Great Series | Mahler 1

Mahler - Venturing into the Unheard

Verneri Pohjola | Trumpet
Susanna Mälkki | Conductor

Kaija Saariaho | HUSH - Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra
Gustav Mahler | Symphony No. 1

Susanna Mälkki was long regarded as a specialist in contemporary music, but increasingly she turns to the classics. What could fit better than Mahler's "First" - a work at the intersection of late-Romantic grandeur and a radicality that feels surprisingly current?

Yet contemporary music does not release its hold on her. She combines Mahler's plastically bold Symphony No. 1 with a work that speaks quite literally of ultimate things: the meaning and significance of human life, death and silence. The trumpet concerto HUSH proved to be Kaija Saariaho's legacy - Mälkki conducted the posthumous world premiere in 2023, with her compatriot Verneri Pohjola at the trumpet then and now. He describes the work as "truly strongly atmospheric and moving" and sees himself in it as the "voice of the composer". The intrusion of everyday noise into the music connects HUSH with what one can experience so intensely in Mahler's sound world.

Concert introduction: 18:00
Concert duration: approximately 120 minutes - including intermission