Albert Schnelzer resumes his collaboration with oboist François Leleux. After the success with the oboe concerto e Enchanter comes the oboe sonata e Puppeteer, which Leleux premiered in Heidelberg on 24 September together with pianist Emmanuel Strosser. Also, in September we could listen to the premiere of Schnelzer’s Angels for mixed choir and cello during the Nordic Church Music Symposium in Copenhagen. is is a choral suite in ve movements to texts by W. Blake, L. Hunt, P.L. Dunbar, E. Dickinson and A.B. Paterson, commissioned by Petri Sångare and Karin Oldgren. e cello soloist at the premiere was Mattias Rodrick.
Sven-David Sandström Society
e Sven-David Sandström Society (SDSS) has launched a website that serves as a centralised space to learn more about Sandström and his vast musical output. At svendavidsandstrom.org you will nd a comprehensive catalogue of works with links to available scores, recordings, videos, interviews and more. e SDSS was established in September 2023 with the aim to promote the works and legacy of Sven-David Sandström who passed away in 2019.
Awards and nominations
Matthew Whittall and Lotta Wennäkoski were awarded Composer of the Year titles in the classical music category at the Finnish Music Publishers’ gala on 5 September. e prize went to Whittall for his large-scale Joy for organ and orchestra that delighted audience and critics alike at its recent premiere by the Finnish RSO. Wennäkoski received her prize for a string quartet called Flickereth. Her violin concerto Prosoidia has been nominated as candidate for the Fondation Prince Pierre Music Composition Prize.
A CD of string quartets by Seppo Pohjola has been nominated for a Gramophone Award (Contemporary). His previous release of string quartets also won critical acclaim.
e Finnish Kantele Association has paid tribute to Juhani Nuorvala for his active, varied and inspiring work to promote music for the Finnish folk instrument, the kantele.
Matthew Peterson interviews
Matthew Peterson’s residency with the Dalasinfoniettan, started on 6 September with the premiere of his striking concert opener Vagabond, an orchestral piece that re ects the composer’s own personal and musical journey. In connection with the premiere the Dalasinfoniettan presented four personal interview lms with Peterson that now can be viewed on YouTube.
Žibuokle Martinaitytė commission
Žibuokle Martinaitytė’s new work for violin and string orchestra entitled EKAGGATA will be performed by three orchestras. e commission was initiated by violinist and conductor Hugo Ticciati and O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra in Sweden. e Lithuanian National Philharmonic will premiere the work in Vilnius, Lithuania on 25 October, during the Gaida festival, and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra will perform it in Kokkola, Finland on 7 March 2025. e title refers to the Pali Buddhist term meaning unification of the mind, a state of extreme stillness. According to the composer, unification is relevant not only to meditation practices, but to our world at large interpreted as an urgent need for reconciliation.
Editors: Henna Salmela, Kristina Fryklöf
Translations: Susan Sinisalo, Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen, Robert Carroll
Jüri Reinvere’s opera Peer Gynt will receive its German premiere at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven on 3 May 2025. Based on the famous play by Henrik Ibsen, the opera updates the story with a libretto written by the composer. Reinvere received international fame in 2012 with his rst opera Purge (Puhdistus/Fegefeuer) based on the novel by So Oksanen. Peer Gynt was soon after commissioned by the Norwegian National Opera and premiered in Oslo in 2014. It is now to be staged for the rst time in its original German version. Marc Niemann will conduct the production directed by Markus Tatzig.
Jüri Reinvere
Photo: Eleanor Clarke
Francois Leleux and Emmanuel Strosser
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Millot
Žibuokle Martinaitytė
Photo: Henna Salmela
Eric Ericson Award 2024
Eight young choral conductors are coming to Stockholm in October to participate in the prestigious Eric Ericson Award 2024. e semi-nalists were chosen from over ninety applicants worldwide, and represent Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, England, Spain, Portugal and Sweden. ey will get to conduct the Swedish Radio Choir, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and St. Jacob’s Chamber Choir in music by Ingvar Lidholm, Nana Forte, Sven-David Sandström, Carl Unander-Scharin, Arne Mellnäs and others. Among prominent former winners can be mentioned Peter Dijkstra, Martina Batic and Krista Audere. e winner gets the opportunity to work with several of Europe’s leading Radio choirs, together with a prize sum of SEK 100,000, provided by the Rosenborg Gehrmans Foundation.
