Susanna Mälkki returns to the helm of the New York Philharmonic

Susanna Mälkki, previously rumoured to be in contention for the New York Philharmonic’s music directorship before Gustavo Dudamel’s appointment, returned to lead the orchestra in a subscription series. The programme offered a premiere alongside an intriguing pairing of works, providing the audience with a fresh and distinctly memorable experience. Stylistically distinct, Ravel’s La Valse and Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen each represent a poignant farewell to a lost world, conveyed through their distinctive, often intense harmonic language. Both compositions subvert typical symphonic and dance conventions, thus creating an intense, genre-defying experience. Metamorphosen is a work for 23 solo strings that unfolds as an extended elegy. Rhythmically rooted in the waltz, La Valse ultimately subverts the dance’s typical lightness.

Mälkki’s interpretation of these pieces invited literary parallels. Ravel’s meticulous transformation of a once-glittering waltz into a portrayal of disintegration – achieved through the gradual unraveling of harmony and rhythm – brought to mind Proust’s melancholic yet vivid depiction of the elegance and opulence of the Belle Époque society in In Search of Lost Time. Similarly, Strauss’ Metamorphosen recalled the introspective and mournful qualities found in Doctor Faustus, the Bildungsroman where Thomas Mann contemplates the collapse of Goethean ideals in a Germany tarnished by Nazism.

In rendering Strauss’ 1945 composition, Mälkki took great care to maintain the right balance between individual voices and a cohesive output. The meandering ‘metamorphoses’ through varied dynamics, tempi, keys, tonalities, colours and textures were handled with meticulous attention to detail, while the overall musical arch never hinted at instability. The final release of tension was superbly executed.

The Philharmonic string players effectively conveyed a continuous reflection on the sense of loss, their sound imbued with depth and sensitivity. Concertmaster Huang Wang added steady, poignant solo interventions, while the cellos, led for the evening by recently appointed associate principal Matthew Christakos, anchored the ensemble with a warm presence.

While Strauss' score carried a deliberately somber and plaintive tone under Mälkki’s direction, La Valse unfolded with striking color and balanced sonorities. From the outset, however, hints of something troublesome were present in the lower strings and winds as an ominous shadow gradually thread through the vibrant, swirling energy shaped by assertive winds. Yet the music waltzed insouciantly onward, seemingly unaware of the encroaching darkness and mounting menace. The moment when the ensemble sensed it had reached the edge of a precipice came as abruptly as ever.

The concert began with the New York premiere of Luca Francesconi’s Duende: The Dark Notes, a 2013 composition for violin and orchestra jointly dedicated to the evening’s protagonists, Leila Josefowicz and Mälkki. The substantial concerto draws inspiration, according to the composer, from “the demon of flamenco”, which Federico Garcia Lorca described as “a subterranean force of unheard-of power that escapes rational control”. The violin part, filled with whirling scales and fractured arpeggios, certainly requires a performer with the virtuosity and frantic energy of Josefowicz to do it full justice. Mälkki enveloped the pyrotechnics in an unusual musical tapestry, at times strange and eerie, and at others turbulent and visceral, featuring intriguing individual contributions from bird calls, trombones, a xylophone and a slew of other percussion instruments. All in all, it seemed a fitting contribution for a Halloween night.