Nordic Highlights 2 2018

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2018

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Focus on Kimmo Hakola & Rolf Martinsson

Rautavaara’s All-Night Vigil The Helsinki Chamber Choir will be singing Einojuhani Rautavaara’s All-Night Vigil several times this summer: at the Musiq’3 festival in Brussels on 29– 30 June, the Organ and Aria festival in Finland on 5 July, the Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki on 16 August and Järvenpää Church on 21 August.

The soloists are Niall Chorell, tenor and Tuukka Haapaniemi, bass. The choir is also making a new recording of the work. Rautavaara’s popular concert version of the Orthodox Vigil has found its way into the repertoire of professional choirs the world over.

Albert Schnelzer

Albert Schnelzer News A lot is going on for Albert Schnelzer right now. BIS Records has just released the portrait CD Tales from Suburbia , 13 July will see the premiere of his opera Norrmalmstorgsdramat (The Stockholm Syndrome) at Vattnäs Konsertlada, and during the 2018/2019 season he will be composer-in-residence with the Västerås Sinfonietta. Commissioned by the Swedish RSO, his Piano Concerto No. 1 composed for American pianist Conrad Tao, will have its premiere on 14 March 2019. On 11 April Ilya Gringolts will be soloist with the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra in the first performance of Schnelzer´s Violin Concerto No. 2 – Nocturnal Songs. The concerto is jointly commissioned by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Jönköping Sinfonietta.

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at www.gehrmans.se/highlights Cover photos: Rolf Martinsson (Louise Martinsson), Kimmo Hakola (Kaapo Hakola) Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll Design: Tenhelp Oy/Tenho Järvinen ISSN 2000-2742 (Print), ISSN 2000-2750 (Online) Printed in Sweden by TMG Sthlm, Bromma 2018

2/2018

Gabriella Gullin is in the limelight as one of the composers being presented by the Mikaeli Chamber Choir and Anders Eby in the film project #swedishchoralmusic with her piece Tyst är det rum to a text by Pär Lagerkvist. She has had several choral works published by Gehrmans as well as her Elegic Rhapsody for oboe and string orchestra. Two chamber pieces are now being added to the catalogue, Les Ombres dans l´eau for viola and piano and Sonata for Flute and Piano.

Hilma af Klint – chamber opera 2/2018

NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

HIGHLIGHTS

Gabriella Gullin

Benjamin Staern is writing a chamber opera for two singers, piano trio and electronics about the artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), a pioneer in abstract painting who did not became known until long after her death, after an exhibition in Los Angeles in 1986. The opera will have its premiere at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in the spring of 2019, but already now, in July, a short trailer can be heard during the Halmstad Opera and Vocal Festival, as well as at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in connection with the Hilma af Klint Exhibition in October. The project was initiated by the singers Mette and Fredrik af Klint, and the libretto is being written in English by Mira Bartov.

Eero Sipilä centenary A hundred years have this year passed since the birth of Eero Sipilä (1918-1972), and music by him can be heard at a concert of his works in Helsinki on 28 October. Sipilä was an active composer, teacher, organist and choir leader whose core output consisted of choral, organ and chamber music. Works by him are available at the Fennica Gehrman web shop.

Aho concerto boom continues Kalevi Aho keeps getting orders for concertos. He has finished a Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano to be premiered by the Storioni Trio and the Antwerp SO in May 2019, and is at present composing a Concerto for Guitar and ChamKalevi Aho ber Orchestra also for a premiere in May 2019 by Ismo Eskelinen and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. Also planned for next year is a Concerto for Bass Clarinet for Mikko Raasakka. One for two bassoons and orchestra has further been commissioned on the initiative of bassoonist Bram van Sambeek.

Aho’s Sieidi, for percussion, has become one of the most performed Finnish concertos. It has already been played nearly 50 times across the world, with soloists Colin Currie, Martin Grubinger and Alexej Gerassimez.

Photo: Romain Etienne

Two big festivals will be devoted to Tommie Haglund’s music during the 2018/2019 season. Haglund´s home town, Halmstad, is organizing a festival on 18-21 October with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, violinist Ilya Kaler, cellist Jacob Kullberg et al.

The conductor and artistic leader is Joachim Gustafsson. Haglund will also be festival composer with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic at the Stockholm Concert Hall Composer Weekend on 28-31 March 2019.

Soloists include soprano Miah Persson, violinist Ilya Gringolts and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan. During the two festivals we can listen to the violin concerto Hymns to the Night, the cello concerto Flaminis Aura, the string orchestral piece Serenata per Diotima, and La Rosa Profunda for soprano and orchestra. Moreover, Tommie Haglund´s Symphony No. 1 will have its premiere during the festival in Stockholm, which will be rounded off with a chamber music concert.

Photo: Elinor Edvall

Tommie Haglund Festivals

Photo: Mats Lundqvist

NEWS

Photo: Nea Ilmevalta

Fennica Gehrman has signed a publishing agreement with Tuomas Turriago that includes Per Aspera for chamber ensemble and the Concerto for Chamber Ensemble premiered in Tampere early in 2018 (See: Reviews). The agreement also covers some instrumental works. Turriago has an ambitious project aiming to compose a sonata for every instrument.

