Mäkelä, or the Fantasy of Taking Shelter from the Rain, with Haruki Murakami

Klaus Mäkelä. The golden boy of classical music, currently the most talked-about conductor. It seems he gave a masterful performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 with the Concertgebouw at Suntory Hall last night as well. A reliable source heard the live performance and raved about it, so there is no doubt.
Unfortunately, I have yet to experience his live performance. I couldn't make it when he came to Japan with the Orchestre de Paris in the spring. Since that was also a huge success, I imagine ticket prices will have gone up by at least five thousand yen for his next visit.
Well, when that happens, the solution is the internet. There are several Mäkelä recordings on Apple Music, to which I subscribe. Among them, I decided to listen to Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" with the Orchestre de Paris. It is a "Fantastique" I have heard so many times in live performances that I have lost count. For a while, every visiting orchestra was playing "Fantastique."
I play the tuba myself, and this piece is special for tuba players. Of course, the score is for the ophicleide, but I don't think it is at all unnatural for a tuba player to discuss it.
I felt it was a recording that is difficult to discuss. In any case, it is a magnificent orchestra. And there are no breakdowns, nor the usual over-emphasis on percussion or brass. It is "normal" in a truly good sense. Mäkelä fans might get angry at me for saying this, but for a classical music fan of a certain age, I have heard "Fantastique" so many times that I have been exposed to a wide variety of styles—not that the piece itself is an illusion. Celibidache's unique interpretation. Mravinsky's intensity beyond imagination. Abbado with Chicago, and Herseth's trumpet.
In that context, please take "normal" as a compliment. And I also think that a certain kind of charisma like this is ultimately something you have to experience live to truly understand. I felt I understood Rattle after hearing his live Eroica with Birmingham. I felt I understood Jansons after hearing his Pines of Rome with the Oslo Philharmonic. I look forward to experiencing a live performance by this young prodigy.
The luxury of listening to music on the internet, while perhaps subject to some criticism, is that you can listen to it "while doing other things." This time, I continued to enjoy the aforementioned "Dead-Heat on a Merry-Go-Round" by Haruki Murakami. This is his own "Fantastique." The author, "Haruki Murakami," appears in the work. He is an interviewer, or rather, a listener. Of course, whether this is true or not, or if there is any reason for it, is all kept vague, and it doesn't really matter. It continues with "Lederhosen," "The Taxi Driver," "Poolside," "A Girl, She Is 19 and Hypersensitive" (originally titled "For Sleeping Princess"), and perhaps an homage to Sartre's "Nausea," "Nausea 1979," "Taking Shelter from the Rain," and "Baseball Field."
In this room where an indescribable otherworld and daily life intersect, the "Fantastique" played by Mäkelä and his superb orchestra resonates from the speakers with appropriate restraint. This book was published in 1985. Considering it was written while Japan was going wild and heading up the slope toward the bubble economy, this is truly a sober "fantasy."