New Rehnqvist recordings in progress
Karin Rehnqvist’s “climate oratorio” Silent Earth, winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Music Prize, will be released this autumn by Footprint Records, featuring the Swedish Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk. In spring 2025, Songs Between Light and Darkness with soprano Berit Norbakken and the ARcTic Sustain Ensemble will be issued by Euridice Förlag. Additionally, a new recording of the iconic Timpanum Songs – Herding Calls (1989) will be presented by LAWO Classics in autumn 2025, including singers Ulrika Bodén, Berit Norbakken, and percussionist Rune André Halvorsen.
Aulis Sallinen at 90
Aulis Sallinen will turn 90 on 9 April 2025. He is one of Finland’s most esteemed composers, whose large output includes instrumental and chamber music, concertos and symphonies. Fennica Gehrman has recently published some of his early works, such as the Variations for Cello and Orchestra Op. 5, and Two Mythical Scenes Op.1. Sallinen is perhaps best known for his operas such as e Red Line (Punainen Viiva) and e Horseman (Ratsumies). Composed in 1975, e Horseman was one of the works launching the great Finnish opera boom, and its success has not faded. e next round of performances will begin at the Finnish National Opera on 9 May 2025.
Sallinen’s long and internationally acclaimed career was recently acknowledged when he received the Finnish Music Publishers’ Honorary Award on 5 September.
Blomstedt & Berwald
New works by Antti Auvinen
New works by Antti Auvinen are to premiere in autumn 2024. In November, the Sointi Big Band and the Helsinki Chamber Choir will be performing a work for choir and big band conducted by Atso Almila in Tampere, Helsinki and Kuopio. A double concerto commissioned by the Finnish Baroque Orchestra for soprano and recorder is scheduled for 10 October. Recent hearings have also included the Overcrank Suite for cello and video – an exciting coproduction by the EstOvest Festival-Polincontri Musica in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino-Biennale Tecnologia and Creative Dialogue France. e world premiere by Anssi Karttunen was in Italy on 30 October 2023. Another recent work is Boundary Bourrée, premiered by the Crash Ensemble at the 2024 Tampere Biennale and performed later also at the New Music Dublin festival.
At 97, Herbert Blomstedt continues his e orts to make Franz Berwald’s (1796-1868) music known to the world. Berwald today ranks among Sweden’s foremost composers but was largely neglected during his lifetime. Over the last few years Blomstedt has conducted Berwald’s symphonies with the Gewandhaus Orchester, Bamberg SO, Oslo PO, Danish National SO, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Concertgebouw Orchestra et al. In September he led the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in the tone painting Minnen från norska ällen (Reminiscences of the Norwegian Mountains) and Sinfonie Nr 2 – Capricieuse. Future performances include Sinfonie Nr 4 – Naïve with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo on 10-11 October and Sinfonie Nr 2 with Orchestre de Paris in May 2025.
Berwald & Blomstedt
Karin Rehnqvist
Antti Auvinen
Photo: Eija Tervo
Aulis Sallinen
Maarit
Kytöharju/Music Finland
Photo: Filip Erlind
Photo:
J. M. Pietsch
The light behind the landscape
Matthew Whittall is fascinated with music’s possibility of taking time and immersing the audience with spaciousness and stillness. “ is is something I have always tried to do, to extend the music so that the listener feels captivated and changed by it. A feeling of being filled by a silent landscape.”
The music of Matthew Whittall opens up landscapes: vast silences, currents of melodies, arches of meditative sound that make time stand still. Since the mid-2000s, his soundscapes have dwelled on nature experiences, both personal and universal – one example being the 25-minute-long e Return of Light (2015) for chamber orchestra and choir, diving into polar darkness, sounds of the ice and the rst ecstatic rays of the sun. During the past few years, though, his music has been drifting towards another direction, that of abstraction.
“For 20 years I have been struggling against the preconception that composing about nature was naïve romanticism. And now when nature themes are everywhere, I feel like going somewhere else,” he says with a laugh.
Joy for organ and orchestra
An important point on this path was reached last May with the premiere of his symphony for organ and orchestra, Joy, written for the Finnish Radio Symphony orchestra and the
brand new organ of the Helsinki Music Centre. e work was an homage to Kaija Saariaho, whose coloristic music had been a major in uence for Whittall early on his career. Hailing from a small town in Quebec, Canada, Whittall has called Finland his home since 2001. As with Saariaho, the roots of his musical idiom lie within the French tradition.
“ at is why writing symphonies has never appealed to me,” he explains. “Usually, images are the driving force behind my compositions, but Joy kept shrugging o all images and moved further towards abstraction.”