The most recent ones are for alto saxophone, to be premiered at the Gap international saxophone festival in July and for flute, to be heard for the first time in Helsinki in November. Read more about Turriago and his music on the Fennica Gehrman website.

Minifiddlers go to China

Géza Szilvay

The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing has signed an agreement with Minifiddlers on the launching of the Colourstrings teaching method in China.

Minifiddlers is a distance education solution in violin studies developed

by Caprice Oy. The partnership became operative at the end of April and included workshops given by Géza Szilvay in Beijing and Huangqiao. More information is available at www.minifiddlers.org.

Focus on Harri Viitanen Music by Harri Viitanen can be heard at a concert on 26 August in the Helsinki Organ Summer series.

The programme will include Die Amsel in a version for solo flute played by Jenny Metsälä, Paratiisilinnun rukous for harp, Images d’oiseau for organ, and the Cathedral Fantasy and Ecumenical Bells for organ, positive organ and instrument ensemble premiered on 6 December 2017 as part of the Finland 100 celebrations.

May–August 2018 PAAVO HEININEN Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 134/2 and 3 Ilosoitto for solo violin Kaija Saarikettu, violin, Juhani Lagerspetz, piano 4.5. Helsinki, Finland Sonata for Piccolo and Piano Op. 116 Hanna Kinnunen, piccolo, Emil Holmström, piano Sonata for Contrabassoon and Piano Op. 138 Arvid Larsson, contrabassoon, Jouko Laivuori, piano Sonata for Bassoon and Piano Op. 122 Jaakko Luoma, bassoon, Ilmo Ranta, piano Sonata for English Horn and Piano Op. 137 Paula Malmivaara, English horn, Jouko Laivuori, piano 5.5. Helsinki, Finland

Lotta Wennäkoski’s Flounce: 15 performances

FREDRIK HÖGBERG

Lotta Wennäkoski’s Flounce was a BBC commission for the last night of the Proms in September 2017. It has since been heard in Helsinki, Tampere and Gothenburg, and is down for no fewer than 12 more performances. In the autumn season, Hannu Lintu will conduct it with the Finnish RSO at the Turku Festival and give it its US premiere with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Flounce is also fixed for the opening concert of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s season, with Thomas Søndergård conducting, and for concerts by the Swedish Radio Symphony and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. The Helsinki Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki will be taking it to the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and elsewhere during its European tour in April 2019.

Baboon Concerto Gothenburg SO/Tung-Chieh Chuang, sol. Sebastian Stevensson, bassoon 9.5. Gothenburg, Sweden

KARIN REHNQVIST Songs from the North Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus/Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman 11.5. Berkeley, USA

MIKKO HEINIÖ Symphony No. 3 (Sinfonia Concertante for Percussion and Orchestra) Turku PO/Anja Bihlmaier 18.5. Turku, Finland

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM Sångens hus/The House of Song for choir and orchestra Falun Conservatory of Music/Dalasinfoniettan/ Paul Mägi 2.6. Falun, Sweden

KALEVI AHO

Steampunk Blizzard Gehrmans is publishing Daniel Nelson’s 7-minute hit piece Steampunk Blizzard. It was written on commission from Orchestre National d´ile de France and the conductor Enrique Mazzola, who premiered it in Philharmonie de Paris last year.

The work has Daniel Nelson subsequently been performed by the Swedish RSO, and the Gävle Symphony will play it in September. Santtu-Matias Rouvali has conducted the piece with the Tampere Philharmonic and will perform it with the Gothenburg Symphony in October, and with the Oslo Philharmonic in December. In February/March 2019 Rouvali and the Gothenburg Symphony will take the work on their tour to Germany and Austria.

Photo: Ella Nelson

Janine Jansen will once again perform Anders Eliasson’s violin concerto Einsame Fahrt from 2010. There will be two performances with the Gothenburg Symphony on 29 and 30 November and another two with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich on 15 and 16 December, all under the baton of Daniel Blendulf.

Photo: Jari Eskola

Janine Jansen

Photo: Harald Hoffmann

Tuomas Turriago

Jansen plays Eliasson

PREMIERES

Agreement with Tuomas Turriago

Berliner Bagatelle Philharmonisches Bläserquintett Berlin Solo X for horn Annu Salminen 29.6. Musica Kalevi Aho Festival, Forssa, Finland Piano Sonata No. 2 Sonja Fräki 1.8. Mänttä Music Festival, Finland Solo XIII for trombone Rocco Rescigno August 2018 Risuonanze Festival, Italy

ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY/ ARR: ROLF MARTINSSON Sechs Walzergesänge MythenEnsembleOrchestral/Graziella Contratto, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano 30.6. Festival Musiksommer am Zürichsee, Switzerland

ESA PIETILÄ The Wind Wants 5parts Wind Quintet 7.7. Helsinki Chamber Music Festival, Finland

ALBERT SCHNELZER Norrmalmstorgsdramat – att dö på sin post (The Stockholm Syndrome) Opera Vattnäs Chamber Orchestra/Fredrik Burstedt, sol. Anna Larsson, alto, Göran Eliasson, baritone, Anders Larsson, baritone, Tobias Westman, tenor, Agnes Auer, soprano 13.7. Vattnäs, Sweden

TUOMAS TURRIAGO Sonata for alto Saxophone and Piano Joonatan Rautiola, saxophone, Cyrille Lehn, piano 20.7. Université de Saxophone 2018, Gap, France

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2018

Photo: Louise Martinsson

Seven questions for Rolf Martinsson I meet with Rolf Martinsson in connection with the Stockholm premiere of his song cycle Ich denke Dein… with the soprano Lisa Larsson, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Gustavo Gimeno. Three years have elapsed since the premiere in Tonhalle Zürich, and Larsson has performed the songs more than 20 times in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Australia.

