Why Mallwitz’s Schubert is so good? From Schubert's 9th - 4th movement, the string keeps playing dotted rhythms, brass softly starts singing, then gradually connecting to the String by crescendo, becoming to massive sound wave as if I am in Ocian exposing myself to the symphonic point. Boston sound provided Schubert’s Freunde soul by Malwitz’s positive energy take me to its summit, his joy - finally reached after demonic unfinished symphony. She was sending us super positive and active energy throughout the piece. Mallwitz's inspiration for Schubert wasn't affected by other repertoires in a little later period until Brahms.
This is a super interesting point of this work by Jan Swafford from the program note, "It did not really find a place in the repertoire until the early 20th century— and still longer for the Unfinished, premiered at last in 1865. These works never had the influence on the mid-century Romantic symphonies they could have had. It was only with the arrival of Brahms that a composer of genius absorbed them and knew what to do with the directions they pointed: Beethoven plus Schubert is the essence of Brahms’s creative foundation."
Other points why this work and Mallwitz works-
"His path guided by his fertile gift for melody"
Schubert handles the old outlines with great freedom, taking them in his own directions to what Robert Schumann, who discovered the piece years later, called “heavenly length.”
Its distinctive sound is the steady presence of trombones.
Just when the listener is settling into this music, with its lyricism alternating with orchestral explosions, an Allegro non troppo erupts with a furious burst of energy that never flags through the course of a huge movement.
Sudden orchestral explosions, dotted rhythms, a tendency to divert in a flash to unexpected keys.
It was a lavish display in the symphony.
Mallwitz made her Salzburg debut in 2020, Gramophone mentioned her conducting, "Mallwitz really makes Mozart’s score zing, keeping the Vienna Philharmonic light on their toes. I’ve been super-impressed with her conducting in a number of lockdown streams during the past year. Currently music director at Staatstheater Nürnberg, she is certainly one to watch."
She will record Kurt Weill and Haydn for DG, and will make her concert debut with the Wiener Philharmoniker early in 2024, during the Salzburg Mozartwoche, and will conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time in 2025. London audiences will have the opportunity to hear her in July when she conducts six performances of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in Sir David Vickers's production.
11.4.2023
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Joana Mallwitz, conductor
Anna Vinnitskaya, piano
KODÁLY Dances of Galánta
TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1
SCHUBERT Symphony in C, The Great
Broadcasting and Her interview