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HIGHLIGHTS
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N E W S L E T T E R F RO M G E H R M A N S M U S I K F Ö R L A G & F E NNIC A G E H R M A N
The music is the man Anders Eliasson 1947-2013
Veli-Matti Puumala – a master of time
NEWS Sibelius first edition Fennica Gehrman has published A Theme and Variations for solo cello by Jean Sibelius. This is a first edition and has been edited by pianist Folke Gräsbeck. Sibelius composed it in summer 1887, when he was 21, but it appears never to have been performed in public during his lifetime. It was first heard in a concert in Finland in 1995, and Torleif Thedéen recorded it for BIS the following year. Sibelius’s Theme and Variations owes much to Bach in terms of its style, although the theme on which the variations are based has a certain Finnish-Nordic flavour.
Staern’s busy 2014
Rautavaara’s All-night Vigil on TV The Helsinki Chamber Choir gave five performances of Einojuhani Rauduring its September tour of Finland. The tavaara’s All-night Vigil Choir was conducted by Nils Schweckendiek and the soloists were Niall Chorell, tenor, and Jyrki Korhonen, bass. One of the concerts was filmed by Yle and will be shown on Finnish TV on 5 October. In November there will also be a TV broadcast by ARTE. The tour was a celebration of Rautavaara’s 85th birthday (9 October). Several orchestras will also be featuring works by him during the autumn. A birthday concert will also be given at the University of Oulu on 7 October.
Photo: Liselotte Graversen
Two focus concerts in November
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NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN
Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at www.gehrmans.se/highlights www.fennicagehrman.fi/highlights Cover photos: Veli-Matti Puumala (Music Finland/ Saara Vuorjoki), Anders Eliasson (Tony Lundman), Helsinki Chamber Choir (Markku Pihlaja) Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll Design: Göran Lind ISSN 2000-2742 (Print), ISSN 2000-2750 (Online) Printed in Sweden by TMG Sthlm, Bromma 2013
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In Helsinki there are concerts presenting music by Lars Karlsson and Erik Bergman. Choral and chamber music and a song cycle with orchestral accompaniment by Karlsson will be heard at the Sibelius Academy on 8 November (See: premieres). The Helsinki Chamber Choir performs works by Bergman and enchantingly contrasts them with ones by Gesualdo at a concert given on 17 November.
Heiniö & the Key Ensemble The Key Ensemble, one of Finland’s top vocal groups, has recorded two works by Mikko Heiniö. The Missa has been well reBaltica disc featuring his Luceat ceived abroad. Last year it was voted the best classical album in the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award competition in the USA, and according to a Gramophone review, Heiniö’s Luceat is the real climax of the disc. His Maria Suite is one of the items on a new choral CD scheduled for release in October. The Key Ensemble conducted by Teemu Honkanen also performed works by Heiniö at festivals in Finland in summer 2013. In October, the Ensemble will be singing in the finals of the 2013 Let the Peoples Sing competition.
Photo: Jussi Vierimaa
nordic
HIGHLIGHTS
Photo: Markku Pihlaja
Spring 2014 will see a number of Benjamin Staern premieres. He is just now composing Sånger om bländvit kärlek (Songs of Dazzlingly White Love), a song cycle to texts by Karin Boye, for alto Anna Larsson and the Helsing borg Symphony Orchestra, to be premiered on 14 April. It will be followed by the premiere of a work for chamber ensemble, live electronics, video, and real-time visuals, at NorrlandsOperan in Umeå on 8 May. Conducted by Marc Soustrot the Malmö Symphony Orchestra will give the world premiere of Godai –Concerto for Orchestra on 14 May. Next in turn is a 30-minute orchestral work, a commission from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, for the Gävle, Helsingborg and Norrköping Symphony Orchestras.
P r e m ie r es
Pettersson release in Norrköping
Autumn 2013
Christian Lindberg, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and BIS Records continue their promotion of Allan Pettersson’s music, with concert performances and recordings of Symphonies Nos. 4 and 16. In connection with the concert (31 Oct), the CD with Pettersson’s monumental Symphony No. 9, recorded in Norrköping last autumn, will be released together with a bonus DVD including the Pettersson documentary “Människans röst” (The Human Voice).