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You are often present at the performances of your works – with Ich denke Dein… most recently in Melbourne and Mallorca, and you have told of the always very positive response on the part of audiences, irrespective of where it is performed. Has there been any especially memorable concert occasion?

The Dutch premiere in the Concertgebouw, sold-out concerts and standing ovations, a memory for life. Or the Italians’ resounding shouts of bravo in Milan, the premiere with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich or the Finnish premiere with John Storgårds and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. The work is dedicated to Larsson, who has given brilliant interpretations at all these concerts. What more thanks could one wish for than to get over 20 top performances?!

The Finnish reviews delighted me: ”…that someone dares to write so unashamedly enjoyable, sinfully sexy music as the Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson and luckily he does not only dare to but he also can do it…

2

What do you think there is in your music that appeals to audiences?

Shimmering timbres and tonal passages. But a soloist is required who can make the music come alive! Larsson with her personal charm on stage and musical communication conveys the text in a way that deeply moves the listener and apparently also the critics.

“When the shockingly good soprano Lisa Larsson performed Martinsson´s brand new song cycle Ich denke Dein… the listener felt as if he was being led into an enchanted garden, where an angel had fallen from heaven…”

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2018

Larsson sings a number of your song cycles, including Garden of Devotion and Orchestral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson . Altogether, she has given around 100 performances of your works. Will your unique collaboration be documented?

Everything that I have composed for Larsson will be documented on CD by BIS and Challenge Records, together with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic/Andrew Manze, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (MSO)/Paul Mägi and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra/Gordan Nikolic. It’s a dream coming true.

4

One of your most frequently performed works is the trumpet concerto Bridge from 1998, which Håkan Hardenberger has performed about 60 times the world over. A tour is coming up in September with the renowned Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelsons. Will you be in the audience?

Absolutely! And this will also be a lifelong memory. Two brilliant musicians who bring something fresh to every new interpretation. The collaboration with Hardenberger began in 1999 and has been of vital importance for my career.

And now the Norwegian trumpet player Ole Edvard Antonsen also has Bridge in his repertoire. A newly found friend and a wonderful musician with fantastic lyrical qualities. He has performed Bridge in Berlin, Aalborg and Katowice.

5

Another work that has travelled around the world is the Double Bass Concerto with Edicson Ruiz with performances in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America, just lately by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. You went along on the European tour with the Youth Orchestra of Caracas. Could you tell us about that?

It was a moving experience with those fantastic youngsters who make music with such strong conviction. The concerto had its French premiere at Cité de la musique in Paris and its Hungarian in the beautiful Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest. I met José Antonio Abreau, founder of El Sistema in Venezuela.

After the concert, photos were taken of myself and the musicians, one by one, with iPhones.

6

Your latest orchestral work is the concert opener Shimmering Islands, which was recently premiered by the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. Here you enter into a new style. How is that?

I go my own way as a composer and immerse myself creatively in modern as well as traditional styles, as in my latest vocal works. Now it was time to seek new sonorities in Shimmering Islands.

7

What are you working on at the moment?

A semistaged work for Lisa Larsson with MSO as main commissioner and Norrlandsoperan as co-commissioner. The ”libretto” by Swedish director Elisabet Ljungar – derived from William Blake’s ”Songs of Innocence and of Experience” – is covering dramatic phases in the life of a woman, her ”survival” thereof and how she towards the end of her life finally manages to make peace with life and herself…a beautiful and emotionally dramatic libretto which I’m very inspired to paint in music.

The Tonhalle Orchester Zürich has invited Larsson for a collaboration in connection with the orchestra’s 150th anniversary this autumn. She has created Traumreise based on songs of Franz Berwald (who died in 1868) and which forms a musical journey through Sweden-France-Germany. Larsson asked me to orchestrate the songs. The Tonhalle Orchester Zürich will perform the world premiere in November and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra the Swedish premiere.

Larsson has also asked med to orchestrate some songs by Alexander Zemlinsky, which she will record on CD this summer.

Starting in 2019 I will compose a full-length opera, Amy, commissioned by the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. I am also hoping to get a commission for a Symphony No. 1.

Kristina Fryklöf

Kimmo Hakola views the world through the eyes of an endlessly curious child. He speaks here of how he shook off his symphony phobia, of the metabolism of musical life, of his plans for compositions, and of the advice he would give his young self.

T

he Finnish RSO is to premiere your first symphony in December 2018. How would you describe its composition process?

