Nordic Highlights No. 1 2024

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Sprinkle some newness!

Harri Wessman at 75

Thomas Jennefelt turns 70

Turning 70 on 24 April, Thomas Jennefelt has since 1977 garnered international recognition as a leading choral composer, marked by pieces like the agitating Warning to the Rich. Notable works also include the expressive Dichterliebe, the meditative a cappella suite Villarosa Sequences and Dann entstrahlt…, which expresses hope for peace. Jennefelt’s music is distinguished by its pathos, creativity, and exploration of the expressive potential of the human voice. Among his recent works is the captivating Sieben Liebeslieder for soprano and piano, to texts by Else Lasker Schüler, released on CD in 2022 (Etcetera KTC 1765).

Focus on Nordgren

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of Pehr Henrik Nordgren, so music by him will be on the programme for many concerts. Among others, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Kaustinen Chamber Music Week presented his works (See: Reviews). Nordgren (1944–2008) is perhaps best known for his string orchestra pieces. Several of these are a result of his collaboration with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and conductor  Juha Kangas. Among them is Portraits of Country Fiddlers – an incredibly successful homage to folk music. Nordgren’s impressive chamber opera  Den svarte munken (The Black Monk) was revived and performed in Helsinki in 2022.

Kortekangas premieres

The Saimaa Sinfonietta has commissioned Olli Kortekangas to write a Guitar Concerto to be premiered in Lappeenranta on 14 November with Janne Malinen as the soloist. Other Kortekangas works in the pipeline include Piir (Border), a blend of poetry and music to be performed in European cities with a mutual border. The first will be Valga, on the border between Estonia and Latvia, on 7 May. A new opera by Kortekangas – Isfåglarna to a libretto by Johan Bargum – is also to be premiered this year, in Kokkola on 25 October. Olli Kortekangas will be celebrating his 70th birthday on 16 May next year.

Lotta Wennäkoski news

Lotta Wennäkoski is one of the two Composers in Residence at the 2024 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival alongside with Sebastian Fagerlund. The programme will include several works by Wennäkoski at festival concerts, among them a Violin Duo commissioned by the festival and premiered by  Minna Pensola and Antti Tikkanen on 24 July. The two Wennäkoski CDs released last year have been veritable hits both in Finland and abroad (See: Reviews). The National Public Radio, the primary public radio broadcaster in the US, named her disc on its list of top 10 classical recordings of the year.

Pacho Flores & Tuomas Turriago

Editors: Henna Salmela, Kristina Fryklöf

Translations: Susan Sinisalo, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Robert Carroll

Cover Photos: Josef Sjöblom, Anu Jaantila/Tapiolan laulu

Design: Tenhelp Oy

Click the links, sound and video symbols in the text.

ISSN 2000-2750 (Online)

Daniel Nelson’s I Am Monster

Daniel Nelson’s new song cycle I Am Monster will have its premiere with soprano Johanna Wallroth and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra on 10 October in Örebro. The songs are based on the Jewish Lilith myth. With the aid of an AI text generator, Daniel Nelson has made it possible for Lilith to be viewed from the perspective of three other “monsters”: Lewis Caroll’s Alice, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and William Shakespeare’s Shylock. Also included here is a setting of a poem by John Clare. The work was commissioned by the Swedish Radio P2.

The premiere of Tuomas Turriago’s Trumpet Concerto is scheduled for 5 April, at the Tampere Hall. It has been commissioned by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Venezuelan Pacho Flores, a star trumpeter who records on the Deutsche Grammophon label and has twice been the winner of a Latin Grammy. Lasting 20 minutes, the concerto is a Latino, jazz and contemporary classic hybrid and treats the listener to some exciting Turriago soundworlds. The dancing finale has a big solo cadenza for percussion and trumpet of the sort familiar from Latino music.

Thomas Jennefelt

Pacho Flores

Photo: Juan Martinez

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

Olli Kortekangas

Photo: Markus Gårder

Works by Heidi Sundblad-Halme

Fennica Gehrman has published some hidden treasures by women composers as a result of the HUOM project (History’s Unheard Orchestral Music) by the Helsinki Philharmonic. Some orchestral works by  Heidi Sundblad­Halme (1903–1973) are now available, including her delicate  Elégie for strings, Au

New composer –Emmy Lindström

Gehrmans has initiated a collaboration with composer Emmy Lindström (b. 1984), starting with two of her acclaimed orchestral works. The clarinet concerto At the Hills of Hampstead Heath has since its premiere in 2017 been performed regularly by soloist Emil Jonason around Europe and in the USA. Lindström’s 21-movement The Lost Clown (2018) , commissioned by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, mirrors Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire’. There is also a suite for wind ensemble available. Described as emotionally charged with a hint of humour, Lindström’s music explores neo-Romantic styles while venturing into completely new sonic territories. At present she is working on a commission for the Swedish RSO. Emmy Lindström will be composer-in-residence at the 2024 Rusk festival on 19–23 November in Jakobstad.

théâtre des marionettes Op. 16 and Suite, Op. 11 as well as some pieces for voice and piano. Her orchestral suite Pan is in preparation. Sundblad-Halme was a composer, teacher and conductor especially known as the founder and long-time conductor of the Helsinki Women’s Orchestra.