Sven-David Sandström
Five Pieces for String Quintet
Uppsala Chamber Soloists 8.9. Uppsala, Sweden
Four Pieces for String Quartet
Stenhammar Quartet 8.10. Stockholm, Sweden
Olli Kortekangas
Seven Songs for Planet Earth
Tampere PO, Tampere Philharmonic Choir, San Francisco Choral Society etc./Jani Sivén, sol. Tuija Knihtilä, mezzosoprano, Aarne Pelkonen, baritone 13.9. Tampere, Finland (Finnish premiere)
An autumn of Hakola stage works Works by Kimmo Hakola are being staged in several Finnish towns during this year. His opera Akseli premiered in February 2013 has led to no fewer than six more performances during autumn: two at the Turku Music Festival, and the others in Joensuu, Kuusamo and Hämeenlinna, and in Lahti in December. Akseli is a monologue opera and marks the operatic swansong of baritone Jorma Hynninen. Hakola’s children’s opera Mara and Katti is also in the autumn repertoire: Taite performed it in Espoo in August and there were two performances at the Tampere Hall in September.
New commissions Rolf Martinsson will compose an opera in four acts based on Joseph Conrad’s short story Amy Foster. Stephen Plaice is writing the libretto (in English) to the opera, which is commissioned by the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. Tobias Broström has recently finished his String Quartet No. 1, commissioned by the New York based Brooklyn Rider. It will be premiered during their tour of Scandinavia in early 2014.
Albert Schnelzer’s concert opener A Freak in Burbank continues its advance throughout the world with six national premieres from October till May 2014. Thomas Dausgaard will conduct the work with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow and the French premiere with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at Opera de Dijon. Stefan Solyom will lead Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto in the Italian premiere and Sinfonia Lahti in the Finnish premiere. Finally Mark Wigglesworth will direct the US premiere with the Utah Symphony Orchestra in Salt Lake City, as well as the Australian premiere with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Adventus (suite for organ), Five Christmas Song Arrangements
Tiina-Maija Koskela, soprano, Nicholas Söderlund, bassbaritone, Tuomas Tainio, percussion, Kari Vuola, organ 8.12. Naantali, Finland
Veli-Matti Puumala
Rime
Ostrobothnian ChO/Tuomas Hannikainen 20.9. Kokkola, Finland
Johan Ullén
Lady Macbeth
Swedish ChO/Gerard Korsten, sol. Katarina Karnéus, mezzo-soprano 3.10. Örebro, Sweden
Kimmo Hakola
Music for the film Tukkijoella (Musiikkia elokuvaan Tukkijoella)
Finnish RSO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali 11.10. Helsinki, Finland De kaspiska tigrarnas Gud Photo: Ragnild Haarstad/Scanpix
Ville Matvejeff, Jorma Hynninen & Kimmo Hakola
Photo: Seilo Ristimäki
A Freak in Burbank receives six national premieres
Miss Julie in Paris
Birgit Cullberg
Opera National de Paris is staging the ballet Miss Julie in Birgit Cullberg’s classical choreography, to music by Ture Rangström (orchestrated by Hans Grossman). There will be a total of 15 performances between 21 February and 13 March 2014. Cullberg’s production of August Strindberg’s play is a harsh show down behind closed doors between an aristocratic young woman and her servant, including both seduction and humiliation. The ballet had its premiere in 1950 and is reckoned as the first Swedish modern dance drama.
Chorus Sanctae Ceciliae 22.11. Helsinki, Finland
Jonas Valfridsson
A Fragmented Memory, My Overgrown Little Tree House
Jönköping Sinfonietta/Hannu Koivula 27.10 Jönköping, Sweden
Lars Karlsson
Sju sånger till texter av Pär Lagerkvist (Seven Songs to Texts by Pär Lagerkvist)
Wegelius String Orchestra/Arturo Alvarado, sol. Gabriel Suovanen, baritone 8.11. Helsinki, Finland
Kai Nieminen
Symphony – La Selva
Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä/Patrick Gallois 13.11. Jyväskylä, Finland
Fennica Gehrman has signed a publishing agreement with Tiina Myllärinen for two orchestral works and her Squarcio for ensemble. Born in 1979, Myllärinen is a freelance composer working for a doctorate at the Sibelius Academy. She has composed orchestral, choral, chamber and solo works and experimented with electronic music. Outside Finland works by her have been performed in the United States, Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Iceland and Norway. Among those who have commissioned works from her are the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the Time of Music festival, the Polytech Choir (PK) and the “ja kitara soi” guitar festival. Myllärinen’s music has been described as cheerfully inquisitive, vigorous and original. She has recently developed an interest in the application and study of various acoustic phenomena, such as resonance, in her music.