The symphony has been a difficult genre for me. I put off composing my first symphony and calling a work a symphony until very recently. I’ve got a few works I thought I would call a symphony, but I wanted to wait for my aesthetics of the genre to mature. This phobia may well have been overdone, but the door is now open and symphonic thinking will in future occupy a central role in my work.

Writing concertos has been like a red line running through your career.

I have written my concertos for musicians whose art has deeply spoken to me. It’s been a case of mutual enthusiasm, I think. I wrote my Clarinet Concerto, for example, for Kari Kriikku, my Violin Concerto for violinist-conductor John Storgårds, and my recent Double Concerto for Violin and Viola for Minna Pensola and Antti Tikkanen. The soloist, his or her charisma and mastery, is always the source of inspiration for my concertos. This explains their different modes of expression. I can also relate to the way my soloists make music; I get a strong sense of our being kindred spirits that has then brought us closer together.

Your works often have some surprising elements. It might be a Mongolian folk melody, or Klezmer fireworks – but always cleverly integrated with the work as a whole. Do you deliberately aim at surprise and excitement?

When I was younger, surprise was maybe a sort of additional dramaturgical dimension for raising the music as an experience to a new unpredictable level. All in all, I’ve tried to create music the behaviour of which is not obvious from the first moment. Things like controlling the perception of time and guiding the listener’s observations.

Some might say there are game-theory structures in my composing. Perhaps, but I’m also interested in perceptual psychology. I nevertheless want to stress that music is freedom: the perceptions and experiences of every listener are “right”.

Where do you find the ideas and inspiration for your music?

I draw inspiration from everything imaginable. I view the world through the eyes of an endlessly

Photo: Kaapo Hakola

An interview with Hakola

curious child. I examine and study things, phenomena, and allow these adventures plenty of time. Sometimes I call an expert in the field I’m studying to ask why a problem that’s been puzzling me hasn’t been solved in the way I thought.

These discussions have been the salt of my life.

Which of your works would you particularly single out?

My opuses number about 100 at the moment. The public and music gatekeepers have chosen some as their favourites and these are played a lot. It’s often the way that new gems are discovered hidden among a composer’s works only after his or her death. That’s just the metabolism of musical life. I don’t want to guide this process. All my works are dear to me. It’s most important for the composer and the publisher to put the composer’s works in some sort of order while he’s still alive, so that future generations can find all the necessary information about them – and for the material of works to be finalised. On the other hand, I don’t know of a single composer who’s had such good fortune.

Looking back over your career as a composer, what advice would you give your young self?

There are certainly things I could have done differently. I’m a perfectionist, and I went through a period of very severe self-criticism when I was young; looking back, those years were very exhausting, but important to later stages in life. I knew so early in life that I wanted to be a composer that I never seriously considered doing anything else. This explains why I’ve withstood many difficult things in the job.

It’s no good trying to be a composer for extra-musical reasons. You can model yourself on trends and your teacher’s music when you’re training, but if you don’t later discover a genuine language of your own, your artistic work may cease to have any sense and future.

I’ve been lucky in that my music was understood and my career supported early on. I also got a publisher when I was only just staring out: that, too, meant a lot for my professional autonomy.

What sorts of things do you value in life?

Physical and mental wellbeing are of the utmost importance to me if I am to survive in everyday life, manage my time and the sometimes hectic pace of life, and I actively work to achieve them.

Warm relations with the people dear to me also give me strength. I try to look at myself from time to time, and to learn from my mistakes. And I’m a listener: many of my friends appreciate the fact that I will if necessary give them my full attention.

I don’t really comment or advise; it means focusing as equals on the things that really matter.

What is your relationship to chamber music?

Chamber music is an important genre for me. I’ve first tested many new musical, technical and stylistic ideas in chamber music. My four string quartets are, you could say, aesthetic manifestos. My teacher, Einojuhani Rautavaara, used to claim that string quartets are a composer’s philosophy.

I notice that in the Piano Quintet I’m working on right now, the blending and separating of piano and strings simply conjures up orchestral ideas.

What are your plans for the future? Will we be hearing any of your works when you celebrate your 60th birthday later this year?

In the past few years I’ve devoted a rather large proportion of my time to committee and other administrative work – I’ve become a sort of professional sitter-on-boards. It’s been an important phase in my life, and I’ve been able to put into practice and develop fields of expertise in a way I would never have had a chance to do if I’d just been an artist.

As a composer, I’ll be concentrating on symphonies – now that I’ve made a start on this genre and feel I’m sufficiently mature to be a symphonist.

And I’ve long been planning to do an opera making greater use of my visual and textual knowhow as an all-round work of art.

Scheduled to be premiered towards the end of the year are both the symphony and another orchestral work, and I’ve got a focus concert coming up at which I’ll be playing the piano part in the premiere of my Piano Quintet and conducting a new piece for ensemble.

Henna Salmela

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2018

DANIEL BÖRTZ A Portrait (1993) Dur: 14´

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Rechberger has a reputation for being a pioneer in Finnish guitar music – the guitar is his own instrument and he has composed several works for it. His ‘Heartbeat Concerto’ includes minimalistic features. It is softly Neoromantic, making use of different stylistic influences, with long, melodic lines that are rewarding for the soloist.