Allan Pettersson edition box

For the first time, a boxed set of CDs brings together the complete works of Allan Pettersson, including his seventeen symphonies, chamber music, vocal works and previously unpublished works performed here by some of the Nordic countries’ leading musicians and orchestras. Also included are 4 DVDs presenting the composer, some of his works and musicians who knew him. (BIS SACD 9062).

Koskelin chamber music

Alba has released a CD of chamber music by Olli Koskelin. The album named Presentness consist of five solos and one duo vitalised by the players’ attention to fine detail (See: New CDs). Among the pieces are then when A-go for guitar and Animal II for bass clarinet . In addition to composing, Olli Koskelin (b. 1955) has clocked up a long career as a teacher at the Theatre Academy and the Aalto University.

Nordic – A Fragile Hope

The environmental project ‘Nordic – A Fragile Hope’, had its premiere at the Gothenburg Concert Hall on 21 February. It was a spectacular concert experience where nature photographer Joakim Odelberg’s film projections covered the walls and the ceilings, surrounding the audience with ocean pictures from Svalbard in the north to Denmark in the south. To accompany this, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christian Karlsen played newly written music by five Nordic composers: Mats Larsson Gothe, Outi Tarkiainen, Daniel Bjarnason, Miho Hazama and Maja S. K. Ratkje. In connection with the premiere, the music was also released on an album (Nilento NILCD 2401).

Erika Hammarberg awarded

Erika Hammarberg will receive the 2024 Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award for her choral work En sådan kväll (Such an Evening), to a text by Solveig von Schoultz. The jury describes the piece as “highly expressive, written in a romantic manner, and blending very well with the text. The composer has a deep understanding of choral sound and techniques.” Hammarberg navigates musically between classical and jazz, teaches composition, and is the artistic director of the Elaria Orchestra big band. As part of the prize the work is published by Gehrmans, and will be premiered by Allmänna Sången in Uppsala on 4 May. Read more about ASAWCA – competition for female composers.

Emmy Lindström

Erika Hammarberg

Photo: Photo: Elvira Glänte

Photo: Joakim Odelberg

Helsinki Women’s Orchestra and Sundblad-Halme in 1939

Photo: Andreas Sander

“Life is a privilege” – Harri Wessman at 75

Harri Wessman’s music comes from a place of optimism. Many of his pieces were written for a particular musician or ensemble. At one point, he realised that there was little material available for young musicians that was interesting and written with serious intent – yet at a suitable level of technical demand. This marked the start of an expansive pedagogical composition project.

At school as a child, Wessman listened to Tchaikovsky and Scriabin and established a ‘Neo-Pathos’ school with his musician friends. Erkki Pohjola had just joined the Tapiola Secondary School as music teacher. The choir and orchestra that he established became a fruitful laboratory for Wessman’s earliest compositions.

Later, Wessman developed an interest in French music and jazz, and in between the two he discovered George Gershwin. “I was delighted by the richness of his harmonies and his incredible melodic vein.” Among the classics, Wessman was the most attracted to Brahms, who knew how to “show how a melody evolves”. He draws a line from Mozart to Prokofiev, representing music much like his own: positive and optimistic, yet never shallow. Another line runs from Beethoven to Shostakovich, more severe and more pompous and not quite as close to Wessman’s sensibilities.

Harri Wessman studied composition with Joonas Kokkonen, who by then was the grand old man in Finnish music. Kokkonen emphasised the importance of organic growth in music: how a small germ grows first into a sapling and eventually into a tree. Wessman often builds his musical saplings out of alternating tones and semitones, which hints at Impressionism but also has affinities with Baroque rhetoric on the one hand and jazz on the other. Critics and scholars have had a hard time pigeonholing Wessman.

Music made to measure

Most of Wessman’s works were written with a specific musician or ensemble in mind, whether commissioned or not. At one point, Wessman realised that there was little music available for young musicians in the early stages of their studies that was interesting and written with serious intent – yet at a suitable level of technical demand. This marked the start of an expansive composition project in which Wessman’s aim is to eventually produce repertoire for all instruments at all grade levels of Finnish music institutes.

Many of these pieces were inspired by the personality of a specific young musician or student. Anyone who has heard works such as Five horn pieces for Jenni Kuronen or Mirabella’s Cello Album will know that this is not ‘children’s music’ but music that is rewarding for performer and listener alike. The only difference between these and concert pieces is that they only require technical proficiency appropriate for the student’s skill level at the time.

