This winter, Susanna Mälkki leads the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in a trio of wonderfully curated concerts with celebrated works by Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, and more. Ms. Mälkki finishes her highly successful tenure as Music Director of HPO this season, a position she has held since 2016.
On January 20, the orchestra will perform Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9, the last symphony written by the composer which he dedicated “to the beloved God”. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will also be joined by pianist Ossi Tanner for Ann-Elise Hannikainen’s Piano Concerto which was premiered by HPO and the composer herself in 1976.
The main spectacle on the evening of February 3 is Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, sometimes referred to as ‘Song of the Night’. The enigmatic work, highly regarded by a young Arnold Schoenberg, depicts the mysterious journey from dusk to dawn.
On February 8 and 9, Ms. Mälkki reunites with mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus for Mahler’s sumptuous Rückert-Lieder, a work they’d previously recorded together with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The second work on the program is Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite, a collection of four symphonic poems which was first conceived as a mythological opera before Sibelius abandoned the idea and made it into a suite of four distinct movements.