Photo: Mika Kirsi
Publishing agreement with Tiina Myllärinen
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Composer Veli-Matti Puumala (b. 1965), Professor at the Sibelius Academy and winner of the prestigious Finnish Teosto Prize, has set out to alter our concept of time. In his music, the seconds measured by the clock fuse with an inner, empirical perception of time.
Photo: Music Finland/Saara Vuorjoki
Veli-Matti Puumala – a master of time
As one of his pupils, I have been in a position to engage in some profound conversations with VeliMatti Puumala on sometimes surprising subjects. One day, for example, it was – ice-hockey. I had been sneering at Finland’s national sport in the manner of a true cultural snob when he looked at me and said: “Ice-hockey’s a fine game. It moulds your concept of time. Minutes can pass without anything really happening, and then suddenly everything is electrified for five seconds and someone scores a goal.” Listening to Puumala’s music likewise moulds our concept of time. At the most magical moments, time ceases to have any meaning, is transformed into a nocturnal fragrance as in the closing Tra le braccia della notte movement of his piano concerto Seeds of Time .
A concerto of many dimensions Seeds of Time was born in 2004 as a joint commission from the Oulu, Helsingborg, Sjaelland and Stavanger orchestras. Premiered with Swedish virtuoso Roland Pöntinen as the soloist, it was an immediate success and won Puumala the Teosto Prize for 2005. A large-scale work lasting 40 minutes, it poses no small challenge for its performers but its astounding originality makes it all the more rewarding. The musical motifs of this concerto are drawn from the most varied of worlds: modernistic filaments of sound, piano textures with a whiff of Romanticism, even 1950s jazz. In Puumala’s case these are not just stylistic allusions; they are a means of creating several superimposed concepts of time. Now and then, as right at the beginning of the concerto, time comes to a complete halt in static “windows”. According to Puumala, these afford a view of a different time that stands still and does not move. H i ghl i ghts
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Another thing that fascinates Puumala is space. For many of his orchestral works, the players can be placed unconventionally, thus generating new aural impressions. The chamber orchestra for Seeds of Time consists of small groups of instruments from different families playing material that is to a greater or lesser degree uniform. For the performances conducted by Susanna Mälkki the players sat in small groups, whereas Hannu Lintu preferred a traditional seating arrangement. In other words, the conductor is free to choose.
Timelessness in twelve minutes Mure (2008), composed for the Ensemble inter contemporain and Susanna Mälkki in 2008, divides the chamber orchestra into two groups. Again, superimposed time planes are what interest Puumala. The flowing runs in the “controlled chaos” of the opening section are counteracted by assertive comments from the brass and inter jections evocative of hi-hat jazz. The music arrives at an unavoidable dead-end and a dramatic silence broken by two bass-drum beats. An ethereal, Puumala-ish episode then follows in which all sense of time vanishes before stealthily returning to a more active world. For Puumala, the journey from time to timelessness is not impossible even in a work lasting only 12 minutes. Notwithstanding his infinite attention to detail, Puumala also exploits the potential of a large orchestra. Rope, premiered by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu in 2012, is scored for triple woodwinds, a large brass section, strings, and a big battery of percussion instruments complete with piano and harp. The title evokes images of tight-rope walking, but also of the sturdy ropes that fasten ships. Once the stormy swell has abated, string
and brass waves shot with micro-intervals rock the boat like heavy rollers from a distant ocean.
