Santtu Conducts Mahler

Album review

The Philharmonia Orchestra, or its label home at Signum Classics, seems to be trying to promote the idea of conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali as the next big star with its Santtu conducts Mahler packaging, following on a similar Santtu conducts Strauss release. Both were taken from live performances by the Philharmonia. Does it work? Maybe. He is certainly an original. Reviews were all over the map for this performance when it was given at Southbank Centre -- and really nicely recorded by Signum -- in June of 2022. There are all kinds of rather fussy, unexpected details in the performance, some of it generated by Rouvali's unorthodox seating arrangements. The third movement, marked "In ruhig fließender Bewegung" ("In calmly flowing motion"), is simply beyond the Overton window for the work, with a fast, nervous approach, not calm at all, coming in almost two full minutes shorter than the recent and more conventional reading by Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Yet, as the work develops, Rouvali's interpretation comes together. The "Urlicht," with a sterling outing by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, is luminous, and in the epic chorale finale, the conductor and performers are firing on all cylinders. Sample the Langsam misterioso middle section (the finale is divided into three parts here), where the Philharmonia Choir and soprano Mari Eriksmoen really up to the movement's designation. Listeners are going to differ about this distinctive reading, but at no point does it do anything other than confirm Rouvali as an exciting rising talent.

© James Manheim /TiVo