Mirabella is the younger of Wessman’s two daughters, both now adults. The cello album began as she was studying at the celebrated East Helsinki Music Institute, where the Szilvay brothers from Hungary were producing brilliant results in string instrument tuition for

beginners with their Colourstrings method. Although Wessman was comfortable with his skill in playing the cello, he acknowledges that Csába Szilvay gave him new ideas for how to write idiomatically for the instrument.

Many of Wessman’s concertos were also made to measure for young musicians. The Trumpet Concerto that he wrote for the final examination of a 17-year-old student in 1987 has entered the core repertoire and has been recorded twice to date.

It’s all about interaction

Composers and their listeners ascribe a wide variety of functions to music. Some feel that it should reflect the problems caused by humans and global crises, while others see music as a bringer of joy. “Life is a privilege,” says Harri Wessman. His music is optimistic, full of life, providing food for the imagination and respecting the craft of the musician. Wessman considers not only the performers but also those who listen to his music. His ideal is to write music whose information content is consistent with the receptive capability of humans. Complexity is not a virtue for him, let alone an end in itself. He feels that music should include material facilitating interaction not just between performers but also between performers and the audience.

Marie Samuelsson

“I once discovered the exact sound that I had always dreamt of – mostly as a consequence of my jazz harmony studies with Eero Koivistoinen – which involved using hybrid bass chords in my own idiosyncratic way. I would like to think that that music is communicative.

“I am grateful for the musical ideas that I get in my sleep – often in the morning – and I have a stack of music paper on the shelf above my bed so that I can jot them down. You have to refine your material further, of course, but that’s different. I think that whatever goes through the washing machine of my dreams will be easier for others to understand than something laboriously constructed sitting at a desk.”

Anu Karlson

FOOTNOTE

Latest publications by Harri Wessman Pan and the Nympf Pitus & Towards the Night for flute and guitar

Summer Variations for viola and piano

Three Caprices for Konstantin Weitz for violin Fyra Årstider på Finns (Four Seasons at Finns) for violins, violas and piano

Five Aphorisms (arr.) for flute and guitar Capriccio for wind ensemble

Suite for two violins and string orchestra

Concertino No. 2 for piano and chamber orchestra

Photo: Anu Jaantila/Tapiolan laulu

Harri Wessman and Siboné Oroza

REPERTOIRE TIPS

VIOLIN CONCERTOS

TIMO ALAKOTILA

Between Three Worlds (2018) Dur: 25’

Concerto for Violin and Concert Band:

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Alakotila’s 4th concerto for violin is a combination of finesse, joy and energy. The soloist has a chance to shine in the lyrical passages, at other times engaging in dialogue with the orchestra at rhythmic points evocative of folk music. The title alludes to three worlds on a journey through music: the soloist’s vast capacity, the world of colour, and virtuosity. Recorded by the Helsinki Police Symphonic Band in an album including new music for concert band.

KIMMO HAKOLA

Violin Concerto (2012) Dur: 35’

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A virtuosic work written in sumptuous, late Romantic language. It entertains and at times even amuses with surprises typical of Hakola’s box of musical tricks. The slow movement presents magical timbres and sensitive dialogue between the soloist and the winds. Commissioned by WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

PAAVO HEININEN

Michaelmas – Concerto da Camera (2018) Dur: 22’ for two violins and string orchestra (min. 33221)

Each of the players in this concerto da camera has an independent profile and one of the violinists is also the conductor. The result is rewarding chamber music for multiple soloists in which no one steals all the limelight; instead, they share the music. Large sections are interspersed by moments focusing on different instrumental groups and players. These are not solo cadenzas in the usual sense of the word but rather, as Heininen put it, “free frolicking”.

KIRMO LINTINEN

Puustokokemuksia / Forest Cover Testimonials (2020) Dur: 15’ Concerto for Violin (amplified or electric) and Big Band: 2asax.2tsax.bsax-0440-01(drum set)-pf-cb

Lintinen’s concerto for amplified or electric violin is a classical/jazz hybrid at its very best. A colourful work, it is musicianly and humorous, with Classical-Romantic and modern homogeneously bound in an elegant, swinging entity. Lintinen originally tailored the concerto for Pekka Kuusisto, who was the soloist at its premiere in 2010.

VELIMATTI PUUMALA

Tree of Memories – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2015-20)

Dur: 35’

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Puumala composed his concerto with an eye to the violin sound and musicianship of Carolin Widmann. She describes it as rhythmically complex, sometimes lyrical, sometimes even hinting at folkloristic elements – a piece packed with ideas and inspiration. At times the music is highly concentrated, while at others the orchestra lets the soloist build up the intensity – before ultimately arriving at a terse, typical Puumala texture. According to the composer, the concerto is about memories and remembering – and losing them.

