Mälkki is not only one of the finest conductors on the scene, but a conducting star in the way of the mid-20th century era of great maestros. She is unmatched for podium presence, projecting an assured authority that has an uncanny. almost mesmerizing effect.

New York Classical Review

George Grella

Mälkki is not only one of the finest conductors on the scene, but a conducting star in the way of the mid-20th century era of great maestros. She is unmatched for podium presence, projecting an assured authority that has an uncanny. almost mesmerizing effect.

The remaining program gave Mälkki and the musicians the chance to show some real thinking and verve. This came through the switch-up of putting the “overture,” Helix, at the start of the second half.

Indeed, it belonged there. Helix is a clear homage and response to Debussy’s sound world, using bits of phrases and some specific orchestration from the likes of La Mer and other orchestral music. It’s not among Salonen’s best work–tightening of the material could make it more effective–but it does burst forth with his characteristic extroversion.

Helix was a clever lead-in to La Mer. The view Mälkki and the Philharmonic showed Thursday was that the great proportions, the massive ebb and flow of the music that builds momentum to each climax, came in sections. This was strong and effective, setting passages in each movement in a dialogue with each other.

Mälkki built the rising tensions in a way that paid off in perfect terraces of dynamics—the slight pulling back in tempo steeled the musicians, and the audience, for the subsequent pushes into Debussy’s grand depths.”