At some point, Whittall realised that he was writing a symphony after all. A process of this kind was already emerging in the large-scale, four movement piano concerto Nameless Seas (2017). e world premiere took place on 5. October 2017 in Ottawa, Canada by the National Arts Centre Orchestra with Angela Hewitt as the soloist.
Orchestral flows
ough at home with solo piano and chamber ensembles and, especially, choral music – having many of his compositions performed by the energetic Finnish amateur and professional choirs – Whittall is in his element with the symphony orchestra, both on its own and with vocal forces or instrumental soloists. Recent orchestral works include, in addition to the organ symphony Joy, Silence Speaks with intimate modal harmonies (2022, commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Helsinki Variations series), and the cantata-like ese ings
Remain (2019), commemorating Canadian soldiers who fought in World War II.
At times euphorically tonal, sometimes driven by pure noise, Whittall’s music has an inspirational ow that doesn’t shun in uences outside the conventional contemporary-classical framework. With vocal music, the choice of poetry is important for him. With the choral cycle Songs of Travel, his compositions for choir have been moving towards larger forms, culminating in November 2025 with e World Tree, a concert-long work celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Helsinki Chamber Choir. Composed to original poetry by the British author Robert Macfarlane, the work is in part a symbolic requiem for the famous Sycamore Gap Tree, a centuries-old sycamore in Northumberland, England, that was felled in an act of vandalism last autumn.
Lately, due to the constant presence of looming environmental crises in public discourse, nature as a subject has been politicized. Whittall is wary of making strong statements through art. “I feel more drawn to making my point indirectly, symbolically, instead of shouting out loud,” he says. “Art has the power of inviting the audience in, to re ect. Music can give people an emotional stake in nature. You cannot defend our environment if you don’t feel connected to it.”
Going off-road
Whittall is fascinated with music’s possibility of taking time and immersing the audience with spaciousness and stillness. “With long-ranged works of music you have the time to make
Matthew Whittall was awarded for his work Joy for organ and orchestra.
Photo: Mikko Kauppinen
Photo: Maarit Kytöharju
PREMIERES
September–December 2024
a point really slowly, to build a whole world around an idea.”
Nature as life force is still ever-present in Whittall’s music, though more in a metaphorical way. His Oboe Concerto will be premiered in December 2024, a joint commission by the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Vaasa Symphony Orchestra for soloist Anni Haapaniemi. It re ects on the transition from winter to spring and the overwhelming contrast between darkness and light, already elaborated in e Return of Light.
From experiencing the aurora borealis as a schoolboy to numerous hikes in Lapland over the years, the wonder inspired by natural phenomena has nourished Whittall’s creative imagination.
“ e landscapes are still there, but more metaphorically, as if I were trying to see past the object into the light behind it. is is something I have always tried to do, to extend the music so that the listener feels captivated, and changed by it. A feeling of being lled by a silent landscape. at is the abstraction I’m interested in.”
Matthew Whittall will turn 50 next January. Before, he used to sketch his compositions carefully. Lately, he has been drawn more and more to the “question mark parts” of his drafts, giving way to the unexpected and letting the music take its own form. A musical o -road hike, in a way. “In the organ symphony Joy, I began composing not knowing where the process would lead, and that is something I’d like to do more in the future: exploring rather than planning.”
Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen
QUOTES AND REVIEWS
Joy: Spectacular and utterly original
The orchestration, extremely effective and at times spectacular, suggests Ravel meets Richard Strauss, and the result is an extremely refined landscape. Hufvudstadsbladet 23.5.2024
Silence Speaks: Shimmering music
Whittall cleverly integrates the little Sibelius Christmas carol with a magically shimmering, shivering world of sound in which the large orchestra gives the calm, at times gently hazy horizons their ultimate fullness and substance.