Delicate portraits of mourning Ever since the 1990s, the music of Puumala has often incorporated a modal element. The little town, Kaustinen, where he was born hosts a big folk music festival, and some may catch echoes of this in his modernist idiom. Composed for the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in 2008, Memorial Fragment breaks folk music elements down into their tiniest components. Little folkfiddle pieces float like motes into a void, where they are distorted into a delicate portrait of mourning. Scored for string orchestra, Memorial Fragment is a tribute to another Kaustinen composer, Pehr Henrik Nordgren (1944–2008). One of the most recent works by Puumala is Tear, premiered by the Tapiola Sinfonietta in March 2013. The name, he says, reflects tearing strands woven into thin, rough, rustling textures. It also calls to mind another meaning of the word: deeply personal, tearful emotions. Players in the medium-sized chamber orchestra are also singled out as soloists as the work proceeds. The line of orchestral compositions, starting (1993) and continuwith the early Tutta via (1995– ing with such works as Chainsprings 1997) recently released on CD by Alba along with Seeds of Time, has seen some weighty additions in the past few years. Veli-Matti Puumala has rapidly become one of the leading Finnish composers of orchestral literature. L a u r i M ä nt y s a a r i Footnote: Puumala’s latest orchestral work Rime was premiered on 20 September by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Tuomas Hannikainen.
The music is the man
The Swedish composer Anders Eliasson passed away last spring after a protracted illness. It was not only his native country that lost a great composer – but the whole musical world.
During our many and lengthy conversations when I was working on my biography of Eliasson and his music, he often stressed that he could not have survived without music; that he would hardly have reached adulthood. These are words that might hint at sentimentality and a kind of romanticizing of the role of the artist, but in his personality there was absolutely nothing of the sort. It was simply a matter of how he experienced it, literally. Music was his life’s mission – something which perhaps contradicted another opinion that he has expressed: “I should never have been born”. One can of course feel that Anders Eliasson is entirely out of keeping with the times in his sensitiveness, candour and seriousness. I believe, too, that this is how he experienced it himself, as if he were a stranger among us. But in his musical creativity he at the same time attained a refinement which resulted in his musical “language” – formulated in freely floating harmony with two ninetone scales at bottom – serving as a kind of spiritual abode for him, in sharp contrast to the everyday toil. “I want to flee into music”, he said.
The music angel Still, he claimed he was only music’s companion. His subservience in respect to the essence of music – “the music angel” as he called it – is perhaps hard to comprehend when it comes to such an obvious master as Anders Eliasson. “Music must be allowed to generate itself ”, he declared. It was as though he needed to have that perspective. He looked upon music as a friend and confidante, but his respect for it seemed nevertheless to prevent him from, as
Photo: private
Photo: Bo-Aje Melin/SVT/TT
“I want to flee into music”
Anders Eliasson 1947-2013
Photo: Tony Lundman
There are actually very few composers who have been able to exhibit the same kind of intense proximity to musical creation as Eliasson. When the often restless, expressive music comes surging up through the auditorium, Eliasson himself is present in every passage, his breath is audible in every phrase. The music is the man. Eliasson’s music totally lacks the uneasy trendiness that the musical world is otherwise inundated with today – even the world of art music. In Eliasson’s compositions there are no empty gestures, no stolen phrases, no imitating dialects, there is no posturing. Neither did he himself put on airs, but throughout his 66-year-long life he retained a sort of underdog position – the result of a painful childhood and a feeling of alienation, outside cliques and prevailing compositional ideas. It seems only logical that he, in a magnum opus such as the oratorio Dante Anarca, let the words “debellare superbos” (overthrow the haughty), grow to a crushing force in a grinding climax.
a simple human being, placing himself entirely on level with the wonders of music, that he even so was unquestionably capable of attaining. He spoke instead of being responsive and noting down the music, with paper and pen, the moment that it emerged in his inner being. It is indeed fantastic how, for example, his very last work – the string trio Ahnungen, which he composed only with great difficulty during his last year – exhibits the very same density and gushing power of expression that we find in his other music – despite the many and long interruptions caused by the cancer. Toward the end he was reconciled with the idea of dying. To be sure, he did want to compose the 5th and 6th symphonies, which were intended to form a kind of triptych together with Symphony No. 4. The quiet epilogue of this work, with a desolate, cantabile solo for flugelhorn, was the door that
Music tips Ostacoli (1987) was written for the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. This is deeply moving, in places violently intense and nervy music for string orchestra. The work was the beginning of very fruitful relations with the Finnish musical scene. Symphonies No. 1 (1986), No. 3 (1989) and No. 4 (2005) are all magnificent examples of works in the genre. From the tense and transparent atmospheres in Symphony No. 1 to the late Eliasson’s Symphony No. 4, there is a development towards a softer flow and simplicity. Symphony No. 3 is a “sinfonia concertante” for obbligato alto saxophone; there is also a version for soprano saxophone (2010) which has not yet been performed.
slowly opened up to the next symphonic room. But death did not scare him. “It will be exciting to die”, he said more than once, often with an amusing smile and his characteristically peering eyes. Of course, one might think that he said this to mitigate the anxiety of those closest to him, but I do believe that he honestly retained his curiosity to his very last breath, on that Monday evening the 20th of May this year. T o n y Lu n d m a n Author of the biography of Anders Eliasson (Bokförlaget Atlantis, 2012) and editor at the Stockholm Concert Hall
Footnote: Eliasson’s very last work, the string trio Ahnungen, will be premiered by ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen on 10 February 2014 at the Stockholm Concert Hall.