BENJAMIN STAERN Air-Spiral-Light (2014-16) Dur: 25’

KIMMO HAKOLA Guitar Concerto (2008) Dur: 35’ This sister work to Hakola’s popular Clarinet Concerto draws on the Sephardic Jewish tradition.

Woven into the second movement is the enchanting melody of the ancient Adio Querida. The third has a cinematographic feel. Babbling voices comment on what has been heard and spur the soloist on to more and more experiments. From time to time the air is filled with jubilant Balkan-tinged sounds adapted to different flamenco moods.

ERLAND VON KOCH Concerto for Guitar (1982) Dur 22´ 1111-0000-str

A three-movement guitar concerto in Swedish folk tone. The second movement is based on the well-known Swedish ”Emigrant Song”, the melody of which appears in various shapes, keys and variations throughout the movement. The concerto is concluded in a dancing style with a theme inspired by the polska.

TOMMI KÄRKKÄINEN Tener Tempestas (2008) Dur: 16’ for silent guitar, effects and orchestra: 2222-2000-01-str

Together with the orchestra, the digitally amplified and coloured guitar in this concerto produces some exciting combinations and worlds of timbre. The concerto was a commission from Janne Malinen and is probably the first to be written for this instrument without a sound box. The sound can, alternatively, be channelled to loudspeakers.

KIRMO LINTINEN Guitar Concerto (2011) Dur: 25’ 1111-1000-0-str

Lintinen’s concerto bubbles on with an unresisting power. The elegant whirls of a waltz lead to a dreamy middle movement that, according to the composer, includes perhaps some of the most beautiful music he has ever composed. The finale takes its quasi folk material to the brink. A piano reduction prepared by the composer is also available.

KAI NIEMINEN “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller” (2009) Dur: 25’ Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra: 1211-1100-01-str

The title refers to the book by Italo Calvino that inspired the concerto’s mysterious atmosphere. The first movement is a homage to Villa-Lobos, as reflected in the cadenza. The second shows Nieminen’s love of folk music and the third is a kind of lullaby. The music also has a nostalgic feel and assumes a reflective and lyrical nature.

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2018

for solo guitar, seven instrumentalists and electronics

Staern brings out the whole potential of the guitar and displays everything from high-energy outbursts to sensitive, searching flageolets. In addition, the soloist plays with shot glasses on the strings. The work starts out with the sounds from musical glasses which together with the guitar create an almost unearthly atmosphere. There are also some lively sections here that really swing, with vibraphone, African djembe drums and a bullroarer. The work won the Music Publishers´ Prize 2017.

Arpalinea (2007) Dur: 15´ for solo guitar

The starting point for Arpalinea was J. S. Bach´s Chaconne in D minor, but a sojourn in Italy provided further inspiration for the music. The piece opens with arpeggios, and gradually takes on a more rhythmic character with Spanish influences and taps on the guitar body. The second movement is freer in pulse and more intimate, with flageolets. The concluding finale is full of energy, the tones gush forth in a torrential flow, and the work is rounded off with slapped strings and super-rapid tremolos that rise higher and higher.

HARRI VUORI Cthulhu’s Dreams (2016) Dur: 23’ Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra: 1111-2000-03-hp-str

Music that captures the mood of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythology. A certain sense of mystery and rich, brilliant colours are typical of Vuori. The guitar leads, initiates and activates the orchestra, but in between there are also some sharp contrasts. The second movement affords, as if in a fractured mirror, a reflection of Debussy’s Clair de lune.

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI Susurrus (2016) Dur: 15’ for guitar and orchestra: 2222-2200-perc-str

Wennäkoski’s recent concerto is a fund of action and playful moments. The soloist strums, twangs and scrapes the strings while members of the orchestra get their share of the fun. The work is not, however, lacking in lyrical melody. Described as fresh, easy-going and at the same time slightly melancholy, it is a little universe in fifteen minutes.

DAG WIRÉN Little Serenade (1964) Dur: 10´ for solo guitar

This is a Swedish guitar classic and a repertoire work that Wirén wrote for his daughter. It consists of six short movements and begins and ends with a Marcia reminiscent of Wirén´s popular Serenade for Strings. Other movements include a Prelude, an energetic Solo, a virtuoso and lively Intermezzo and a meditative Duo Lente.

Benjamin Staern

Phenomenal Staern The programme opened with the epoch-making work Jubilate… This stirred the audience´s senses to alertness and brought out the power and expressiveness in the orchestra… Staern´s phenomenal ability to orchestrate was manifest in this exemplary performance of the work, in which Oramo´s enthusiastic conducting entered into every detail with such natural technical self-assurance that it felt as if it were a piece from the standard repertoire…

El Mundo 6.5.

Benjamin Staern: Jubilate Spanish premiere: Royal Stockholm PO/Sakari Oramo, 3.5.2018 Madrid, Spain

Pettersson in a new light When they [Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg] have now come to the Fifth (1962) and the Seventh (1967), we can only wonder how they managed to get this incomparable music to expand purely spacially, without losing any of its intensity. Moreover, I am more and more taken by how they bring about a new kind of filtered light in Pettersson´s music that links him soundwise to a Nordic tradition – and it really sings. Dagens Nyheter 23.3.

