Joana Mallwitz triumphs at the season opener as the new chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin
The new chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz, began her first season yesterday. In the evening, she presented the first symphonies of Sergei Prokofiev, Kurt Weill, and Gustav Mahler. The hall erupted: Berlin has a new classical music star.
No one in Berlin can ignore her. With posters all over the city, the Konzerthaus management is betting everything on the young new chief conductor, who celebrated her retirement as General Music Director in Nuremberg this year. The trailer featuring her for the new season promises courage and magic. Thanks to Joana Mallwitz, the orchestra at the Gendarmenmarkt venue will clearly distinguish itself from the city's other orchestras, the world-famous Philharmonic Orchestra, the two radio orchestras, and the three opera orchestras.
Three first symphonies for the prelude
She is the first woman to serve as chief conductor in the capital; she dares, and she wins. She has chosen three first symphonies for her first concert evening. Prokofiev's Symphonie classique , an exploration of late Haydn, but full of shifted rhythms, is a concert hall classic from 1917. Mallwitz presents it full of energy, cheerful, classical, emphasizing all the nuances and with a dance-like quality. So moving that it almost requires a wider platform.
Colors of a big city
Kurt Weill's first symphony, the Berlin Symphony, composed four years later, is expressionistic, optimistic, and consists of a single movement. Weill notes in the musical text that it should sound assailing, wild, plunging, rousing, pleading, mystical, and confident—all these colors of a metropolis are elegantly conveyed by Joana Mallwitz with delicate gestures; the typically Weillian harmony, which we later recognize from The Threepenny Opera, floats in the space.
This is a unique climate; nowhere else in the world does it exist like in Berlin.
Joana Mallwitz
A conductor as an expressive dancer
Mallwitz conducts all three works from memory. It is simply enchantingly beautiful to watch her, to follow her agile movements and the noble, aesthetic gestures that fan out into the individual vocal groups. Mahler's First Symphony is a mountain range, rugged, full of magnificent vistas, melodic and dissonant, and again: the conductor as expressive dancer.
Enthusiasm like at a rock concert
Anyone who remembers Claudio Abbado's unique, magnificent interpretation will miss many lines and profound explorations, but the Konzerthaus Orchestra has rarely sounded so motivated, so committed, and so enthusiastic. Mallwitz, beaming and sweating, incredibly likeable and not at all aloof or maestro-like, savors the cheers at the end. The Senator for Culture jumps to his feet and whistles with enthusiasm as if at a rock concert. So does actress Katja Riemann. The hall roars. Madonna instead of maestro. Berlin has a new classical music star.
Broadcast: "Allegro" on 1 September 2023 from 6:05 a.m. on BR-KLASSIK