Hufvudstadsbladet 15.10.2021
The Return of Light: Pioneering and unprecedented orgy of timbre
Whittall demonstrates all the magic that can be achieved with the symbiosis of orchestra and choir. The fine dissonances tinkle, the webs fade into one another…Not all need to compose like Matthew Whittall, but luckily composers like Whittall exist. Keski-Pohjanmaa 7.12.2018
Nameless Seas: Hugely enchanting
Performed by the redoubtable pianist Angela Hewitt, the piece was irresistible… Indeed, it shimmered, sparkled, and even glittered now and then. classicalvoiceamerica.org 11.10.2017
TIMOJUHANI KYLLÖNEN
Trio No. 5 for violin, flute and piano
Ensemble Cameo 6.9. Tokyo, Japan
MATTHEW PETERSON
Vagabond
Dalasinfoniettan/Claire Levacher 6.9. Falun, Sweden
CECILIA DAMSTRÖM
Earth Songs
TampereRaw/Maria Itkonen, sol. Elina Vähälä, vl 12.9. Tampere, Finland
Information
Tampere PO/Matthew Halls 29.11. Tampere, Finland
ALEX FREEMAN
Wildwood – Concerto for piano and chamber ensemble
Zagros Ensemble/Petri Komulainen, sol. Risto-Matti Marin 14.9. Helsinki, Finland
ALBERT SCHNELZER
Angels
Petri Sångare/Karin Oldgren, sol. Mattias Rodrick, vlc 21.9. Copenhagen, Denmark
Toccata in Eight Andrew Canning, org 9.10. Glasgow, Scotland
MATS LARSSON GOTHE
Tredings (Ridings) for brass sextet
Gotland Brass 25.9. Dalhem, Sweden
JACOB MÜHLRAD
RESIL I
Swedish CO/Daniel Raiskin 10.10. Örebro, Sweden
RESIL I - version for symphony orchestra
Royal Stockholm PO/Alvis Greters 28.11. Stockholm, Sweden
DANIEL NELSON
I am Monster
Swedish CO/Daniel Raiskin, sol. Johanna Wallroth, sopr 10.10. Örebro, Sweden
ROLF MARTINSSON
Tidig gryning
String Quartet from Malmö SO, sol. Lisa Larsson, sopr 12.10. Malmö, Sweden
BENJAMIN STAERN
Älvalek (Dancing Fairies)
Västerås Sinfonietta/Jessica Cottis, sol. Laura Michelin, fl 17.10. Västerås, Sweden
ŽIBUOKLE MARTINAITYTĖ
EKAGGATA for violin and orchestra
Lithuanian National Philharmonic/cond. & sol. Hugo Ticciati 25.10. Vilnius, Lithuania
OLLI KORTEKANGAS
Isfåglarna (libretto: Johan Bargum)
Ostrobothnian Chamber Opera/Henriikka Teerikangas, sol. MinnaLeena Lahti, Olli Tikkanen, Niall Chorell etc. 25.10. Kokkola, Finland
Guitar Concerto
Saimaa Sinfonietta/Erkki Lasonpalo, sol. Janne Malinen 6.11. Mikkeli, Finland
KALEVI AHO
Jean Sibelius: Cinq morceaux op. 75 (‘The Trees’)
Arrangement for chamber orchestra
Lapland CO/Georg Köhler 14.11. Rovaniemi, Finland
KIMMO HAKOLA
Violin Sonata Op. 118 Kaija Saarikettu, vl, Kimmo Hakola, pf 15.11. Siuntio, Finland (Lux musicae festival)
ANTTI AUVINEN
New work
Sointi Big Band, Helsinki Chamber Choir/Atso Almila 21.11. Tampere, Finland
MATTHEW WHITTALL
Oboe Concerto
Vaasa CO/Tomas Djupsjöbacka, sol. Anni Haapaniemi 13.12. Vaasa, Finland
NEW CD’s
KALEVI AHO
Kolme laulua Mawlana Rumin runoihin, Ilo ja epäsymmetria
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
Die erste Elegie, Unsere Liebe, Ave Maria, A Book of Life
Helsinki Chamber Choir/Nils Schweckendiek
BIS-2692 ”Joy & Asymmetry”
BENGT JOHANSSON
Two Extracts from the Songs of Solomon, Venus and Adonis, Three Classic Madrigals & other choral works
Ahjo Ensemble/Julia Lainema Alba ABCD 482 “I Long For…”
ALEX FREEMAN
Calle sin nombre
MATTHEW WHITTALL
Lauantaisauna
Sibelius Academy Vocal Ensemble/ Nils Schweckendiek
SRCD-1025 “Voice of Generations”
Weaving a web of connections
Cecilia Damström’s compositions tackle the crises of our time with wide-ranging topics and emotional states from black humour to all-encompassing empathy. Often the idea for a new piece is born out of scienti c facts which transform into musical forms and motives. Her recent orchestral highlight Extinctions was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize, and her rst full-scale opera is on the making.
In 20th century modernism, programmatic music was virtually a taboo, and extramusical narratives were seen as a threat to the imagined autonomy of art. Amid the younger generation of composers, the reality of composing is often quite the opposite: an urge to address the most pressing questions of our time and to create feelings of community. is is the case, in strongest possible terms, for Cecilia Damström. For her, musical abstractionism would be unimaginable. Instead, her music springs from the themes that most occupy her mind.
