Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Led by Susanna Mälkki, the NY PHILHARMONIC turns in a mostly majestic performance at Carnegie Hall

• By drediman
• January 8, 2022
• No Comments

This past week, the New York Philharmonic played the first of its four Carnegie Hall outings this year. The occasion marked a true New York moment – the world famous hall was the orchestra’s first home, and it hasn’t performed there since 2015 – which was handed to conductor Susanna Mälkki, the chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, to lead. Under her baton, the Philharmonic sounded mostly majestic in a program that included works by Adolphus Hailstork, John Adams, and Sibelius.

The concert got off to a promising start with Hailstork’s 10-minute “An American Port of Call”; here, the Finnish conductor was able to successfully capture both the work’s vivid detail and exciting brassy outbursts. The program continued with Adams’ Saxophone Concerto, which unfortunately came short of being the rousing performance I was hoping for. Indeed, Mälkki seemed a tad tentative juxtaposing the jazzy, laid-back saxophone solos (courtesy of the fine saxophonist Branford Marsalis) with Adams’ tense and driving underlying rhythms.

After an intermission, the evening concluded with a ravishing account of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. I have rarely heard the Philharmonic’s strings as rich and warm – which were further accentuated by the hall’s ideal acoustics – as they were on Thursday night in this piece. Thankfully, Mälkki’s reading of the symphony managed to avoid film score sentimentality, instead opting to patiently tease out the work’s details, all the while keeping tabs on symphony’s sense of shape internal drama. The result was profound and ultimately triumphant.

RECOMMENDED

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
Classical Music Concert
Carnegie Hall
1 hour, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Closed