JOHAN ULLÉN

Infinite Bach – Bach Recomposed (2014) Dur: 60’ (each appr. 15’)

Violin concertos: E major BWV 1042, A minor BWV 1041, D minor BWV 1052R, G minor BWV 1056R for violin, harpsichord, keyboard and strings

In “Infinite Bach,” Ullén explores and reimagines his and violinist Christian Svarfvar’s favourite musical passages from Bach’s violin concertos. Through looping, twisting, and layering the material, he adds harmonies and subtracts elements, infusing it with a pop-musical aesthetic while always maintaining a connection to the original works. The result is music seething with life and beauty. Each concerto and individual movement can be performed separately and arranged in any preferred order.

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

Prosoidia – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2022-23) Dur: 19’ 2222-2210-02-hp-str

The motto for this work is a pacifist line by Marina Tsvetayeva: “No need for people anywhere on earth to struggle. Look – it is evening, look, it is nearly night: What have you to say, O poet, general, lover?” The piece proceeds from the otherworldliness of harmonics to the rustic colours of folk song and the dark echo of Baroque refinement. The finale is dedicated to Kaija Saariaho, who was Wennäkoski’s teacher. Co-commissioned by the BBC SO, the Lahti Symphony and Norrlandsoperan on the initiative of Ilya Gringolts.

WORKS FOR CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

Science Frictions (2022) Dur: 20’ for countertenor, mixed choir and sinfonietta: 1111-1100-01-str

Text: Cia Rinne (Multilingual)

Science Frictions is a seven-movement cantata composed for the Helsinki University’s Conferment Jubilee. Its theme extends beyond academia to encompass the universal significance of science. The soloist takes the listener on a journey in search of language, logic, science and consciousness, while the choir reflects and comments on these discoveries. The elegant stylistic references of Damström’s colourful music, together with Rinne’s puns and multilingual texts (9 languages), reinforces the feeling of playfulness and inventiveness.

ALEX FREEMAN

Ghost Light – Choral Symphony (2022) Dur: 55’

Text: Whitman, Gould Fletcher, Agee, Hardy (Eng) for mixed choir and orchestra: 3333-6331-23-2hp-pf-cel-str

An inspired choral symphony full of expression and fantasy. It is rewarding for both the performers and the audience: the tonal language follows the text’s nuances in an impressive manner. There are ecstatic, fresh nature scenes and catchy, tonal melodies, and the orchestra responds with broad, warm timbres, colourful harmonies and striking build-ups.

DANIEL NELSON

Chaplin Songs (2020) Dur: 45’ for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-4231-11-hp-pf/cel-str

Text: Charles Chaplin (Eng)

Nelson has transformed Charlie Chaplin’s iconic final speech from the film “The Dictator” into a monumental work that pays homage to humanity, freedom and democracy. The music is impassioned and fluctuates effortlessly between the rhythmically forceful, delicate moments and melancholy contemplation. At its heart, the soprano soloist embodies the light with a recurring, shimmering, clear melody that concludes the work with the words: “We are coming out of the darkness.”

KARIN REHNQVIST

Silent Earth (2020) Dur: 30’ for mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-2230-13-hp-pf-str

Text: Kerstin Perski (Eng)

A compelling and gripping work with the climate crisis looming in the background. The people watch their lonely planet from above and sing with immense beauty to the Earth, reflecting over what once were, before a natural disaster occurs. Musically, the work is both suggestive and exciting, with desolate tones that grow into dramatic laments, explosive fire, and finally fade away into silence. It was awarded the Nordic Council’s Music Prize 2022.

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

Te Deum (2018) Dur: 12’ for mixed choir and orchestra: 3224-4340-11-hp-str

In this work Sandström has borrowed the opening section from his earlier Te Deum, but the character of the new piece is entirely different; darker and more suggestive. Here we encounter a song of praise from a humanity that is abandoned by God. One of Sandström’s last works, premiered posthumously in connection with a concert for peace at Berliner Philharmonie in 2023.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

SALT (2020) Dur: 40’

Oratorio for soprano, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra: 3333-4331-13-hp-pf/cel-str

Text: Boye, Södergran, Elmblad, Andersson (Swe)

The themes of SALT are the sea, travel and migration. Powerful drama, salty waves and seductively beautiful melodies are woven together in a deeply moving musical unity. The opening is an allusion to Debussy’s “La Mer” and is to be considered a wink to music history. The work was composed for Gothenburg’s 400th anniversary and was awarded the Swedish Music Publishers’ Prize 2023.

Sprinkle some newness!

After twenty years as a professional choir singer, I am no longer surprised when works by female composers are staples in the repertoire. At Gehrmans I see our catalogue growing with music of quality by both male and female composers. How do we work at Gehrmans – and what is it like on the international scene?

In 2018 Gehrmans celebrated its 125th anniversary by offering one video per month presenting one choral work from every decade of the publishing house’s history. We discovered that there were not enough female names to include – in fact, before 1980, it was difficult to find any music composed by women at all. This insight resulted in our efforts to encourage female composers to come forward under the heading #swedishchoralmusic 2022. The response was an abundance of music with works of varying difficulty, expression and compositional techniques, exactly as we had requested. And what a treasure trove!

