Chief Conductors Hannu Lintu and Susanna Mälkki open their respective orchestras’ seasons in Helsinki this week.
On 5 and 6 September Lintu launches the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s 2018/19 season at the Musiikkitalo, beginning his sixth year as their Chief Conductor. Evgeny Kissin is the soloist for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.1, the programme also features Jukka Tiensuu’s Alma III: Soma and Lutoslawki’s Symphony No.3. On 7 September Mälkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra enter the Musiikkitalo; joined by Kirill Gerstein for Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, the programme (live-streamed here) includes Sibelius’sThe Dryad and Dance Intermezzo as well as Ives’ Three Places in New England and a seldom-performed jazz orchestra version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue – the latter two works representing the “America” theme which underpins many of Mälkki’s concerts with the Orchestra this season (her third as Chief Conductor).
Both conductors and ensembles return to the Musikkitalo the following week: Mälkki on 12 and 13 September for performances featuring the “Love Scene” from Bernard Herrmann’s score to Hitchcock’s film Vertigo and Joan Tower’s Made in America; Lintu on 14 September for Rautavaara’s Symphony No.6 and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s opera Die Soldaten (live-streamed here).
