Between soaring climaxes and intricate lyricism, the Finnish conductor conveyed brightness and lightness into sharp focus.
Photograph: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
When conducting, Susanna Mälkki has a proclivity for breeziness. The Finnish conductor brings brightness to the gloomiest scores and makes a soaring symphony orchestra sound feather-light.
This concert featured the intimate lyricism of Schumann’s Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, a masterpiece of Romanticism in which the piano dialogues with the orchestra in a fluid thematic interweaving, and the imposing sonic impact of Strauss’s Alpensinfonie, Op. 64, a late-Romantic symphonic poem that blends naturalistic description and philosophical symbolism in a majestic orchestral work. She drew the most poised and delicate conducting I’ve ever heard from the strings of La Scala’s ensemble and a gobsmacking all-round clarity.
Photograph: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
There was enough punch for the programme’s repertoire and for the orchestra, and the sound was just right for the piano soloist Vadym Kholodenko, whose work, conducted by Mälkki, held through with utmost precision. The pieces contain various movements, each with its own potent atmosphere.
Fragments of the score are fed through the orchestral threads; the instruments weren’t all fully audible, but the overall rhythms of the wind band and strings definitely are. Schumann and Strauss’s writing is of an extremely refined nature, like a fine tempest through which solo lines emerge and retreat.
Photograph: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
Occasionally, the intricate mesh felt dense, even complex; for the most part, the effect was magical. The rest of the concert lived up: Kholodenko’s piano lines were gorgeous – again, that breeziness – and there were flashes of Schumann’s bold, brazen sound and feisty attack in the allegro.
Mälkki shaped both movements with grace and grandeur, and without an ounce of pomposity, keeping the sound assertive and fresh. All-in-all, it was a focused concerto with enough orchestral colour and spark that acted as a true feast for the senses.
by Chidozie Obasi