PRESS - POSKA LEADS THE OSPA ‘WITH BOLDNESS & AUTHORITY’
In May 2026, Kristiina Poska conducted the OSPA in Gijón and Oviedo (Asturias, Spain) featuring the Spanish premiere of Elis Hallik's Transience, Kevin Puts's Flute Concerto with soloist Adam Walker, and Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony. The performances were met with enthusiastic responses from both audiences and critics…
La Nueva Espana: “It is heartening to observe how many new works seem to be recovering certain expressive and narrative canons that for decades appeared almost proscribed. Such was the case with Transience, whose composer, present in the hall, received a warm and unanimous ovation. The work, barely eleven minutes long, proposes an intense sonic reflection on the ephemeral: the fleetingness of the moment that disappears yet leaves a trace. As Poska explained during the pre-concert talk, Hallik works with "the idea of that which passes through us and fades away, almost like a light suspended in time."
The writing, of great timbral refinement, alternates moments of sonic eruption with others of contemplative suspension, in a discourse that turns silence into a structural element. The OSPA strings, treated almost chorally—so characteristic of the Estonian musical tradition—responded with admirable concentration, achieving that atmosphere between the tangible and the intangible that the composer demands. There was absolute rapport between Poska and Hallik, two musicians born under the same Baltic geography and apparently united by an identical conception of sound.
The second half returned the spotlight to the great repertoire with Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, Scottish. Poska conducted it entirely from memory, displaying a profound knowledge of the architecture of the work and an perfect balance between the sections of the Asturian orchestra. The Estonian conductor opted for lively tempi and a very fluid discourse avoiding any temptation toward Romantic heaviness. Equally successful was the Adagio cantabile, phrased with sensitivity and naturalness, while the OSPA responded with maturity and blend to a refined and organic reading. Mendelssohn, the travelling composer fascinated by Scotland, thus found a recreation of Nordic accents and Baltic sensibility, but also one imbued with that Asturian musical sea-salt which the OSPA has incorporated into its sonic identity over decades.”
El Comercio: “In the second half, the OSPA performed Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony, conducted entirely from memory by Kristiina Poska, a work she made unmistakably her own. Her interpretation was demanding in its standards yet fluid in its conception, distinguished by clear phrasing, finely judged nuances and outstanding orchestral colour. Without descending into folklorism, the scherzo—featuring a magnificent contribution from clarinettist Daniel Sánchez—carried an unmistakable hint of the Scottish bagpipe. Orchestra and conductor received prolonged applause from an audience that continues to grow in number.”