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos 5 & 7 CD: Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg (BIS-SACD-2240)

Moments of great beauty Kortekangas’s music serves the drama well and includes moments of great beauty… The chorus had a major role which it performed impressively, especially in the church scene as they sang a cappella about the sorrows of war. Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducted the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and ensured that Kortekangas’s score was performed with the passion and precision it deserved. Opera Magazine June 2018 Olli Kortekangas: Veljeni vartija (My Brother’s Keeper) Opera World premiere: Tampere Opera, Tampere PO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, sol. Tuuli Takala, Ville Rusanen, Tuomas Katajala etc., 16.2. 2018 Tampere, Finland Photo: Petri Nuutinen

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REVIEWS

HERMAN RECHBERGER Golpe de Corazón / Heartbeat Concerto (1992) Dur: 17’

for guitar and chamber ensemble: fl-cl-perc-pf-string trio

A subtle and original concerto, written in one movement that is divided into a number of contrasting episodes: Energico, Romanza, Furioso, Tumultoso, Romanza and Misterioso.

Börtz lets the lyrical moods dominate, but there are some violent attacks here, especially from the percussion (xylophone, marimba and tom-toms) and the piano, which contrast with what is beautiful and melodious in the guitar part.

Nordic works for guitar

Photo: Stefan Solyom

RE P ER TO IR E TIPS

Photo: Music Finland/Saara Vuorjoki

Seriously enjoyable music Dag Wirén’s music is an experience to be recommended to anyone… his 1937 Serenade for Strings is seriously enjoyable music – unpretentious, immaculately scored and not a note too long… What a superb beginning this piece [Symphony No. 3] has, its wind writing lifted from late Sibelius, though the brassy, percussive writing is highly individual… Where has this music been hiding? Rumon Gamba secures enthusiastic, colourful playing from the Iceland Symphony Orchestra… Wirén’s 1953 Divertimento has a weight and seriousness which belies its title, whereas a youthful Sinfonietta is frothy fun from start to finish.

Theartsdesk.com 31.3.

This is one of the most riveting choral discs I’ve ever come across! Based mainly on folk music and other traditional sources but dressed in modern outfit and with sometimes disrespectful accessories, the music is challenging, entertaining, often great fun and all the time inspirational.

MusicWeb International April 2018

Paavo Heininen

Photo: Turku PO/Seilo Ristimäki

Choral works by Erland von Koch, Bengt Ollén, Jan Sandström, Sven-David Sandström, etc.

CD: 441 Hz Chamber Choir/Anna Wilczewska (DUX 1405 ‘Song of the North’)

An eminently recommendable disc.

Gramophone March 2018

Mikko Heiniö

Focus on Heininen

Photo: Josef Doukkali

Dag Wirén: Symphony No. 3, Sinfonietta, Serenade for Strings, Divertimento CD: Iceland SO/Rumon Gamba (Chandos CHSA5194) Marie Samuelsson

Riveting choral music

Heininen writes inventively for both violin and piano, but his piano writing is especially refined, full of glittering figures and fine sounds.

Hufvudstadsbladet 6.5.

Carefully weighed-up musical art lent impetus by modernism and brimming with detail, and requiring full immersion. If the listener is prepared to work, i.e. to be present and curious, the reward is incomparable musical flashes of insight.

Helsingin Sanomat 6.5.

Paavo Heininen: 80th birthday concert (See: Premieres) Kaija Saarikettu, violin, Juhani Lagerspetz, piano, 4.5.2018 Helsinki, Finland

A sunny concerto by Turriago

It is an orchestrally striking work. Mezzo-soprano Katija Dragojevic sings a calm and balanced invocation of the goddess of love: ”Aphrodite, be now my sister in battle”. But under the surface the music is bubbling with gnawing restlessness and carnal passion… for the most part it is hypnotic.

Göteborgsposten 6.5.

Tuomas Turriago: Concerto for Chamber Ensemble

World premiere: TampereRaw/Tuomas Turriago, 25.2.2018 Tampere, Finland Photo: Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin

Hypnotic Aphrodite

Marie Samuelsson: Aphrodite – Fragments by Sappho – Love Trilogy No. 1 Gothenburg SO/Mei-Ann Chen, sol. Katija Dragojevic, mezzo-soprano, 4.5.2018 Gothenburg, Sweden

Lars Karlsson’s firm, aesthetic grasp on his new disc is easy to admire… Hufvudstadsbladet 31.1.

Lars Karlsson: Seven Songs, Clarinet Concerto CD: Lapland CO/John Storgårds, sol. Christoffer Sundqvist, clarinet, Gabriel Suovanen, baritone (BIS-2286)

His Symphony No. 3 is a milestone in the career of Heiniö, now celebrating his 70th birthday, and a fine summation of his artistic ambitions. Once again he tests generic limits: the symphony is also a concerto with percussions, piano, celesta and harp playing the leading role… The young German conductor Anja Bihlmaier extracts from the orchestra a rich sound and intoxicating percussion rhythms. …A percussion cadenza led the last movement, Run, to a familiar, characteristic Heiniö canter, the inventiveness of its orchestration persisting right up to the brilliant final thumps.

