equivocal for too long of the span. While the movement ultimately reached the requisite majestic affirmation at the coda, the journey didn’t seem organic, feeling like something of a work in progress Thursday night. Tragedy is easy, comodo is hard.
That apart, this exhilarating performance was the finest of Mäkelä’s four CSO programs to date, with the conductor displaying an idiomatic Mahler style as well as a keen grasp of this complex and challenging symphony.
The playing was inspirational Thursday night. Apart from some fleeting lapses from principal horn Mark Almond, the CSO musicians performed with remarkable intensity and responsiveness in individual solos and by sections, with the brass especially notable. The trombone solos by Tim Higgins, principal of the San Francisco Symphony and Jay Friedman’s likely CSO successor, were extraordinary—rich of tone, eloquent and expressive.
The women of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and young singers of Uniting Voices Chicago provided bright and engaging vocalism in the penultimate movement, directed by James K. Bass and Josephine Lee, respectively. Following Bass’s fine work with the chorus in Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony last season, this week’s assignment seemed like a final interview with the new boss. Don’t be surprised if Bass gets the nod, deservedly, as the next CSO chorus director.
With an inspired Mahlerian once again as incoming music director—for the first time since the days of Georg Solti—let us hope that, as with Solti, a complete Mahler cycle with Mäkelä is in the works.
On to Brahms, Dvořák and Boulez next week.
The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. cso.org
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7 Responses to “Mäkelä returns with a thrilling and exuberant Mahler Third ”
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Posted Apr 25, 2025 at 1:19 pm by P.Ryan
A gorgeous night of music!! It was beautiful to watch this young conductor with the outstanding CSO. Clearly, they are in tune with each other. The orchestra has appeared lost since Mr.Muti left his spot as conductor.
There have been a number of guest conductors, a few excellent, others good but the rapport between them and musicians seemed missing.
What a breath of fresh air K. Makela is! Look forward to more concerts with him.
Posted Apr 25, 2025 at 2:06 pm by Steve R.
It was a glorious performance and an electric evening. My only quibble was with the children’s chorus and the odd, apparently spontaneous and uncoordinated hand movements they made as they sang. That detracted from the music and should be discouraged by their director.
Posted Apr 25, 2025 at 5:10 pm by James Sparling
Please, please, please let Tim Higgins come to the CSO. I’m a trombonist and his playing was really the highlight of the night and it’s rare for the trombonist to get the biggest cheer, which I believe he did. Exquisite playing, beautiful tone.
Posted Apr 25, 2025 at 11:39 pm by Hugh
The audience played its part by giving Mahler at least 20 seconds of silence following the final note before showing appreciation.
Posted Apr 26, 2025 at 7:22 am by Anders Yocom
I was struck by the audience silence. We were so moved by the performance that we allowed several seconds of silence as we processed the last notes and all that came before…and then spirited applause and cheers for the profound music experience we all shared.
Posted Apr 26, 2025 at 10:33 am by Aileen
Friday was another great performance from the CSO and Mäkelä despite a tougher night for the horns and an unusually noisy audience. A poorly timed cell phone ring at the climactic silence in the first movement solicited groans from the audience.
Thrilled for Mäkelä’s tenure and looking forward to seeing him more in the coming years!
Posted Apr 26, 2025 at 12:48 pm by Michael Freedberg
Visiting from Washington DC, this was a rare opportunity for me to hear the CSO. Their performance Friday night was nothing short of staggering–once in a lifetime.
Special shoutout to trombone and (off-stage) trumpet solos but every section in top form.