Her most recent works represent a wide-ranged scale of topics and emotional states typical of her output. Receiving its premiere in Tampere on 18 September with the violinist Elina Vähälä and TampereRaw chamber orchestra, the violin concerto Earth Songs is a series of love songs dedicated to di erent life-sustaining forces of our planet. Scheduled in November, this time with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Damström’s new orchestral work Information is an explosively dense piece about disinformation. e musical material consists entirely of certain keywords, the letters of which are transcribed into corresponding notes and rhythmically written as Morse code.
“I have read numerous books about the spreading of disinformation, and when I wrote this piece, it all summed up in very elemental things: are we making connections or destroying them”, says Cecilia Damström. “ ere are words like ‘lies’, ‘fear’, ‘hate’, and ‘conspiracy’, but eventually also ‘humanity’ and ‘love’. e ability to spread information is a unique achievement of humankind and we should use it to unite people.”
Music can inspire hope
As seen in Information, when making an impact with music Damström primarily, and consciously, relies on positive feelings: empathy, a love for our home planet, a sense of wonder towards all life. She also keeps referring to the joy she nds in composing, how grave the themes may be.
“It’s important to inspire positive feelings, only then will you be able to take action. Sometimes I am ambivalent about writing music that doesn’t o er enough hope, but all emotions are part of life”, she points out. “ e young people, especially, experience a lot of despair, and it’s important to give voice to this, too, and to show that you are not alone.”
One alternative is black humour, as with the orchestral suite Wasteland (2021-22) which discussed textile recycling while also recycling musical quotations. e ending of the semi-staged choral piece Requiem for our Earth (2019), on the other hand, was dark and dystopian. e violin concerto Earth Songs is, in a way a continuation to it, and ends with the orchestra singing words from the Catholic Penitential Act and Agnus Dei. “I see it as humanity asking Planet Earth for forgiveness.”
Sonification as a method
Both Requiem for our Earth and Earth Songs feature video art by Marek Pluciennik, whereas in the accordion concerto Permafrost, premiered in February 2024, Damström collaborated with the video artist Irene Suosalo. Damström says she
often experiences music in visual terms. She is constantly reading about climate change from a variety of perspectives, and a new work often begins with some scienti c fact forming a musical image in her mind. e clarity of the image is at times accompanied with a sense of bewilderment. Permafrost is a good example.
“I was reading about huge craters in Siberia which are formed when the permafrost melts and the methane underneath explodes. Our Earth is literally exploding! It felt simply self-evident to transfer these processes into music: the bubbling of methane, the landslides and the massive explosions.”
A commission from the Kokkola Winter Accordion Festival and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Permafrost was premiered by the commissioning orchestra with Sonja Vertainen as the soloist, and it was selected to the recommendation list of the International Rostrum of Composers. Apart from the chemical formula for methane as a musical motive, it also applied hexachords and hexagon shapes referring to the molecular form of ice crystals, a musical element already used in the Teosto prize winner ICE .
Photo: Ville Juurikkala
“ ere are plenty of scienti c papers about the concept of ‘soni cation’, a process of transferring information into a more comprehensible form with sonic means. So far, it has been used little in orchestral music. is summer I discovered that this is exactly what I have been doing for a while”, Damström explains with a laugh.
A recent highlight, the 20-minute-long orchestral work Extinctions which was premiered in January 2024 by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, gained its dramatic arch from a soni cation of a graph depicting the amount of species during di erent phases of Earth’s existence. Extinctions was recently nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize.
“I nd it a fascinating idea that di erent kinds of information make di erent sounding music”, Damström says. “It also helps you to constantly nd new ways to write music.”
Everything is connected
Damström mentions several encounters with audience members who tell her about experiencing her music visually, often with a sense of relief and joy.
“Everything is connected, in the universe and in our lives. I want to make people feel this, and to invite both the musicians and the listeners to experience that sense of connection through music.”
is was something she felt when her accordion suite Renewables – describing di erent renewable energy sources – was premiered at the Finnish Accordion Competition for children and young people in 2023. e suite had movements for each of the three age categories of the competition. When the pieces were played, Damström was suddenly moved by the feeling that everyone was part of the music coming to life: the children playing it, their teachers, and the siblings and parents who had followed the learning process.