From a conductor’s perspective

For the process of selection we engaged an external script committee including composer and professor Karin Rehnqvist, the choir conductors Bengt Ollén and Simon Arlasjö, as well as the winner of the Eric Ericson Award 2021 and recently appointed principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir, Krista Audere from Latvia.

Audere has spoken about the expectations resting on her as a young female conductor. To be sure, she makes higher demands on herself than the world around her does. At least when it comes to inclusion and diversity.

- I work hard on my programming, and nowadays I do have a lot of freedom in choosing the music. My suggested repertoire often includes music by new, young and/or female composers. The response is sometimes, “It’s nice, but we’re

afraid we can’t sell it. Could you add some Mendelssohn”?

And she does so gladly. Her approach is to try to “sprinkle some newness” into programmes like the Bavarian Radio Choir’s a cappella concert of this season, where Mahler and Brahms blend easily with Nana Forte’s Four Sacred Pieces . Audere realises that the high thresholds of the concert halls are not always just about female composers, but are also about a cappella music, or simply new music. There are also many choirs and orchestras that still give one big concert per year with female composers on the programme, on 8 March, (The International Women’s Day) and then think they can tick the box. But she sees nonetheless a trend towards a greater diversity.

-We are allowing more individual voices to be heard. I know that I am not doing enough, but I am trying. As long as we have that aim the future is bright.

The composers

Six works were chosen by the script committee in an anonymous selection process. The composers were presented on film and the works have now been published by Gehrmans.

Birgitta Flick is active as a jazz trumpet player and improvisation researcher in her home country of Germany, but she devotes herself to choral composition mainly in Sweden. Her participation in #swedishchoralmusic with Nocturne for women’s choir has led to collaboration with a number of well-known Swedish choirs, including the vocal ensemble VoNo. In April 2024 a

Krista Audere

Photo: Karina Kaminska

Anna Cedeberg-Orreteg

Marie Sandell

Birgitta Flick

Linda Alexandersson Susanna Lindmark

new work will be premiered, in which the music is partly based on improvisation.

Kristin Warfvinge’s Une charogne was one of the advanced works that both the publisher and the jury decided on immediately. Charles Baudelaire’s poem is a depiction of a decaying carcass, in horribly explicit detail. Despite the high quality of the music we hesitated – perhaps the text would prove to be a bit too coarse? But Une charogne has already been performed by the Mikaeli Chamber Choir under Anders Eby and by the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir conducted by Fredrik Malmberg.

Another unusual work in the series is Marie Sandell’s setting of some Dadaistic poems by Aase Berg from the collection Indifferent Fauna . Here we encounter a group of hens in the form of a solo trio with a mezzo-soprano, a countertenor and a tenor, who infiltrate and influence the flock/the choir – or is it the society?

“Children can learn just about anything”, says Linda Alexandersson, who has chosen box notation as a method in her work Önskenatt (Wishnight) , for SSA in various groupings, to bring out the web of voices that she wants. It was commissioned for the series “100 women 100 years”, in which Körcentrum Syd and Malmö Live observed the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Sweden.

Tschitta saltunza was commissioned by a Swiss vocal ensemble that provided Susanna Lindmark with a poem in Rhaeto-Romanic. It proved to be a pleasant challenge to set to music a language she had never before encountered,

and the piece bears clear traces of her joy in composing and the rhythm of the language.

Sweden’s Youth Choir and Erik Westberg had commissioned and recorded That Night of Falling Stars by Anna Cederberg­Orreteg. Still, participation in the series meant a great deal to Anna, perhaps mainly because she knew that the selection had been done anonymously. It was really her music that won, not the fact that she is a recognized composer. For the idea of affirmative action is still not too far-fetched for a female composer, however well-liked she may be by singers and conductors.

Statistics

Through organisations such as Donne, Women in Music, we can keep track of the situation for the world’s big orchestras. In 2021/22 merely 7.7% of 111 orchestras’ repertoire were composed by women. In the field of choral music we have less statistics, but considering the quantity of works by composers such as Karin Rehnqvist, Agneta Sköld, Anna­Karin Klockar, Ulrika Emanuelsson, Susanna Lindmark and Anna Cederberg­Orreteg, I feel that the situation looks better (at least in Sweden) for choral music than it does for instrumental music.

In the USA the choral conductor Brian Stevens is active as a co-author of a substantial anthology entitled Women composers in choral art (to be published in 2025 by GIA Publications). He is also engaged in the series #swedishchoralmusic. He notes that an interest in diversity in the USA has opened up for female composers, who are now being allowed to breathe instead of being pushed down.

- We have a thousand years of (Western art) music with masters like Bach and Mendelssohn, and we can’t help the fact that pre-1980 there was little diversity. But I think the music that’s going to come out of the next twenty-five years is going to change the world, he says.

