Born in 1996, Klaus MÄKELÄ began his musical studies as a cellist and is now devoting himself intensively to conducting; already at 20 he caused a considerable stir conducting his homeland’s leading orchestras, among them the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Turku Philharmonic, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra – and all of them want to work with Klaus Mäkelä in seasons to come. In the 2015–2016 season Klaus Mäkelä made brilliant debuts with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Tampere Philharmonic and the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and led an outstanding concert with the Helsinki Philharmonic at the Helsinki Festival.
This season, alongside concerts with Finland’s leading orchestras, Klaus will make a recording with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. It has also just been announced that he has been chosen as Esa-Pekka Salonen’s assistant conductor for the staging of “The Ring of the Nibelung” at the Finnish National Opera from 2019.
Writing about Klaus Mäkelä’s first appearances on the podium, critics reach for phrases such as “a born leader”, “the knack of winning the players’ trust”, and “self-assurance and powerful delivery combined with grace and self-control”.
Mäkelä studied cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski, while his mentor in conducting is Jorma Panula.
Of the celebrated and much-loved symphonic dances by Brahms and Dvořák, Klaus Mäkelä says: “This music has a rich world of colour and an expressive range running from sparkle and high spirits to sorrow and melancholy, all of it bound together by broad melodic lines and dancing full of energy – that, to my mind, is why these works by Brahms and Dvořák are so wonderful.”
Iiro RANTALA’S name will be well known to anyone who follows jazz. Iiro Rantala has enormous stage charm, builds a close rapport with his audience and captivates it with spellbinding pianism. He studied jazz at the Sibelius Academy and the Manhattan School of Music.
Since 2011 Rantala’s recordings have appeared on one of Europe’s leading jazz labels, ACT, and the label’s website describes the pianist as marked by “intelligence, humour, plenty of sentiment, unpredictable ideas and a refined keyboard technique”. German record critics voted the CD Lost Heroes (2011) jazz album of the year, and in 2012 Rantala won Germany’s prestigious ECHO award as international jazz pianist of the year.
Iiro Rantala’s gifts come across especially vividly on the albums My History of Jazz (aptly threaded through with Rantala’s variations on Bach’s “Goldberg Variations”) and My Working Class Hero (reworkings of John Lennon’s songs). He has also recorded with the Iiro Rantala String Trio, which features the Polish violinist Adam Bałdych and the Croatian cellist Asja Valčić. His latest album, How Long Is Now?, was made with the outstanding world-class percussionist Peter Erskine, well known to Latvian listeners, and the Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson, who has been a guest at Rīgas Ritmi.
The French magazine Jazz News and its writer Francisco Cruz put it this way: “In Rantala’s music, baroque, swing, fusion, tango, bop, cool jazz and ragtime live side by side with melancholy and a good dose of irony. Listening to Iiro Rantala is like reading the books of his literary alter ego Arto Paasilinna.” (Incidentally, a few of Paasilinna’s rather juicy titles have appeared in Latvian – “The Year of the Hare” and “Ten Harridans”.)
Iiro Rantala is eccentric, stylish, full of life. He is a pleasure to listen to, and his playing is varied enough to guarantee surprises in concert. In Riga we hope for them both in Iiro Rantala’s solo playing and in his account of Mozart’s popular Piano Concerto No. 21 – a concerto everyone recognises by its hugely famous slow movement, still occasionally identified as the soundtrack to the film “Elvira Madigan”. How Mozart will catch fire under the fingers of this brilliant Finnish jazz pianist we shall find out at the LNSO New Year’s Eve concerts on 28, 29 and 30 December.