Quartetto d’archi (1991) is one of Eliasson’s many exquisite chamber works with a broad spectrum of expression, ranging from the forceful and belligerent to the sensual and cantabile. Dante Anarca (1998) is a mighty oratorio for soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra, set to a text in Italian by Giacomo Oreglia. It is Eliasson’s magnum opus – an unmistakable masterpiece that is filled to the brim with passion, distinctive character and beauty. (2005) is a beautiful Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra example from the many solo concertos Eliasson wrote. This double concerto, with an unusual combination of soloists, is music full of dancing joie de vivre with supremely inspired orchestral elegance and balance.
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Repe r t o i r e tips
REVIEWS
Wind and brass bands
HUGO ALFVÉN
Suite from the Mountain King (1923/2004) Dur: 22’
Compilation and arr. Anders Högstedt 3282-4432-13-1-ssax-asax-tsax-bsax-euph-2db The music to the ballet the Mountain King ranks among Hugo Alfvén’s finest works, with its folkloristic motifs, enchanting mysticism, nature lyricism and drama. This suite contains seven depictive movements, including the frequently performed, whirling and rhythmically lively Herd Maiden’s Dance.
DANIEL BÖRTZ
Sinfonia 10 (1992) Dur: 17’
3242-4442-14-0-4sax-euph This is a highly suggestive work that takes its point of departure in the very deepest darkness and silence, out of which a dull carpet of sound develops. It slowly works its way towards the light, while the rumbling bass drums create an almost fateful atmosphere. The middle part is more airily orchestrated, with quick, rhythmical figures in the winds. The drums drive the music forward, ending up in a powerful section for percussion ensemble, after which the dark timbres and the solemn mood from the beginning of the work return.
Mikko Heiniö
Sonata da chiesa (2005) Dur: 16’
0000-4331-13-cel The form of the Sonata da chiesa points to a Baroque church sonata, but instead of being traditional music for the church, it paints glorious visions in sound. The movements are marked off by intermezzos in which the celesta occupies a focal role. The critics praised the sensual timbres of this work along with the delicious rhythmic romping, for the second movement of the Church Sonata is real swinging boogie.
FREDRIK HÖGBERG
Troll Tuba – The Three Billy Goats Gruff
(2005) Dur: 10’
for tuba and symphonic wind band (text in English/Swedish/Norwegian) 3252-4431-13-0-2asx-tsax-bsax-euph-db This is an entertaining tuba concerto and musical tale in which the tuba player functions as both narrator and soloist, and the orchestra musicians comment on the course of events. Here Högberg exhibits once again humour and lively musicianship with his spirited, rhythmically vivacious and diverting music.
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Version for concert band arr. Elias Seppälä 3262-4432-02-pf/cel-asax-tsax-bsax-euph-db This popular work, described by its composer as “unashamedly melodic”, abounds in technical challenges and musical brilliance. Linkola set out to exploit the singing, sensual quality of his solo instrument as a sensitive interpreter of melody. According to a review by Iwan Fox, this concerto is regarded as the “Everest” of its genre, tackled by many, conquered by few.
Pasi Lyytikäinen
Necto (2010) Dur: 5’ 3322-4431-01-db
Scored for symphonic winds, Necto was premiered by the Guards’ Band in October 2010. It was originally intended as a bridge between Stravinsky’s Piano Concerto and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition; in this respect it well serves its purpose, capturing the spirit of both. But the allusion to them is so discreet that Necto can also be performed as a separate concert number.
HILDING ROSENBERG
Symphony for Wind and Percussion – The Tower of Babel (1966) Dur: 18’
2222-0330-13-0 When Hilding Rosenberg composed the music to Birgit Culberg’s ballet The Tower of Babel he wrote it in such a way that, with minimal changes, it could be converted into a concert work. And this masterly written, captivating symphony has become something of a classic among Swedish works for wind orchestra.
