Two superstars of classical music, violin virtuoso Nikolaj Znaider and conductor Susanna Mälkki, join forces to present Tchaikovsky's monumental Violin Concerto. Experience Mälkki’s "charismatic and dynamic podium presence" (Chicago Classical Review) and "the glowing tone" (The New York Times) of Znaider in a concert also featuring Scriabin's wonderfully mystical The Poem of Ecstasy.
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TCHAIKOVSKY
Violin Concerto in D major 1878 | 33 mins
Soloist Nikolaj Znaider makes his entrance in this firecracker of a concerto after a gracious and suspense-building orchestral introduction. The first movement is remarkably virtuosic while the second movement is melodically inspired. Tchaikovsky’s finale sounds like an urban, cultured picture of country.
KAIJA SAARIAHO
Laterna Magica (The Magic Lantern) 2008 | 20 mins
Kaija Saariaho’s Laterna Magica borrows its title from pioneering film director Ingmar Bergman’s autobiography, which he titled after an old name for an image projector. Saariaho sensed a parallel between the manipulation of projected images and how music, unfolding in real time in performance, is perceived by the listener.
SCRIABIN
The Poem of Ecstasy 1907 | 22 mins
The operative word here is “ecstasy.” We might listen to this piece as a constantly unfolding rhapsodic effusion of motifs, titillating textures, and exorbitantly rich colors. “When you listen to Ecstasy,” Scriabin said, “look straight into the eye of the sun!”
JEANETTE YU is Director of Publications at the San Francisco Symphony.
Program
The Poem of Ecstasy
Laterna Magica
Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy Op. 54.
Conductor
This season marks Susanna Mälkki’s debut year as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and includes such works as Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Mendelssohn’s complete incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and R. Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony. In her second season as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic, she continues the orchestra’s survey of Mahler’s symphonies with concerts of Nos. 5 and 9; performs works by R. Strauss, Bartók, and Mozart, among others; and tours to Salzburg and Paris with cellist Truls Mørk. 2017 marked the conclusion of Ms. Mälkki’s four-year tenure as principal guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. She was previously music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain from 2006 to 2013. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 2012.
Ms. Mälkki began the 2017-18 season with a return with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducting two concerts as part of the Berliner Festspiele. Other recent and upcoming highlights include her debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic, and appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Gothenburg Symphony.
In demand as an opera conductor, Ms. Mälkki made her debut at the Vienna State Opera in February 2018 leading Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod, directed by Josef Ernst Köpplinger. In recent seasons she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, conducting the company premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin; and returned to the Opéra National de Paris in for the world premiere of Luca Francesconi’s new opera Trompe-la-Mort. Ms. Mälkki previously collaborated with Mr. Francesconi on Quartett, and in 2011 became the first woman to conduct a production at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; she returned to conduct at La Scala in 2014.
A former student at the Sibelius Academy, Ms. Mälkki studied with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. Prior to her conducting studies, she had a successful career as a cellist and from 1995 to 1998 was one of the principals of the Gothenburg Symphony. She has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Ms. Mälkki has been awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, one of Finland’s highest honors; the Nordic Council Music Prize; and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France. She was named Musical America’s 2017 Conductor of the Year.
(June 2018)
First Violin
Nikolaj Znaider performs as both conductor and violin soloist with the world’s leading orchestras. He has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra in Saint Petersburg since 2010, and he was previously principal guest conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Znaider enjoys a strong relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra, with whom he conducts and performs as soloist with every season. In the 2017-18 season he continues his Mozart recording project with the London Symphony Orchestra, playing and directing the Second and Third Concertos. Their recording of Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 was released on the LSO Live label in March 2018. Mr. Znaider also appears regularly with the Boston Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony, among others. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2008.
Mr. Znaider’s extensive discography includes the Nielsen Violin Concerto with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, the Elgar Violin Concerto with Colin Davis and the Staatskapelle Dresden, award-winning recordings of the Brahms and Korngold violin concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic, the Beethoven and Mendelssohn violin concertos with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor on DVD with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Mr. Znaider has also recorded the complete works of Brahms for violin and piano with Yefim Bronfman.
Passionate about supporting the next generation of musical talent, Mr. Znaider has spent ten years as Founder and Artistic Director of the annual Nordic Music Academy summer school, and is currently President of the Nielsen Competition, which takes place every three years in Odense, Denmark.
Mr. Znaider plays the 1741 “Kreisler” Guarnerius del Gesù violin on extended loan to him by the Royal Danish Theater through the generosity of the VELUX Foundation and the Knud Højgaard Foundation.
(June 2018)
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