Suspension and drama - Tao, Mälkki and music with a relevance

Something has happened with the programming at Berwaldhallen. It is as if someone has said: "Let's challenge ourselves and the audience this season!" This concert was definitely doing that. And that was a clear success.

Link to the concert broadcast from October 5

The initial piece "Flounce" by Lotta Wennäkoski was written for Last Night of the Proms in 2017. It's a perfect start of a concert with its multitude of sounds and sound combinations. But that is also its weakness - it is as if too much is pressed into a limited format. There is no time for any development and real structure.

The next piece got its Swedish premiere at these two concerts (Thursday/Friday). It's a piece for piano and orchestra called "Suspend" by American composer Andrew Norman. This is absolutely astonishing music. It contains both elements of silence and total improvisational freedom for orchestra as well as soloist. Just to mention one thing - the start is played by the pianist above the keys without touching them. The soloist's playing is later integrated with sounds from the orchestra, but not always from the front seat players. This creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and surprise, without having to use any spectacular ingredients.
The pianist Conrad Tao is the ideal pianist for this piece. He is a deeply intelligent musician with an absolute honest relation to the music that he is playing, he creates an atmosphere of identification and relevance. His technical skills are at the level where you feel totally comfortable joining him on his exploration tour.
As an encore he played the intensely beautiful Largo from Bach's third violin sonata. I'm used to hearing it played by violinists trying to create a total legato. But here Conrad Tao did something different. He played it as if the phrases were spoken words in a conversation. He invited the silence and used different ways of releasing the notes. I could see in the faces of the audience when going out to the intermission that I wasn't the only one being touched.
It's great to know that Conrad Tao will come back for a solo recital in November and another concert with orchestra in March. He is one of the most interesting pianists in the younger generation with his attitude of total honesty and will to invite the audience on a ride.

Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is one of the iconic milestone pieces of music history. There are very many ways to approach it - lyrical, romantic, dramatic, raw. Susanna Mälkki chose an approach of precision and clear details to which she added power. She was in total control all the way through the piece without getting lost herself in the emotions of the music. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra followed her as if they were all connected to each other. At the end they released an energy and power that was almost shocking. (I think that Susanna Mälkki had added a few extra f's in the dynamic markings.)

I noted something at the concert - not only was the conductor a woman, but there were women at the front in all the string sections. I don't think that I have seen that here before.