Turun Sanomat 20.5.

Mikko Heiniö: Symphony No. 3 (Sinfonia Concertante for Percussion and Orchestra) World premiere: Turku PO/Anja Bihlmaier, 18.5. Turku, Finland

Grubinger delights in Aho concerto

Acclaim for Karlsson’s BIS release Karlsson is a natural composer of vocal music with a knack for writing easily flowing melodies. Suovanen’s sumptuous baritone is simply perfect for the declamatory expression in the Seven Songs…a fine work, a fine performance. Melodiousness is also a salient feature of the Clarinet Concerto. www.yle.fi 20.2.

A feast of percussion

Turriago’s sunny concerto awakens programmatic thoughts, which is not surprising in the case of his music…Basically minimalistic, his music nevertheless turns briskly in new directions and is easily accessible, melodic, rhythmically clear, and well-controlled. Once he has had his say, Turriago closes the score at precisely the right moment. Aamulehti 27.2.

Aho’s work is a sort of world music in which the soloist roams between the instruments…It comes alive in the quality of the performance, distinctive impulsiveness and rhythms, but also selected moments of calm.

Dresdner neueste Nachrichten 29.4.

Jacob Mühlrad

Mühlrad’s Kata Composer stripling Jacob Mühlrad advanced toward further clarity with ”Kata for Two Cellos and Percussion”… It starts out with seasick and distorted strings and gongs. Then dreamcatcher-like music seeks the inner balance of martial art and goes to attack with riffing cello tones… the sonorities are exquisite.

Dagens Nyheter 17.4.

Jacob Mühlrad: Kata World premiere: Astrid Lindell, cello, Marie Macleod, cello, Mika Takehara, percussion, 16.4.2018 Stockholm, Sweden

Kalevi Aho: Sieidi (Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra) Dresdner Philharmonie/ Michael Sanderling, sol. Martin Grubinger, 15.4.2018

Captivating Puumala Puumala’s Angular Objects in Liquid Time was truly angular, edgy, rough and complex, but also captivatingly intensive. Rondo 5-2018 Veli-Matti Puumala: Angular Objects in Liquid Time World premiere: Defunensemble, 12.4.2018 Tampere, Finland

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2018

N E W P U B L I C AT I O N S CHAMBER & INSTRUMENTAL

CHORAL

J. S. BACH/MATS BERGSTRÖM ARR Sei solo, Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001-1006 transcribed for guitar GE 13291

MATS LARSSON GOTHE In modo lidico for string quartet GE 13258 (score and parts), GE 13259 (study score)

Mats Larsson Gothe

In modo lidico

LARS KARLSSON

(Ein Heiliger Dankgesang) for string quartet

Sonata da camera for double bass and piano

SCORE

Mina källor for mixed choir Text: Karl-Erik Bergman (Swe)

KIRMO LINTINEN Concerto for Guitar

OSKAR MERIKANTO/ ED. JAN LEHTOLA

G 11980 (score), GE13399 GE ((study score)

Aphrodite – Fragments

by Sappho (Love Trilogy No. 1) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra GE 12476 (score), GE 12685 (study score)

J SANDSTRÖM/ JAN OORCH: JOHAN DENKE

FG 979-0-55011-418-0

Från evighet till evighet ffor soloists, mixed choir and oorchestra

ROLF MARTINSSON

G 12708 (score), GE 12710 (vocal GE sscore with organ)

H Historien om en prinsessa/ TThe Princess’ Tale ffor actors, clarinet, bassoon, ccornet, trombone, percussion, vviolin and double bass TText: Mi Tyler (Sw/Eng) G 13229 (score), GE 13231 GE ((study score)

FG 979-0-55011-425-8

SAMI JUNTUNEN

Arioso for solo horn

Gettin’ into Groove - Rytmimusiikin etydejä (Etudes for piano) A delightful tutor and repertoire compendium, exploring the Afroamerican popular music genre. This version of the book is in Finnish.

Elegy (for Philip Milton Roth) for horn and harp FG 979-0-55011-427-2

Ancient Songs …

(Dreaming of Queen of Sheba) for horn and piano FG 979-0-55011-428-9

FG 979-0-55011-396-1 SMÅLÄNDSK SUITE Melodier ur Matthias Silvius Svenonis notbok

Arr: Thomas Niklasson

130

THOMAS NIKLASSON Småländsk suite for organ GE 13370

GÉZA SZILVAY Colourstrings Violin ABC: Handbook for Teachers and Parents A new, completely revised English version offering expert advice and support to teaching with the Colourstrings® method.

FG 979-0-55011-249-0

HANNU POHJANNORO

ARJA SUORSARANNANMÄKI

images, hommages for quintet : fl, cl, vl, vcl, pf This work was awarded with the second prize at the VIII International Henri Dutilleux Composition Contest in 2017.

Colour Keys – the Piano ABC: Opettajan opas B-kirjaan (Teacher’s Guide for Book B in Finnish).

