Throughout the evening, the depths of Mälkki’s connections with Stravinsky’s score and with the MET’s musical forces were apparent. These connections fostered an abiding sense of espousal of the piece’s distinctive harmonic language, poised between Mozart—Don Giovanni often peeks out of the pages of Act Two—and Reimann. This faith in the opera, manifested in every aspect of Mälkki’s conducting, yielded a performance that was as enlightening as it was entertaining.

Mälkki was greeted with great enthusiasm by the audience, and then led a sparkling performance from the orchestra and chorus. The rhythms seemed to burst from her clear, detailed baton technique, and the instrumental colors were polished to a high sheen. The music seemed to shine all night with that special Stravinskyian light, which is like neon, even in the dark and tender stretches of the final scene. This was as energetic and fluent a performance as one has ever heard of this music, while still digging into the charm, pathos, and wit.

Susanna Mälkki confirme sa maîtrise et connaissance complètes de la partition, conduisant chaque épisode et chaque pupitre avec les indications de nuances, de couleurs et de caractères composant cette oeuvre.

Protagoniste essentiel de cette construction musicale et dramatique implacable, l’Orchestre de l’Opéra est porté à l’incandescence par Susanna Mälkki, qui se défait de l’objectivité analytique derrière laquelle elle se réfugie souvent dans la musique du XXe siècle, pour rechercher une expressivité décomplexée. Ce qui passe par moins de perfectionnisme e plus d’intensité, jusqu’à un interlude en ré mineur poignant à souhait. Sa baguette a tout à y gagner, et le public de moins de 28 ans venu en nombre à l’avant-première tenues ne s’y est pas trompé, qui a fait un triomphe, qui a fait un triomphe à un spectacle écouté dans un silence religieux.

With Mälkki on the podium, the orchestral fabric was laid out with translucent beauty and intricate detail.

Mälkki’s performance of Alexander Scriabin’s “The Poem of Ecstasy” after intermission was so big, deafening and daringly overpowering that it had a dazed perfection for those of us ecstatic enough to experience it.

I was struck by the exceptional degree of transparency in the opening minutes — almost like chamber music, only louder — and Mälkki was quick to jump headlong into the first fervent rush with evident delight, enforcing razor-sharp cutoffs later. The huge outpourings of chromatic sound in the penultimate climax and the impassioned final chord made their anticipated impact.

Susanna Mälkki led the New World Symphony in a reading of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major on Saturday night at the Arsht Center that was revelatory

Susanna Mälkki is the conductor here and she knows instinctively when to unobtrusively tighten the emotional screws and when to sit back and simply let us take in Bartók's flabbergasting orchestral canvas. Pacing and phrasing are exemplary...

On the present recording, Mälkki has a terrific sense of how the piece should flow. Her tempos move purposefully. The opera’s individual scenes brim with character: the minor-second motive during the opening of the first door (the torture chamber) speaks chillingly. The third door (which reveals Bluebeard’s treasury of riches), with its glimmering celesta part, is radiant. So, too, the revelation of the garden (door four) and the great peroration in the fifth-door scene (which unveils Bluebeard’s lands). Throughout, the HPO plays with a mix of transparency and power that’s magnificent.

Orchestrally it’s magnificent; the Helsinki Philharmonic creates a sumptuously detailed sound world, which Mälkki focuses exactly on each unfolding layer of the drama.

Sounds were silky and subdued, but not inert. Mälkki captured the sensuous essence of the score without sacrificing momentum.

Mälkki, an exceptional advocate for complex new scores, had a tight handle on the orchestral proceedings... she drew playing of terrific energy, taut balances, and bright color from the BSO. The brass and percussion sections, in particular, glowed.

Susanna Mälkki est une « rigoriste » de la partition, dont elle va chercher les moindre nuances, sans jamais prendre les libertés qu’on entend quelquefois chez certains chefs (y compris des légendes comme Toscanini). Par une science des dosages et une grande précision du geste, elle crée une dramaturgie musicale qui clarifie et approfondit la lecture, et qui à l’audition a produit des moments de pure stupéfaction.

Before “The Tempest,” Mälkki led a virtuosic, vibrant performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. She is best known for her advocacy of new music—she conducted Kaija Saariaho’s “L’Amour de Loin” at the Met in 2016—but she has quietly emerged as a formidable interpreter of the Romantic and early-modern repertory.

Susanna Malkki lead a mind-opening performance of Mahler’s Fifth with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

She seems able to do it all, is what I’m saying, and her gift for molding orchestral sonorities in music by Scriabin and Kaija Saariaho only added a new and unsurprising entry to the ledger of her talents.

The Finnish conductor Susanna Malkki led the New York Philharmonic in a performance of the work that was so urgent, detailed and exciting that I forgot all about cresting sea and splashing waves. I was, instead, engrossed by the way Ms. Malkki brought out the colors, intricacies and radicalism of “La Mer”