PRESS - ‘looking at the big picture’

Kristiina’s concert tour (Beethoven’s 9th Symphony & his Choral Phantasy) with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir came to a successful end in Estonia. SIRP wrote an enthusiastic review about the concert in the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn, described as one of the absolute highlights of the season.

SIRP: “Kristiina Poska's interpretation brought joy to the lightness, even tenderness, of the theme. The vocal parts, with their lightness and transparency, had the effect of a fountain. In my experience, the culmination of the finale usually feels like a cutting demonstration of strength or a mad rampage, but Poska led the audience to a dancing apotheosis.

I remembered the conductor’s interview with the ERR culture portal, where Poska recalled Beethoven’s words: “I always have the big picture in mind.”

The Poska phenomenon was articulated to me by her younger colleague, German conductor Joana Mallwitz, who made her debut in the world’s largest and certainly one of the most influential opera houses, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in April. In the documentary “Maestras. Women’s Long Journey to the Podium”5, she was asked how she copes with the pressure of working in the male-dominated world of conductors. “I have always felt that I do not want to spend my time on such thoughts, [—] because I believe that the most important quality of a musician is authenticity. [—] Maybe now is the time when women can be conductors and be exactly who they are as conductors.”

Kristiina Poska seems to be an uncompromising perfectionist as a musician, but at the same time she dares to be just a human being on stage.”