Backstage: NJSO welcomes Susanna Mälkki

Next weekend, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra welcomes Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki, who makes her NJSO debut leading performances of Strauss’  Don Juan  and Death and Transfiguration April 5–7. New Jersey audiences in Newark, New Brunswick and Morristown will have the opportunity to see a conductor who, by all accounts, lives up to consi derable hype.

Mälkki, Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain in Paris, is garnering critical praise from all corners of the globe. The highly regarded conductor has led symphonies, chamber orchestras and contemporary music ensembles worldwide, and in a male-dominated profession, she stands out. WQXR recently cited her as one of only two women who will conduct major New York City classical engagements next year. In 2011, she made her debut at La Scala in Milan, breaking a glass ceiling as she became the first woman in history to conduct at the famed opera house; she returns in 2014.

Last spring, The San Francisco Chronicle raved about how Mälkki exceeds expectations: “She’s a powerhouse. Her podium technique is crisp and muscular, with just enough lyricism to keep things fluid, and there's a certain imperious quality to her rhythmic manner that can’t help but impress a listener … there’s no question that Mälkki can invest anything she touches with persuasive grandeur.”

The Los Angeles Times writes: “Like Boulez, Mälkki conducts without a baton and respects transparency. Her rhythmic gestures are precise and energizing. A product of the same conducting program in Helsinki attended by Esa-Pekka Salonen, she has the trademark self-confidence of Finnish conductors.”

Before embarking on her conducting career, she had a successful career as a cellist—she won a national cello competition and she was one of the principals of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra for three years. She told the South Florida Classical Review that her experience as a cellist has made her a better conductor: “‘I think I have a clearer idea of what the musicians need from the conductor in terms of communicating, I think mainly in gestures, how you use your time when you’re rehearsing … if you can convey your thoughts in gestures, everything is easier for the musicians and you save so much time.’”

Mälkki spoke with The San Francisco Classical Voice last April about the challenges of globetrotting and leading different ensembles: “As a guest conductor, I travel and learn the group dynamics in each group. It’s very useful, having been in an orchestra. I know from the inside what the dynamics can be. But every orchestra is more than the sum of its parts. It’s so much about psychology. People talk about chemistry, but it’s not just that. It’s professionalism, ambitions, habits and attitudes … You have to have trust, love for the music, and understand the stars and the others. It’s very interesting.”

That ability to connect with orchestra musicians is a common thread through reviews of Mälkki’s work. “There was a musical revolution of sorts at Tanglewood this past Saturday night,” Berkshire On Stage wrote of the conductor’s 2010 festival appearance, “[as] Mälkki showed herself to be both a forceful and original conductor, creating an elegant and transparent reading of [the works on the program] … Her work was done in rehearsal, she did not have to resort to theatrics to sell the music, she let the musicians and the composers do that, and it was a simply magical evening as a result.”

Next week, NJSO audiences will get to experience that magic firsthand.

The NJSO presents Don Juan April 5–7 in Newark, New Brunswick and Morristown. The Orchestra’s April 5 concert at NJPAC is a “Friday Night Out” LGBT event; the NJSO will host a post-concert champagne and dessert reception—set to the jazz-age sounds of the Michael Arenella Trio—for ticketholders who are LGBT community members and friends.

Tickets start at $20 and are available for purchase online here or by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476). To reserve a space for the Friday Night Out LGBT reception on April 5, use promotion code FRIDAYOUT.