Exclusive: Susanna Mälkki jumps ship
mainThen HarrisonParrott agency, which this weekend announced the retirement of its flagship star Vladmir Ashkenazy, has quietly put out the word that the Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki has quit. The wording is interesting:
Harrison Parrott are sad to announce that Susanna Mälkki has decided to move her management to FidelioArts with immediate effect.
It goes on:
We are very proud to have been her managers and partners from the very beginning of her career more than 20 years ago… We take pride that her international career is now at the highest level around the world…. we wish her every success in the next chapters of her life.
With immediate effect.
FidelioArts is the boutique agency that looks after Dudamel, Salonen and Paolo Bortolameolli.
It lost the young Frenchman Lionel Bringuier last month to HarrisonParrott. There’s no love lost between two agencies.
Ashkenazy’s retirement moment must have been a good day for HP to bury bad news.
One of the most underrated conductors. Elegant gestures, an absolute wizard in contemporary music.
In which way is she underrated? Has very good gigs and gets good reviews everywhere.
I’d rather like to say that she’s one of the most overrated conductors in the field, but perhaps I shouldn’t. Good in a very narrow repertoire: complex contemporary scores that require a dry and clear beating.
Judging from her blazing I Sibelius 5th with the Boston Symphony, which I hear live, she is not one of those conductors who excel only in contemporary music. That Sibelius sounded deeply moving.
That is a very essential characteristic of that particular symphony. Hard to make it unmoving. Maybe the fantastic orchestra of Boston, often greater than its conductors, also had something to do with your wonderful experience.
I stand by my personal opinion on Mälkki’s Sibelius 5th with the BSO. I have heard the BSO live with many other conductors, and it was playing at its very best. I’ve know the Sibelius 5th primarily from recordings. Mälkki’s performance with the BSO stood out. The rest of that evening, Haydn and Dvorak (and a modern work I couldn’t understand) were also excellent.
That must have been a horrible day for Jasper and everyone at Harrison Parrott. To loose two top-level artists so quickly.