In 2020, Joana Mallwitz was, at the age of 34, the first woman in the history of the Salzburg Festival to direct, for the centenary of the great Austrian event, an opera production, in this case So do all, by Mozart, directed by Christof Loy, which brought together an eminent trio of French women, Elsa Dreisig, Marianne Crebassa and Lea Desandre (as evidenced by a DVD published by Erato/Warner Classics). In the pit, the seasoned pack of the Vienna Philharmonic that the young woman had visibly transformed into lambs. On Wednesday February 8 and Thursday February 9, it was with the Orchester de Paris that the director general of music at the Nuremberg Theater, since 2018, made her debut at the Philharmonie de Paris in front of a full house.
It’s not because Warehouse, the film by Todd Field, is currently making headlines, in particular because of the performance of Cate Blanchett as a poisonous and dominating conductor, but Joana Mallwitz undoubtedly has something in the face of the Australian-American actress. Her assured entry to the desk, slender figure and childish blondness, waist caught in a wide black tailcoat belt and high heels, surprises so many of her colleagues still sport a masterful dress discretion.
A reflection quickly interrupted with the first notes of the Unfinished Symphony, of Schubert, whose maestra immediately underlines the intimate dimension, developing colors and phrasing, sculpted in the air with large serpentine gestures. The one who was elected “conductor of the year 2019” by german magazine Opera world has a flexible and ample gesture. But this meticulous and very articulated work does not exclude a martial heaviness which is further accentuated by the sonic density of a section of eight double basses, an option that few now dare in Schubert.
Piano virtuoso d’Igor Levit
The German-Russian pianist Igor Levit (born in Nijni-Novgorod in March 1987, living in Berlin) was entrusted with the marvelous Concerto ” Young man “, by Mozart, to which the direction of Joana Mallwitz offers an introduction to the fine and untied energy. The round and singing touch of the piano, the clarity and virtuosity of his playing, the dynamic science of the interpreter irrigate with happiness a chamber music approach that prohibits neither lyrical momentum nor rhythmic jubilation. The second movement “Andantino” deploys an expressiveness without pathos, a poignant side of a nocturnal and solitary wind serenade, caressed by the backwash of the strings, before the brilliant “Rondo” as if improvised, where intelligence is combined with the naturalness of the discourse . The room dims for an encore with the magnificent “Adagio cantabile” by the Pathetic Sonatarecalling that the complete thirty-two Beethoven sonatas recorded by Igor Levit for Sony Classical were unanimously acclaimed.
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