As for myself, I look forward to the day when we will no longer have to label composers according to sex, skin colour or age. Until we get there, we will continue with projects that promote high-quality music by female composers. And then we will simply have to help each other out to “sprinkle some newness” into our programming.

Janna Vettergren

Project manager for #swedishchoralmusic – a collaboration with the Swedish Society of Composers made possible by the generous support from the Swedish Music Publishers’ Association.

PREMIERES

March–June 2024

JENNAH VAINIO

Unikeko (Sleepyhead)

Petri Komulainen, horn, Jan Lehtola, organ 17.3. Inkoo, Finland

KALEVI AHO

Three pieces for young violin players

Olivia Tammisto, Saga Tienhaara

27.3. Tampere, Finland (Tampere Biennale)

TUOMAS TURRIAGO

Trumpet Concerto

Tampere PO/Christian Vásquez, sol. Pacho Flores 5.4. Tampere, Finland

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Clarinet Concerto – Sema

Swedish Radio SO/Martin Fröst, sol. Magnus Holmander 10.4. Stockholm, Sweden

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

Garden of Earthly Delights

Gävle SO/Christian Reif 12.4. Gävle, Sweden

ANTTI AUVINEN

Boundary Bourrée

Crash Ensemble

13.4. Tampere, Finland (Tampere Biennale)

KALEVI AHO

Solo 18 for tuba

Nicolas Indermühle 20.4. Turku, Finland

Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra

Oulu SO/Jessica Cottis, sol. Christel Lee, vl, Jonathan Roozeman, vlc 25.4. Oulu, Finland

ERIKA HAMMARBERG

En sådan kväll (Such an Evening) Allmäna Sången/Maria Goundorina 4.5. Uppsala, Sweden

OLLI KORTEKANGAS

Piir (Border/Raja)

Ville Rusanen, baritone, Elo Viiding, text, Tiit Peterson, gtr, Neeme Ounder, vl 7.5. Valga, Estonia/Latvia

MATTHEW WHITTALL

Joy – Symphony for Orchestra and Organ Finnish RSO/Nicholas Collon, sol. Susanne Kujala 22.5. Helsinki, Finland

JONAS VALFRIDSSON

Arìt

Jönköpings Sinfonietta/Anna-Maria Helsing, sol. Rickard Söderberg, ten 26.5. Jönköping, Sweden

KIMMO HAKOLA

Piano Sonata No. 3

Laura Mikkola

15.6. Iitti, Finland (Iitti Music Festival)

Photo: Josef Sjöblom

Kristin Warfvinge

REVIEWS

Vigour and urgency

”Lied von der Erde” kicks off with repeated iterations of a gruff, unison stabbed G in the strings… Its most interesting episode occurs at its centre, a massive contraction which incorporates some eerie, lonely textures before its pulse cranks up to reiterate the feeling of vigour, urgency and possibly violence heard at its opening. Larsson Gothe could not hope for better advocacy than that provided by the Ostrobothnians. Their performance is exceptional.

Music Web International 26.2.

Mats Larsson Gothe: Lied von der Erde

CD: Ostrobothnian CO/Malin Broman (Alba ABCD 473) ‘Recharged by Nature’

Spot-on Aho symphony

It begins with drumming with a big battery…Aho hits the hall spot-on. It has the same effect on the hips as rhythm music: gets them swaying. The subtlety of contemporary music lies in its unpredictability. You never know what’s coming next, but the 18th symphony was a real ambush. It was, says Aho, dictated by Russia’s attack on Ukraine and Finland’s concurrent brutalised atmosphere. Etelä-Saimaa 14.2.

Kalevi Aho: Symphony No. 18

World premiere: Saimaa Sinfonietta/Erkki Lasonpalo, 8.2.2024 Mikkeli, Finland

Humorous and intense Schnelzer

Hungarian folk music, Turkish rhythms and interpolated ciphers were some of the building blocks in Albert Schnelzer’s Aksak and Ciphers…a variegated, snappy, humorous and intense work, with good momentum and something of an illusory cheerfulness where one senses an underlying seriousness. Falukuriren 1.12.

Albert Schnelzer: Aksak and Ciphers (chamber orchestra version)

Dalasinfoniettan/Hugo Ticciati, 30.11.2023 Falun, Sweden

Jubilantly voluptuous

Hakola’s concerto is a postmodern blend of styles, irony, humour and playfulness… fiery virtuosity broke out in the finale of jubilant, carnivalist features. Hakola is a master at mixing different stylistic elements in a brew that is all his own. The point where the soloist and strings toss quick motifs to one another was fun.

Helsingin Sanomat 10.12.

Kimmo Hakola: Violin Concerto

Helsinki PO/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, sol. John Storgårds, 8.12.2023 Helsinki, Finland

Enchanting Lintinen

Impressionistic tones joined folk song-like tunes played with nothing short of fervour… Lintinen is, as we know, a jazz wizard, but this piece was all calm and collected. Helsingin Sanomat 22.1.