Aulis Sallinen
Chorali for Wind Orchestra (1970) Dur: 12’
4444-6442-03-hp-cel According to composer Mikko Heiniö, Chorali has features that recall late Sibelius: melancholy, expressionless tones shunning all forms of colourism, modal or whole-tone motion and above all the orchestration. Chorali opens with a rising scale over solemn pedal notes. The mood is statically devout and chorale-like, but builds up to powerful drama in around the middle. The last of its four motifs culminates in an episode reminiscent of a funeral march.
ALBERT SCHNELZER
Azraeel Suite (2008) Dur: 13’ 2151-3432-11-0-asax-tsax-euph-db Schnelzer’s imaginative suite in three movements was inspired by Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. The two outer movements, (I. Burning of Books, and III. Angel of Death), are highly dramatic with considerable dynamic fluctuations, and violently driving rhythms, creating a feeling of impending threat. The music of the lighter middle movement, (“turn them into instruments…”), is reminiscent of music from the Balkans, with its dancing rhythms, alternating between 7/8 and 6/8 time.
Photo: Heikki Tuuli
3333-4332-03-asax-tsax This concerto is suitable for performance at both wind band and symphony concerts. The first movement, in particular, includes singing, lyrical music. The quick second one has elements of jazz and is technically extremely difficult: the soloist has to command such techniques as glissando, note inflection, lip trills and pedal notes. Towards the end, the concerto becomes more potent and dramatic, and it is then that the solo part is most virtuosic.
Jukka Linkola
Euphonium Concerto (1996) Dur: 29’
Profound, radiant works Rautavaara’s inimitable, intimately radiant other-world liness is brilliantly matched by the rich timbres of a choir, and the singers’ charged and passionate dedication spins ideal interpretations of Rautavaara’s sacred works. Rondo, September 2013 Einojuhani Rautavaara: Sacred Choral Works
CD: Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava (Ondine ODE 1223-2)
Aho’s oboe music – exotic and stimulating This is really fascinating music…Bockstal captures the music’s grander sentiments marvelously...This is an excellent collaboration and would be an appropriate addition to anyone’s collection who is seeking where the world of music and we are headed. American Record Guide July/August 2013 Kalevi Aho: Works for the Oboe (Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, Solo IX, Sonata for Oboe and Piano)
CD: Lahti SO/Martyn Brabbins, sol. Piet Van Bockstal, Yutaka Oya, piano (BIS-SCD 1876)
One of the most interesting composers Composer-guitarist Kai Nieminen is quite definitely one of our most interesting contemporary composers, transforming his impressions into the most fantastic compositions for various instruments and line-ups…This was the Finnish premiere of his four-movement A Walk to the Mysterious Woods [for guitar]... It really is a walk to mysterious woods full of dazzling details. Valkeakosken Sanomat 3. & 5.7. Works by Kai Nieminen
Trio La Rue, Patrik Kleemola, guitar etc., 3.9.2013 Sääksmäki, Finland
Amazing Schnelzer This [Into Thin Air] is amazing music, with a wealth of contrasts and breakneck turns. Mårtensson’s playing made the clarinet stand out as the optimal instrument for this type of expressivity. In Wolfgang is Dancing, Schnelzer poked fun at Staffan Mårtensson Mozart in imaginative and humorous music with a driving rhythm. The audience responded with a well-deserved ovation. Corren 15.8. Albert Schnelzer: Into Thin Air, Wolfgang is Dancing
World premiere: Staffan Mårtensson, clarinet, Love Derwinger, piano, Erik Wahlgren, cello, Tobias Ringborg, violin, 14.8.2013 Linköping Chamber Music Festival, Sweden
Photo: Carl Thorborg
Kalevi Aho
Concerto for Trumpet and Symphonic Wind Band (2011) Dur: 31’
Intoxicating piano concerto Here melodies flow in and out of one another, forged rather than composed, in an intoxicating torrent. Both the orchestra and soloist had great fun with the material. The audience was left breathless. Helsingborgs Dagblad 13.8. Tobias Broström: Piano Concerto – Belle époque