“ e piece felt like a golden web of love that connected everyone in the hall. is is the point of art, and life itself, to create golden threads between everyone and everything. Music has the power to do it, we are all part of it when we play and listen. is is what I strive for with every piece I write.”
At the moment, Damström is preparing her rst full-length opera, set to premiere in 2026. More information about this exciting project will be revealed in upcoming issues of Nordic Highlights.
Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen
REPERTOIRE TIPS
KALEVI AHO
Piano Concerto No. 2 (2001-02) Dur: 29’
20 strings (65432)
This powerful, evocative work is characterized by passionate energy. It contains some of the most moving themes in Aho’s entire output. It is also yet another example of his ability to exploit contrasts: the playfulness of the outer movements is offset by the solemn fullness of the middle movement. The keyboard technique required is, according to Aho, in the “Beethoven-Liszt-Brahms tradition”.
TIMO ALAKOTILA
Piano Concerto No. 2 (2023) Dur: 23’ pf and strings
This concerto is a good example of Alakotila’s ability to combine different genres, in this case contemporary music with a folksy twist, piano improvisation and an idiom that is both pleasing to the ear and at times even playful. The result is spirited music that breathes in the lyrically beautiful interludes.
ANTTI AUVINEN
Breathe (2005) Dur: 11’ str min. 54321
The strings begin this work with a glissando, above which the piano sprinkles sensitive but ghostly glitter. Around the middle, the music steps up the intensity and gets more violent as repetitive piano figures lead to a concentrated climax. Auvinen’s music has a strong charge and abounds in rhythmic energy; this also applies to Breathe, which can well be recommended as a concert curtain-raiser.
TOBIAS BROSTRÖM
Piano Concerto No. 1 – Belle Époque (2010/11) Dur: 21’ str min. 65432
A nostalgic retrospect of an epoch long past, viewed in a modern light. The opening movement is quick and lively, with energetic, repetitive, rhythmical motives. It passes over into a lyrical reflection, which leads on to the calm, impressionistically coloured middle movement that also bears traces of Swedish folk music. In the finale the rhythmical motives return and culminate in a brilliant virtuoso ending.
GUNNAR DE FRUMERIE
Concertino for Piano and String Orchestra (1977) Dur: 12’
This work was commissioned for a Nordic piano competition, where it was an immense success. It is a playful and elegant work brimming with high spirits and humour. There are Neoclassical influences here, but also ample inspiration from folk music, especially in the slow, slightly melancholy middle movement and in the final dancing and sparkling Allegro.
MIKKO HEINIÖ
Hermes – Piano Concerto No. 6 (1994) Dur: 52’/35’
Works for piano and string orchestra
UUNO KLAMI
Hommage à Haendel (1931) Dur: 17’
pf and str (vl1, vl2, vla, vc)
Klami composed this four-movement work as a tribute to a Baroque master he greatly admired. It opens with an elegiac Adagio before proceeding to a serene, lilting gavotte. The closing Allegro is bursting with energy and gives greater prominence to runs on the piano. In other respects, the piano is a member of the orchestra rather than a soloist.
LARSERIK LARSSON
Concertino for Piano and String Orchestra (1957) Dur: 17’
No. 12 in Larsson’s series of three-movement concertos for every instrument of the orchestra. It glitters, swings and sparkles with passages at times reminiscent of Shostakovich in the outer movements. The emotional and nostalgic middle movement distinguishes itself by a crystal-clear and pure tone. In the concluding movement the piano’s lively, rhythmical figures return, but when the finale draws near the intensity subsides, yielding temporarily to a reflective conversation between string soloists and piano embellishments. These reflections are finally dispersed, and the work is rounded off with a short and intense allegro molto.
ŽIBUOKLE
MARTINAITYTĖ
Chiaroscuro Trilogy (2017) Dur: 18’ str min. 44442 (preferably doubled)
Dance Pictures for piano, soprano and string orchestra
Hermes is in fact a dance work. It has eight movements, but it can also be performed in a version for piano and strings (movements 2-6, duration ca 35’). Unexpected formats are an exciting feature of Heiniö the composer. The vibrant and sensual music of Hermes is pulsing with rhythm, colour and energetic life.
EERO HÄMEENNIEMI
Efisaes (1983) Dur: 7’ 12 str
In gestural terms the pianism of Efisaes is a study in miniature for Hämeenniemi’s later Dialogue (1985) for piano and large orchestra. In the more intimate surroundings of this shorter work Hämeenniemi explores the tempestuousness and rhapsodic potential of the instrument and its capacity for shifts in mood.
