I now feel like an evangelist of the gospel of Stravinsky according to Susanna Mälkki
“Finally, another star of the evening was Susanna Mälkki’s interpretation of Stravinsky’s score. Mälkki is one of my “go-to” conductors for 20th-century repertoire. I have heard her conduct the most amazing Debussy more than a few times. However, I think that her reading of “Rake’s” is, by itself, one of the great achievements of musicianship in this century (one is given to superlatives when full of joy after a great performance). If I was already mesmerized by it when she conducted it at the Met, I now feel like an evangelist of the gospel of Stravinsky according to Susanna Mälkki. While many great conductors have recorded this opera with brio, Mälkki captures the ethereality of Stravinsky’s neoclassical phase with unmatched elegance and control, particularly from the woodwinds. While the characters are allegorical, the orchestra is extremely hard to understand. The sounds are so sublime that one cannot help delighting in them over and over again—and still, is it all pretending? Is the orchestra just joking with us? I would be eager to hear Mälkki conducting pieces such as Stravinsky’s Mass, which shares a similar musical realm. The results she achieved with the now-exuberant Paris Opera are deserving of a good studio recording.”
“Susanna Mälkki propose une direction fluide et précise émaillée de nuances pertinentes tout en prêtant une attention particulière aux chanteurs.”
“A third strong woman is running the show. Susanna Mälkki conducts with calm assurance, keeping everything together with meticulous care.”
Financial Times