Photo: Ferdinand Neumueller
Musica Vitae/Fredrik Burstedt, sol. Per Tengstrand, 12.8.2013 Helsingborg, Sweden
Stage performance of Linjama’s church opera in Ossiach in 2010
Music that brings out goose pimples
CD: Key Ensemble/Teemu Honkanen (Fuga-9302)
Cleverly-constructed drama Syyskesän laulu (Late Summer Song) is a cleverlyconstructed drama…There were lots of contrasts, and the peaks and valleys were tastefully measured out. The instrumentation was colourful, Heiniö’s idiom seems quite at home in Nummi’s texts…Essi Luttinen sang magnificently and entered strongly into the shifting moods. Turun Sanomat 16.7. Mikko Heiniö: Syyskesän laulu (version for mezzosoprano and orchestra)
Refugium musicum/Tuomas Rousi, sol. Essi Luttinen, 13.7.2013 Turku, Finland
Lisa Larsson and the Kreutzer Quartet
because here again Linjama is aiming at moods, and illustrates the main events with his music. Kotimaa 25.7. Jyrki Linjama: Finnish Stabat Mater
World premiere: Soli Deo Gloria/Juhani Lamminmäki, sol. Piia Komsi, Ulla Raiskio, Ritva Koistinen, 29.6.2013 Kokkola, Finland Die Geburt des Täufers
Concert version: Soli Deo Gloria/Juhani Lamminmäki, sol. Ursula Langmayr, Esa Ruuttunen etc., 7.7.2013 Espoo, Finland
Eliasson’s urgent and timeless music
Fury and reconciliation in Sixten’s Requiem
This is independent music that follows its own symphonic laws. The themes develop organically, as if by themselves… Eliasson was a master builder of form. Helsingin Sanomat 31.5.
Here we encounter chaos, anger, tensions, wild frenzy – a surrealistic and fluctuating reality. But Sixten’s music does not lose its foothold: penetrating and pure folk elements are also there…“In paradisum” is the loveliest of the movements, where the sufferer finally sees the light. Sundsvalls Tidning 28.6. Fredrik Sixten: Requiem
This performance was consummate… Storgårds´ was an incomparable, penetrating and emotionally charged interpretation of the dramaturgically and thematically well-wrought work…Eliasson’s music has an urgency and timelessness in its appeal and aesthetics that is hard to resist, and the contexts grow forth with impeccable logic. Hufvudstadsbladet 31.5. Anders Eliasson: Symphony No. 4
Finnish premiere: Helsinki PhO/John Storgårds, 29.5.2013 Helsinki, Finland
Photo: Anders Eliasson
The high points are mainly in the latter half, however, starting with Kokkonen’s marvelous five-span Laudatio Domini, a real modern classic. Mikko Heiniö’s Luceat receives its first recording here and it is the real climax of the disc, not the Górecki. We should have more Heiniö on disc. Gramophone 2013 Mikko Heiniö: Luceat Joonas Kokkonen: Laudatio Domini etc.
Photo: Markus Palmgren, BLT
Heiniö’s Luceat – climax of the disc
Jyrki Linjama composes fine works for the church, in earnest… His technical mastery and skilful crafting guarantee a multidimensional result that touches even the listener unfamiliar with the underlying structures. The beginning of this modern lament is so sensitive it brings out goose pimples. [Finnish Stabat Mater] The church opera Die Geburt des Täufers has a similar effect. It works well in a concert version, too,
CD: Swedish Radio Choir, Nordic ChO/Ragnar Bohlin, sol. Karin Ingebäck, soprano, Anders Larsson, bass (Intim musik IMCD 120)
Beautiful and expressive Martinsson songs
Cinematic concert overture
The ten movements (Dickinson poems set to music) were characterised by intense drama but also by small effects that provided a singular suspense and vitality….The most exciting of all was the premiere of Till skuggan av en verklighet, for soprano and string quartet. Lisa Larsson’s soprano sounded so liberating, not only beautiful but also strong and expressive, with Karin Boye’s words about love, in vivid harmony with the outstanding Kreutzer Quartet. Blekinge Läns Tidning 5.7. Rolf Martinsson: Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson (song/piano-version), Till skuggan av en verklighet
I very much liked the piece, a study in harmonic instability with an almost cinematic deployment of massive blocks of chords in the brass rising from and falling back into a sea of scurrying strings… Seen and Heard 31.5.