FG 979-055011-414-2

FG 979-0-55011-415-9 (score for one musician)

MARTIN SKAFTE GE 13246

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

Score

Variétude Renate Eggebrecht, violin

Marie Samuelsson

Afrodite

Troubadisc TRO-Cd 01452

Fragment av Sapfo Kärlekstrilogi – nr 1 för alt/mezzosopran och orkester

HUGO ALFVÉN Symphony No. 1 Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/ Lukasz Borowicz Jan Sandström

orkestrering: Johan Denke

CPO 555 043-2

ERLAND VON KOCH Från evighet till evighet

I-i-o-hi-ho

för solister, blandad kör och orkester

BENGT OLLÉN Trilo, I denna ljuva sommartid

JAN SANDSTRÖM Biegga luohte Benjamin Staern Mi Tyler

Historien om en prinsessa The Princess’ Tale en pendang till ”Historien om en soldat”

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM Four Songs of Love 441 Hz Chamber Choir/Anna Wilczewska DUX 1405 (“Song of the North”)

a companion piece to “The Soldier’s Tale”

SCORE

ROLF MARTINSSON Open Mind, Orchestral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, A. S. in Memoriam, Concerto for Orchestra Royal Stockholm PO/ Andrew Manze/Sakari Oramo, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano BIS-SACD-2133 (“Presentiment”)

ALLAN PETTERSSON Symphonies Nos 5 & 7 Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg BIS-SACD-2240

ALBERT SCHNELZER Tales from Suburbia, Cello Concerto – Crazy Diamond, Brain Damage – Concerto for Orchestra Gothenburg SO/Benjamin Shwartz BIS-SACD-2313

BENJAMIN STAERN Opposing Dance Haga Duo (Sareidah Hildebrand, flute, Joakim Lundström, guitar) Haga Musikproduktion (”Colours of Sweden”)

DAG WIRÉN Symphony No. 3, Serenade för Strings, Divertimento, Sinfonietta, Iceland SO/Rumon Gamba

For further information about our works or representatives worldwide check our web sites or contact us at:

Andante festivo Arrangement for organ

Twelve Preludes, Book 2 for piano

Sonata for violin solo Op. 104

Chandos CHSA5194

JEAN SIBELIUS/ ARR. ESA YLÖNEN FG 979-0-55011-420-3

PEHR HENRIK NORDGREN

(1973)

PA R T I T U R

BOOKS & TUTORS

FG 979-0-55011-426-5

Solo I (Tumultos), In Memoriam Pehr Henrik Nordgren

Symphonic Movement

BENJAMIN STAERN

GGE 13381

KAI NIEMINEN

KALEVI AHO Allan Pettersson

SCORE

JJAN SANDSTRÖM

Hymnos II for solo horn

BIS-SACD 2306

SCORE

SYMFONISK SATS

MARIE SAMUELSSON

V Vuojnha biegga ffor mixed choir TText: Johan Märak ((Sami)

FG 979-0-55011-409-8

Sinfonia concertante

SSymphonic Movement

GGE 13180

Collected works for organ (URTEXT) This critical edition presents for the first time Merikanto’s complete works for organ: the earliest extensive concert pieces written in Finland.

Gösta Nystroem

for violoncello and orchestra

AALLAN PETTERSSON

C Clavis paradisi ffor soloists and mixed cchoir TText: from Analecta hhymnica (Latin)

FG 979-0-55011-413-5 (piano reduction with solo part)

G 13395 (score), GE GGE13396 (study score)

För mezzosopran och blandad kör a cappella

Som en våg for mixed choir Text: Pär Lagerkvist (Swe) FG 979-0-55011-417-3

FG 979-0-55011-419-7 (score and parts)

Tre operakörer

LARS KARLSSON

Koralmetamorfoser/ Chorale-metamorphoses for flute, viola and harp

Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra, Concerto No.1 for Piano and Orchestra Turku PO/Erkki Lasonpalo, Eva Ollikainen, sol. Ari-Pekka Mäenpää, timpani, Sonja Fräki, piano

GGÖSTA NYSTROEM S Sinfonia Concertante ffor cello and orchestra

GGE 13293

FG 979-0-55011-416-6

KALEVI AHO

ORCHESTRAL

DANIEL BÖRTZ Tr operakörer (Three Tre OOpera Choruses) for mixed choir fo 11. Backanternas kör from th the Bacchae Te Text: Euripides (Sw) 22. Aphrodite from Medea Te Text: Euripides (Sw) 33. Käre, det är dags att gå in from Magnus Gabriel Te Text: Iwar Bergkwist (Sw)

NEW CDs

Martin Skafte

Tolv preludier, bok 2 Twelve Preludes, Book 2 inspired by Claude Debussy’s Préludes: deuxième livre for piano

Gehrmans Musikförlag AB

Fennica Gehrman Oy Ab

Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden Tel. +46 8 610 06 00 • Fax +46 8 610 06 27 www.gehrmans.se • info@gehrmans.se Hire: hire@gehrmans.se Web shop: www.gehrmans.se Sales: sales@gehrmans.se

PO Box 158, FI-00121 Helsinki, Finland Tel. +358 10 3871 220 • Fax +358 10 3871 221 www.fennicagehrman.fi • info@fennicagehrman.fi Hire: hire@fennicagehrman.fi Web shop: www.fennicagehrman.fi Sales: kvtilaus@kirjavalitys.fi (dealers)