For her second programme with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Susanna Mälkki conducted a concert as part of Musikfest 2017 which included her Finnish fellow countryman Jean Sibelius’s Second Symphony, a Tanz-Walzer by Ferruccio Busoni and Béla Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto with Gil Shaham as the virtuoso soloist.
In conversation with Matthew McDonald, 1st principal bass with the Philharmoniker, Susanna Mälkki discusses her earlier experiences as a cellist in symphony orchestras, the motivation that made her take up the profession of conductor, and her affection for the music of Sibelius, which was of central significance to the Finnish national consciousness during the independence movement.