Orchestre de Paris / Klaus Mäkelä

Klaus Mäkelä keeps returning to Mahler, one of his favorite composers: opening the 2026-2027 season, he conducts the immense Third Symphony.

"With mediocre works, you end up getting bored. [But with] Mahler, there's always something new. He's a composer of great emotional intensity. As a result, his music never sounds the same," the conductor shared in 2025.

Klaus Mäkelä likes to prove the widespread idea wrong that one must wait a certain age before conducting Mahler's music, and has been exploring its contours for several years both with the Paris Orchestre and with other orchestras.

For Mahler, the Third Symphony resolves the tensions of the first two: goodbye "struggle" and "suffering", here comes "joy" (according to the composer).

Hymn to nature, the symphony is divided into two parts: a gigantic first movement once titled "the awakening of Pan"; then four shorter pieces, some with voices, before a magnificent final adagio resembling ultimate reconciliation.

Distribution Paris Orchestre Wiebke Lehmkuhl, mezzo-soprano Women's Chorus of the Paris Orchestre Youth Chorus of the Paris Orchestre Children's Chorus of the Paris Orchestre Klaus Mäkelä, conductor Richard Wilberforce, choir director Evann Loget-Raymond, choir director Edwin Baudo, choir director Rémi Aguirre Zubiri, choir director