Leading two works by Sibelius, the musical hero of her homeland, Malkki Thursday night at Severance Hall evinced not only great technical aplomb but also rare interpretive insight. In her expert hands, the music soared and sang, throbbed and thrashed, all to enormous impact.

The Plain Dealer

Zachary Lewis

“One need not be Finnish to conduct Finnish music, but it helps.

So it seems, anyway, judging by conductor Susanna Malkki’s performance this week with the Cleveland Orchestra.

Leading two works by Sibelius, the musical hero of her homeland, Malkki Thursday night at Severance Hall evinced not only great technical aplomb but also rare interpretive insight. In her expert hands, the music soared and sang, throbbed and thrashed, all to enormous impact.

The first evidence of Malkki’s knack for Sibelius came in “En Saga” (“A Legend”), a tone poem based on Finnish folk lore. Out of an orchestra renowned for luster and color, the chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic somehow managed to elicit unusual measures of both, to envelop listeners in a world of sweeping lines and vivid hues.

Under her watch, the strings, most notably first assistant principal violist Lynne Ramsey, were richly evocative and bountifully melodious, the low brass robust. The clinchers, though, were the woodwinds, especially a haunting solo by assistant principal clarinetist Daniel McKelway.

The other Sibelius gem to receive the Malkki treatment was Symphony No. 1. So ardent and theatrical was the performance Thursday, this listener often was reminded of opera, of music expressly conceived to set up high emotions and dramatic actions.

The first movement was a decisive punch, a masterful fusion of scene-setting and melody into a single, hard-hitting essay. Likewise the Scherzo and Finale. Both grabbed and held listeners through the sheer dynamic force of propulsive strings, thumping percussion, and gleaming brass.

The operatic sense was strongest in the Andante. As Malkki negotiated thrilling shifts between heavenly tranquility and restless development, the image of Rhinemaidens gracefully swirling in the depths was impossible to resist.”

Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer