Critical acclaim for Pietari Inkinen at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Pietari Inkinen’s November 2025 concert with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino was met with enthusiastic praise from the Italian press.

Reviewing the concert for OperaClick, Fabio Bardelli highlighted Inkinen’s interpretation of Sibelius, writing that the symphony’s movements were explored “with a depth we have rarely heard”, full of “intense nuances” and “almost unprecedented shadings”. He also praised Inkinen’s “precise technique”, his strong authority over the orchestra, and his ability to obtain exactly what he wanted from the musicians through “experience and clear interpretive ideas”. The evening as a whole, Bardelli concluded, was “deeply engaging to listen to”, thanks to “a conductor’s reading that was both detailed and emotionally intense”.

The review in Matavitatau also praised Inkinen’s approach to both Sibelius and Ravel. The critic noted the “sweeping melodic surges” of the Sibelius, performed by the Maggio with striking brilliance, and underlined Inkinen’s ability to reveal the darker layers of Ravel’s La Valse. In Daphnis et Chloé, the review found Inkinen highlighting Ravel’s sharper, more dramatic sonorities, with “a very compelling result”.

“Inkinen finds the Maggio, after Daniele Gatti’s tenure, in splendid shape,” the review concluded, “and he makes the Zubin Mehta Hall resound with grace and fire” – describing the concert as “a truly beautiful performance”.

Complete press review:

“I am not sure how much Pietari Inkinen agrees with the common label of “late-Romantic language,” since right from the first movement of the symphony, the Allegretto, the predictable soft Nordic atmospheres one might expect are replaced by an underlying, continuous pulse and a vigorous rhythmic drive. The subsequent movements are explored by him with a depth we have rarely heard, full of intense nuances and almost unprecedented shadings, combined with a hidden tension that suggests a post-Romantic language already looking toward the twentieth century.

The pairing with the celebrated Maurice Ravel works in the second half of the program therefore feels anything but accidental, even if Inkinen’s interpretation seems less personal here than in Sibelius, I would even say more “conventional.” After all, the highly virtuosic pieces on the program primarily call for a conductor who can keep tight control of the orchestra and draw out, within a solid overall framework, the chromatic colors and instrumental refinements. And with an ensemble of such high caliber as the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on a great night, with its superb principal players, the credit is shared equally.

Pietari Inkinen, now forty-five years old and also a violinist, has collaborated with many of the world’s leading musical institutions. He is a highly respected conductor on the international scene, having led several prestigious ensembles, and to give just one example, he conducted the Ring cycle in Bayreuth in 2023. We had heard him in Florence a couple of times before, most recently in 2014. With his precise technique he seems to command strong authority over the orchestra, knowing exactly what he wants from the musicians and obtaining it thanks to his experience and clear interpretive ideas.

Every piece on the evening’s program proved deeply engaging to listen to, not in a superficial way but from within, thanks to a conductor’s reading that was both detailed and emotionally intense. The large Florentine audience nearly filled the Mehta Hall and rewarded both conductor and orchestra with warm and enthusiastic applause.”
Fabio Bardelli, OperaClick

“Inkinen is Finnish, and he leads the Maggio in a reading that ultimately aligns with this new generation of specialists (of which he is very much a part, thanks to his Sibelius symphony recordings made in New Zealand in 2008–09 and in Japan in 2013), but he does not shy away from sweeping melodic surges, crystal-clear in sound yet full of passion, which the Maggio delivers with a sheen that surprised me: it had been years since I last heard the Maggio brass play this well!

(…)

In La Valse one must always be careful to let the darkness of its deformation be heard beneath its dominant virtuosic hedonism. That darkness may not be “happy” but rather showy in its despair. We shouldn’t forget that some of the work’s extra-musical inspirations involve the despair brought on by the First World War (see also the Music for Epidemics)… and Inkinen really managed to bring out that despair, even while guiding a Maggio still gleaming in rhythmic precision and sonic power.

Daphnis et Chloé is one of those pieces that dazzles you even before it starts, just by looking at the percussion setup, the mutes being used, and the orchestral sections arranged like a true ballet… Inkinen reveled in Ravel’s jagged sonorities, highlighting their kinship with the contemporaneous intentions of Stravinsky (Fokine staged Daphnis et Chloé with Diaghilev and Nijinsky a year after Petrushka [see Music for Spring]) instead of limiting himself to pointing out the work’s proximity to Debussy’s impressionism or indulging in the radical-chic gratification of Roussel or Massenet (as almost all other famous interpreters persist in doing). He anchored the rhythm to sound, movement, and action rather than to itself… with a very compelling result!

Inkinen finds the Maggio, after Daniele Gatti’s tenure, in splendid shape, and he makes the Zubin Mehta Hall resound with grace and fire, bringing to light all the hidden or imagined intentions of these demanding scores, too often relegated to mere orchestral athletics… a truly beautiful performance!”
Matavitatau