A captivating work fusing stillness and action. There is an intimate relationship between the soloist and orchestra and pure sonic magic in the slowly rotating music. Light and dark are taken as metaphors: darkness is carried through low registers whereas light has an abundance of overtones and rich timbral colours. There are subtle gradual transitions, dark episodes with illuminating streaks of light and in the final movement a presence of light with some shadows.
LILLE BROR SÖDERLUNDH
Haväng Suite (1945-53) Dur: 14’
This suite in four movements derived its inspiration from the scenic village Haväng in Scania, in southern Sweden, where Söderlundh spent several summers. The work reflects the evocative and idyllic countryside. The fact that folk music was his aesthetic point of departure is noticeable not least in the second movement’s Waltz Intermezzo, as also in the whirling, rhythmical Rondino of the last movement, while in the more impressionistically coloured Impromptu one senses the feeling of a tranquil summer evening.
TAPIO TUOMELA
Scherzo (1994) Dur: 8’
2ms or 4ms and strings
Scherzo was originally composed for piano four hands and a music school orchestra. It is a virtuosic piece with a short slow section that interrupts the constant flow of interacting registral gestures. The piano part was later condensed for one player; the accompaniment may be performed by solo strings or a string orchestra. There is tension yet also fun and games in this Scherzo.
JOHAN ULLÉN
The Deadly Sins (2006-08/2015) Dur: 37’
Seven tangos, in the spirit of Piazolla, each depicting one of the deadly sins. Hybris (pride) and Acedia (sloth) are solely about character, while Invidia (envy), is given shape as a stormy and passionate drama of jealousy. In Gula (gluttony), one melody after the other is consumed; new material is constantly brought in, which in the end makes the tango grow until it bursts. The last sin, Ira (wrath), is a slow tango in which anger gradually boils up from within. Originally written for piano trio, The Deadly Sins was adapted for piano and string orchestra in 2015, with a considerably more elaborated and virtuoso piano part.
REVIEWS
Anger and violent outbursts in Larsson Gothe’s symphony
One can really hear the anger in this symphony… The frustration is shrill and loud as in Shostakovich’s most warlike moments, or even in Anders Eliasson’s music. Not least in the typical contrasts between violent outbursts and points of rest that Larsson Gothe has cultivated also in his earlier symphonies.
Dagens Nyheter 1.9.
Mats Larsson Gothe: Symphony No. 4
Swedish Radio SO/Marta Gardolinska, 31.8.2024 Stockholm, Sweden
Phenomenal Berwald performance
Herbert Blomstedt knew exactly what he was doing when he sensitively sculptured forth the music with his hands, as if it were a fragile vase. The Royal Philharmonic’s phenomenal performance [of Reminiscences of the Norwegian Mountains] offered a dynamic promenade among impressions of Nordic folk music, dramatic sadness and quivering wonder when confronted with a motif painted with both saturated colours and fluctuations of light… Sinfonie capricieuse preserved for posterity in the form of sketches, can nevertheless be considered somewhat of a rediscovery. It is music characterised by a curiosity about what is happening around the next corner; and capricious is exactly what the title means. Dagens Nyheter 12.9.
Franz Berwald: Minnen från de norska fjällen (Reminiscences of the Norwegian Mountains), Sinfonie capricieuse
Royal Stockholm PO/Herbert Blomstedt, 11.9.2024 Stockholm, Sweden
Luminous Lara Poe premiere at the Proms
Thrillingly orchestrated with a fresh ear for instrumental sonorities... Under Oramo the score teemed and glistened, both nostalgic and pleasingly novel at the same time. Poe was there to acknowledge the genuine ovation. I hope to hear the work live again soon.
Classicalsource.com 8-2024
Poe’s musical language is captivating, with inventive orchestrations supporting an expansive piece of storytelling… Lara Poe’s appealing musical language in Songs from the Countryside opens the door to discovering more large-scale works from both her back catalogue and forthcoming commissions.
Thoroughly Good 26.8.
Luminous Finnish premiere for Lara Poe’s absorbing new song cycle… Grasping Poe’s wondrous vocal lines in their myriad detail, Komsi embraced the text-settings with committed artistry.
Adventures in Music 4.9.