World premiere: Lisa Larsson, soprano, Roland Pöntinen, piano, Kreutzer Quartet, 4.7.2013 Lyckå Chamber Music Festival, Sweden
Martinsson’s ten-minute piece was a brilliant opening for the concert…The work begins with grand, brassy fanfares and jazzy rhythms…followed by music as lushly romantic as Erich Korngold’s film scores… It’s an overture worth hearing again. bachtrack 31.5. Rolf Martinsson: Open Mind
Cleveland SO/Manfred Honeck, 26.5.2013 Cleveland, USA
H i ghl i ghts
3/2013
new p u b li c a ti o ns C H OR A L Nils Lindberg
Nu jublar min själ/My Heart Sings for Joy
Version for mixed choir, trumpet and organ GE 12293
Version for brass orchestra, percussion, mixed choir and double bass Text: Book of Psalms (Swe/Eng)
Per Gunnar Petersson
Sanctus
for mixed choir Text: from Mass (Latin) GE 12284
Anders Paulsson
Heaven Come Down
GE 12257
Christian Engquist
for mixed choir Text: Cecil Frances Alexander & Anders Paulsson (Eng)
The Distant Star
for mixed choir Text: The composer (Eng)
GE 12278
Kjell Lönnå, arr.
Pat-a-pan
for descant choir Music & text: Bernard de La Monnoye (Fr/Eng) GE 12310
Göran Arnberg Dormi Jesu
for descant choir Text: Dutch 16th cent. (Latin) Transl: Samuel T. Coleridge (Eng) GE 12276
GE 12278
N E W CD s & D V D s Kalevi Aho (arr.)
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Flight of the Bumble Bee
Residentie Orkest Den Haag/Neeme Järvi, sol. Sharon Bezaly BIS SACD 1679 (“Great Works for Flute and Orchestra”)
TOBIAS BROSTRÖM
Samsara, Dreamscape, Cello Concerto
Västerås Sinfonietta & strings from Swedish National Youth SO/Johannes Gustavsson, essens:1, Hugo Ticciati, violin, Johan Bridger, marimba, Mats Rondin cond. and cello dbCD154
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Sacred Choral Works
Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava
C H A M B E R & IN S T R U M E N T A L ROLF MARTINSSON
Capriccio
for solo violin
Ondine ODE 1223-2 (”Missa a cappella”)
GE 10994
Erkki Salmenhaara
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Canzonetta
Hymnus
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra/ Juha Kangas
for trumpet and organ
FREDRIK SIXTEN
Dance III
Swedish Radio Choir, Nordic ChO/ Ragnar Bohlin, sol. Karin Ingebäck, Anders Larsson
GE 12355
Alba ABCD 355 (”Epifania”)
Requiem
FG 55009-947-0
SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM
for three violoncelli
Jean Sibelius
Theme and Variations (Teema ja variaatiot)
for solo cello FIRST PUBLICATION FG 55009-238-9
Fredrik Sixten
Toccata & Fugue on B-A-C-H
for organ GE 12277
Intim musik IMCDS 120
WILHELM STENHAMMAR
Paavo Heininen
String Quartets Nos. 3 & 4
Quintet Op. 7, Saxophone Sonata
Stenhammar Quartet BIS-CD-1659
Kimmo Kuitunen
EDUARD TUBIN
Leino meets ASQ
Pasi Lyytikäinen
Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5
Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo, saxophone, Hanna Kinnunen, flute, Risto-Matti Marin piano etc.
DVD 4742229 00434 © International Tubin Society
Rosso
Estonian Radio SO/Peeter Lilje
ORC H E S T R A L
Pilfink Records JJVCD-123 (”Chambersax”)
Olli Kortekangas
Anna niskasi niellä kynteni jälki
FREDRIK HÖGBERG
Polytech Choir/Juha Kuivanen
Ice Concerto
PKCD 23 (”Kuuletko sinä”)
for piano and orchestra GE 12203 (score)
Ahti Sonninen (arr.)
Cantate cantica socii
for string orchestra A set of parts (333221) is now available for sale. FG 55011-153-0
V OC A L Kimmo Hakola
Kivi-laulut (Kivi Songs)
Seven Songs to Texts by Aleksis Kivi for voice and piano The songs exist also in orchestral versions. FG 55011-149-3
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H i ghl i ghts
3/2012
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