Kirmo Lintinen: La permanenza della memoria

World premiere: Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Meta 4 Quartet,18.1.2024 Jyväskylä, Finland

Wennäkoski’s reputation is growing

This arresting album, which just won a Gramophone Award, should add another boost to Wennäkoski’s music. …With all the color and alluring textures in her music, it’s not surprising to learn she studied with the late Kaija Saariaho. While Flounce is pure symphonic flamboyance, with its madly fluttering winds, sonic booms and buzzing strings, the three-paneled Sedecim shows a darker, subtler side of Wennäkoski’s orchestral prowess. …Sigla, her harp concerto, feels like a ballet of swirling color, tamed by a central slow, ghostly movement. npr.org 13.12.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Harp Concerto ‘Sigla’, Flounce, Sedecim

CD: Finnish RSO/Nicholas Collon, sol. Sivan Magen (Ondine 1420-2)

Photo: Mats Lundqvist

Albert Schnelzer

Photo: Maria Gothe

Kalevi Aho turned 75 in March

Photo: Henna Salmela

Mats Larsson Gothe

John Storgårds and Kimmo Hakola

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Fascinating and imaginative Extinctions

“Extinctions” is characterized by the earth’s resonant rumble. The composition cleverly utilizes different instrumental groups and colours in depicting evolution, from dense strings in the forest to the clarinets’ erratic frogs and the Jurassic brass. Pressure waves and dust clouds come to life in the percussion section. The music is colourful and visual but never merely illustrative.

Helsingin Sanomat 27.1.

Damström has created a fascinating score, to say the least; full of exciting sonorities, colours and suggestive orchestral effects… The lion’s share consists of de facto intensely meditative, wellnigh mystically vibrating and calmly tentative passages, that lend all the more effective relief to the few explosive discharges.

Hufvudstadsbladet 27.1

Cecilia Damström: Extinctions

World premiere: Finnish RSO/Chloé Dufresne, 26.1.2024 Helsinki, Finland

Exquisite Permafrost

”Permafrost” stands as a truly exquisite and masterful creation, impeccably crafted with no superfluous elements. Its accessibility is remarkable; making it a true pleasure to listen to. I dare say, it’s a musical gem that is bound to grace many stages in the years to come… an unsurpassed success! Keskipohjanmaa 20.2.

Cecilia Damström: Permafrost World premiere: Ostrobothnian CO/ Jan Söderblom, sol. Sonja Vertainen, acc. 16.2.2024, Kokkola, Finland

Solitary Poems

These works, while modern, manage to be accessible and enjoyable without lacking any interest… Paulsson’s playing is sensitive and imaginative, with plenty of colour and tonal variety…This is beautiful, approachable contemporary music that showcases the craft of a wonderful saxophonist.

MusicWeb International 24.1.

Various composers: Solitary Poems – 23 pieces for soprano saxophone

CD: Anders Paulsson, ssax (BIS SACD 2644)

Nordgren and Aho

Powerfully sounding dystopia

“Silent Earth” is convincing in its spontaneity… The Concert Hall Choir sang with a vigour evincing sometimes great pain, and sometimes great melancholy. It was not difficult to associate to “Aniara” in the depiction of the planet’s destruction. But here it was just so much more brutal when the orchestra exploded in a resounding volcanic eruption… Still, in the end it was the sorrow for everything that had been lost that prevailed when the music faded away slowly and softly.

Helsingborgs Dagblad 3.11.

Karin Rehnqvist: Silent Earth

Helsingborg SO, Helsingborg Concert Hall Choir/Peter Szilvay, 2.11.2023 Helsingborg, Sweden

Nordgren drew on folk melodies ranging from laments to fiddle tunes. Written in 2006, the suite looks backwards, to a lost time of cohesion, and still could not be more topical today… If anyone, Nordgren knew how to write for string orchestra, and the orchestra succeeded in getting the last ounce out of the varied soundscapes.

In the Aho concerto, the low strings of the “netherworld” reply to musical questions posed by the violins. Aho’s music is not mellowed by the ultimate universal question. It is direct, open, clear. The last question, fading into the heights, produces a moving end. Keskipohjanmaa 20.1.

Pehr Henrik Nordgren: Kuvia maaseudun menneisyydestä (Pictures on Rural Past)

Kalevi Aho: Kirje tuolle puolen (Letter to the Netherworld)

Ostrobothnian CO/Juha Kangas, 19.1.2024 Kaustinen, Finland (Kaustinen Chamber Music Week)

Pehr Henrik Nordgren

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju/Music Finland

Karin Rehnqvist

Photo: Agnes Thor

Cecilia Damström

Photo: Jukka Lehojärvi/Keskipohjanmaa

NEW PUBLICATIONS

FIRST PUBLICATIONS

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

Concerto grottesco for orchestra

FG 9790550119048 (score)

Hajoaminen (Dissolution)

Four Songs for Voice and Piano

Text: Lassi Nummi (Fin)

FG 9790550119000

Concerto grottesco (1950) is among Rautavaara’s first orchestral works. With overall duration of 6 minutes, it includes four movements.