Lara Poe: Laulut maaseudulta (Songs from the Countryside) for soprano and orchestra
World premiere: Sibelius Academy and Royal College of Music Orchestras/Sakari Oramo, sol. Anu Komsi, 25.8.2024 London, UK (Proms)
Herbert Blomstedt and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
Photo: Nadja Sjöström
Mats Larsson Gothe and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Photo: Arne Hyckenberg
Lara Poe
Photo: Penthouse Studios
Seductive choral music
These immensely beautiful choral works charmed the audience with their readily accessible language delivered in an elegant state of grace. crescendo-magazine.be 6.9. Both Rautavaara’s and – to a greater extent – Aho’s cluster-like harmonies echo delicately and fade away in a perfect purity of sound. pizzicato.lu 29.8.
Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kalevi Aho: Choral works CD: Helsinki Chamber Choir/Nils Schweckendiek (BIS-2692)
Remarkable concerto by Lintinen
What makes this album stand out is Lee’s performance of Kirmo Lintinen’s four-movement Cello Concerto. His playing is outstanding, but this work, being unfamiliar to most listeners, is the most intriguing part of the album. New in music this week 17.5.
Kirmo Lintinen: Cello Concerto
CD: English CO/Emilia Hoving, sol. Trey Lee (Signum SIGCD791 ‘Seasons Interrupted’)
Damström’s compelling work
Performed with full-on virtuosity and poetic musicality by Vähälä, the solo part was rendered with formidable agility and sensitivity... Soaring in topmost registers here and glowing in heated groove there, Damström’s compelling violin lines were ever rendered with awe-inspiring mastery and commitment, while the Itkonen-led ensemble responded in equal measure, tackling the score with focused intensity and all-around musicality. Beautifully aligned and balanced, TampereRaw and Vähälä served the score with a powerhouse reading. Adventures in Music 20.9.
Cecilia Damström: Earth Songs
World premiere: TampereRaw/Maria Itkonen, sol. Elina Vähälä, vln, 18.9.2024 Tampere, Finland
Zeng – a charmer
Zeng (for recorder, percussion and strings) is a wonderful addition to the concerto repertoire, lending itself to smaller-scale ensembles. Recorded with finesse, this performance is a charmer.
Finnish Music Quarterly 8-2024
Lotta Wennäkoski: Hele, Päärme, Zeng, I stället för vingar, Kuule II
Iiro Rantala, the enterprising jazz pianist and representative of a probably typically Finnish penchant for self-irony, has succeeded with this chamber opera in two acts in creating an absurd social critique. …This new production by the Chamber Opera Frankfurt leaves little to be desired musically or scenically. Conductor Stanislav Rosenberg must be credited with a nuanced interpretation of the score, sensitively and highly motivated by the orchestra, never abandoning the classical style of the genre for a few modern-sounding avant-garde gestures. That Rantala understands the melody and knows how to use instruments effectively as sound painters was adequately utilized by all ten protagonists on stage. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 14.7.
Rantala’s wonderfully melodic music, its libretto packed with humour and the successful Frankfurt production made a great impression. Such is a modern opera! Opernmagazin Orpheus Sept-Oct 2024
Iiro Rantala - Minna Lindgren: Sanatorio Express – Chamber opera in two acts
German premiere: Chamber Opera Frankfurt/Stanislav Rosenberg, sol. Annette Fischer, David Jakob Schläger etc., 17.7.2024 Frankfurt, Germany
Unfailing faith in the classical ideal of beauty
Alex Freeman writes beautiful and ostensibly uncomplicated music… The brand-new piano concerto Wildwood was inspired by the ecological reflections of Roger Deakin in a book of essays of the same name. Despite its ecological message, I took Wildwood to be a somewhat classically-construed piano concerto, with its overall three-movement format, asserted outer movements sur-
rounding a more introverted, quietly contemplative middle one. Risto-Matti Marin gave his utmost to ensure a perfect performance of the virtuoso solo part. Hufvudstadsbladet 16.9.
Alex Freeman: Wildwood for piano and chamber ensemble
World premiere: Zagros/Petri Komulainen, sol. Risto-Matti Marin, 14.9. Helsinki, Finland (Focus Alex Freeman)
Photo: Ville Komppa
Photo: Frankfurt Chamber Opera
Kirmo Lintinen
Photo: Tero Ahonen
Lotta Wennäkoski
Photo: Maarit Kytöharju
NEW PUBLICATIONS
VOCAL & CHORAL
ANNA CEDERBERGORRETEG
Lux aeterna – The Music of Your Being (Gustaf Sjökvist in memoriam) for mixed double choir
text: Anna Högberg (Lat/Eng) GE 14750
KAJ CHYDENIUS
Pohjoiset vuodenajat (The Northern Seasons) for mezzo-soprano and piano
