First-place Finnish

​​​​★★★★

The next conductor of a major American orchestra is going to be another Finn. Three podia are going begging — Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles — and Santtu-Matias Rouvali is in pole position, ahead of fellow-Finns Susanna Mälkki, Dalia Stasevska and Tarmo Peltokosi. Why everyone’s gone fishing for Finns is not a subject for a record review, but that’s what’s trending and Santtu’s top of the pile.

He’s 40 years old and he has led the Philharmonia for the past five years with outstanding concert results and virtually no public profile. He speaks very little and leaves media interviewers baffled. But put him on stage and the results are electrifying. I have never left one of his concerts unsatisfied.

What we have here is a pair of Shostakovich scores — a reconstruction of a tacky 1962 musical comedy about Moscow housing problems and the juvenile first symphony. Cheryomushki could double easily as a Tom & Jerry soundtrack. Santtu makes more of it than most, tamping down the brass to triple pianissimo for added contrast and tension. 

The first symphony sounds very fine, if a bit too Finnish. Most conductors bring out the savage excitements of the first decade of Bolshevism, seen through the eyes of a testosterone-driven late adolescent. Santtu opts for objective neutrality — could go this way, could go that. His approach works rather well, lacking some pathos in the slow movement, catching fire in the finale. It’s different. That, of itself, makes the record worth hearing.

This week, Santtu fused the Philharmonia with a heavy-metal band in a concert of classical and rock hits. That should go down well with US orchestras, desperate for Gen-Z relevance. He’s going places.