Hajoaminen dates from 1956 and is set to texts by Rautavaara’s friend, Finnish poet Lassi Nummi.

CHORAL/VOCAL PY BÄCKMAN/ ARR: HANS ÅKESSON

Stad i ljus (Unchained Light) for mixed choir and piano

Text: Py Bäckman (Swe)

GE 14600

CHAMBER AND INSTRUMENTAL

KALEVI AHO

Quasi una fantasia for horn and organ

FG 9790550119024

Sonata III for solo accordion

FG 9790550118980

Three pieces for young violin players (Kolme kappaletta pienille viulisteille)

FG 9790550119079

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

ORCHESTRAL

ULRIKA EMANUELSSON

I det vitt ofyllda for mixed choir

Text: Lotta Lotass (Swe)

GE 14518

NANA FORTE

O Oriens for mixed choir

Text: The Great O Antiphons of Advent (Lat), GE 14602

Stad i ljus

Py

Aveo for solo cello

GE 14630

BENJAMIN INGROSSO/ ARR: MAGNUS BJÖRKMAN

Text: Israel Kolmodin (Swe)

GE 14607

BENJAMIN INGROSSO/ NICLAS WAHLGREN/ ARR: MAGNUS ÄDEL

Allt det vackra (Everything Beautiful) for mixed choir

DANIEL BÖRTZ

Sinfonia 14 for string orchestra

Celestial Beings for violin and viola

GE 14611

PAAVO KORPIJAAKKO

Den blomstertid nu kommer (Now the Time of Blossoming Arrives) for mixed choir

Text: Ingorsso/Wahlgren (Swe)

GE 14565

SUSANNA LINDMARK

To Be a Human for mixed choir

Text: Susanna Lindmark (Eng)

GE 14571

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

Chrysáëtos for mixed choir, harp and reciter

Text: August Strindberg (Swe)

GE 14652 (score), GE 14653 (harp)

VELJO TORMIS

Kurvameelsed laulud (Melancholy Songs)

Text: trad. (Est/Eng) for mezzo-soprano and strings FG 9790550119086 (score and parts 33221)

ALVIN VIKMAN

The Japanese Seasons for mixed choir

Text: Poems from Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Jap)

GE 14522

JAN YNGWE

No More War! for mixed choir

Text: Asif Andalib (Eng)

GE 14566

O Oriens

FG 9790550118997

ROOPE MÄENPÄÄ

Kimberley – Sonata for Guitar

GE 13635 (score), GE 13637 (study score)

Sinfonia 15 for orchestra

GE 14411 (score), GE 14413 (study score)

GRETA DAHLSTRÖM

Sonata for Flute and Piano FG 9790550118966

LAURI MÄNTYSAARI

Élégie for solo accordion FG 9790550118973

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Aksak and Ciphers version for string quartet GE 14636 (score), GE14637 (parts)

HARRI WESSMAN

Summer Variations for viola and piano

FG 9790550119062

VICTORIA YAGLING

Suite for Cello and String Orchestra Reduction for cello and piano by Yuriy Leonovich

FG 9790550119031

FG 9790550117662 (score and parts 33221)

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

ICE for orchestra

Folkvisa från Houtskär (Folksong from Houtskari, 1936) for string orchestra

GE 14085 (score), GE 14087 (study score)

EMMY LINDSTRÖM

At the Hills of Hampstead Heath

Clarinet Concerto No. 1 for solo clarinet and orchestra

GE 14639 (score), GE 14640 (solo clarinet), GE 14641 (study score)

HARRI WESSMAN

Suite for two violins and string orchestra

FG 9790550119055 (score and parts 33221)

COLLECTIONS

Lux laterna magica

Well known music from major film successes arranged for organ.

Editor: Per-Gunnar Petersson

GE 14560

Diabelli 2024

23 variations by 18 contemporary composers on Anton Diabelli’s Waltz for piano

Editor: Mats Jansson

GE 14594

For further information contact us at:

Gehrmans Musikförlag AB

Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel. +46 8 610 06 00

info@gehrmans.se

Web shop: www.gehrmans.se

Hire: hire@gehrmans.se

Sales: order@gehrmans.se

Fennica Gehrman Oy Ab

Tel. +358 10 3871 220

info@fennicagehrman.fi

Web shop: www.fennicagehrman.fi

Hire: hire@fennicagehrman.fi

Sales: customerservice@kirjavalitys.fi

Fredrikinkatu 61 A 22, FI-00100 Helsinki, Finland

LUX LATERNA MAGICA

ICE for symphony

Cecilia Damström