N.A. Malko (4 May 1883 – 23 June 1961) was a Ukrainian conductor.
Malko was born in Semaky, Ukraine. In his youth Malko published articles on music criticism in the Russian press and performed as a pianist and later a conductor. In 1906 he completed his studies in history and language at the Saint Petersburg University and in 1909 the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He included Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and Lyadov among his teachers. In 1909 he became a conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre and, six years later, the head conductor here. From 1909 he studied conducting in Munich under Felix Mottl. In 1918 he became the director of the conservatory in Vitebsk and from 1921 taught at the Moscow Conservatory. He became conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in 1926 and conducted the première of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st Symphony in the same year and his 2nd Symphony in 1927. Malko also conducted the premiere of Nikolai Myaskovsky's 5th Symphony. Myaskovsky's 9th Symphony was dedicated to Nikolai Malko.
He was succeeded by his pupil Evgeny Mravinsky in 1928, when the tightening of the Soviet screws against the arts caused him to leave the Soviet Union. That year, during a concert tour, he defected to the West. He lived in Vienna, Prague and, from 1930 until 1956, Copenhagen; in the last named city he enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Royal Danish Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
He settled in the United States in 1940, where he also taught conducting; his thoughts on conducting technique were gathered together and published in The Conductor and his Baton (1950). A handbook on conducting currently available in the USA (Elizabeth A. H. Green: The Modern Conductor, 1996) is explicitly based on the principles of Malko's volume. He recorded extensively for EMI in Copenhagen and then with the Philharmonia, mainly Russian repertoire. In 1951 he premiered Vagn Holmboe's 7th Symphony with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In 1956 he moved to Australia, becoming chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and holding this position until his death in Sydney in 1961.
Franz Schubert: Symphony no 8 in B minor, D 759 "Unfinished" Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: N.A. Malko
Rec.: 1957
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