Nordic Highlights No. 4 2023

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2023

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Roope Mäenpää – a versatile talent Focus on Marie Samuelsson

Photo: Romain Etienne

NEWS Kalevi Aho at 75 Kalevi Aho, one of Finland’s most celebrated contemporary composers, will be 75 on 9 March 2024, and there will be numerous concerts to mark the event. The Saimaa Sinfonietta has commissioned him to write his 18th symphony, to be premiered in Mikkeli on 8 February with Erkki Lasonpalo conducting. The Oulu Symphony Orchestra under Jessica Cottis will be premiering Aho’s new Double Concerto with Christel Lee (violin) and Jonathan Roozeman (cello) as the soloists on 25 April, and the programmes for many other orchestras and festivals will include works by Aho. October 2023 saw the publication of a biography by Hannu Lahtonen giving a detailed account (in Finnish) of Kalevi Aho’s life and work, career and performances in Finland and abroad.

Exciting new guitar concertos on CD Guitar concertos by three front-line Finnish composers have been released

by Alba Records on a disc titled Exquisitely Absurd.

Antti Auvinen’s Andalusian Panzerwagen Jazz represents his typical maximalist-anarchist style combining various styles and ideas, while the approach of Lotta Wennäkoski in Susurrus is both humorous and outright lyrical. The orchestration of Riikka Talvitie’s Without Irony is from time to time unashamedly brilliant, but it is not without a touch of intimate mystery (See: Repertoire tips). The Tapiola Sinfonietta is conducted on this CD by Dima Slobodeniouk and the soloist is one of Finland’s most versatile classical guitarists, Petri Kumela.

Photo: Henrik Halvarsson

Ilkka Kuusisto’s opera music on stage Ilkka Kuusisto (b. 1933) reached 90 this year.

The emphasis in his broad and diverse output is on vocal music, and he is one of the most prolific and most-performed Finnish composers of opera. Among the many that have flowed from his pen is The Moomin Opera. His birthday year was celebrated in November, when the Sibelius Academy Opera staged a varied cross-section of his popular vocal works.

Developments at Fennica Gehrman

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

Editors: Henna Salmela, Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo, Robert Carroll, Apropos lingua Cover photos: Marie Samuelsson (Mats Bäcker); Roope Mäenpää (Ville Hautakangas) Design: Tenhelp Oy and video symbols in the text.

Click the sound ISSN 2000-2750 (Online)

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4/2023

Mats Larsson Gothe’s and Susanne Marko’s The Promise (Löftet) is being staged once again by the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. This opera, based on real events, had its world premiere on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022. It is about Ava, who is separated from her husband Teo in a concentration camp, and her struggle to find him again after the war is over.

The production can be seen at the Royal Opera from 23 February to 4 April 2024, with Hannah Husáhr, Agnes Auer and Jens Persson Hertzmann in the leading roles.

Damström’s busy spring 4/2023

NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

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Revival of The Promise in Stockholm

Photo: Ville Juurikkala

Jennah Vainio has been appointed Fennica Gehrman’s new Publishing Manager from 1 December. Vainio is a composer who has held varied posts on the Finnish music scene. She has been a music advisor at Teosto, the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society, and Artistic Director of the Tampere Biennale music festival.

She was also a founding member of the Uusinta publishing company.

Henna Salmela is the Director of Administration, in charge of administration, financing and promotion at Fennica Gehrman.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra will premiere Cecilia Damström’s Extinctions on 26 January under Chloé Dufresne.

They will also give two performances of her ICE conducted by Nicholas Collon in February. Her accordion concerto Permafrost will have its world premiere on 16 February during the Kokkola Winter Accordion Festival with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Sonja Vertainen as soloist. 12 April will see the Finnish premiere of Wasteland at the Tampere Biennale, with Olari Elts leading the Tampere Philharmonic.

Cecilia Damström

Photo: Camilla Svensk

Photo: Felicia Margineanu

Daniel Börtz

Solitary Poems

Matthew Peterson

The Solitary Poems project was a creative response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soprano saxophonist Anders Paulsson attracted 30 international composers to write pieces for him, in order to keep them all growing artistically during the time when all concerts and touring came to a standstill. Some pieces turned out to be extremely virtuosic while others are more contemplative and lyrical. 23 of them have now been presented on an album released by BIS Records (See: New albums). Five of the Solitary Poems have been published by Gehrmans; Fredrik Högberg’s Orphan Elephant, Ann-Sofi Söderqvist’s Solitude, Marie Samuelsson’s Piece to Anders from Marie, Jörgen Dafgård’s Iridescence and Thomas Lindahl’s Night Owl.

Albert Schnelzer

Peterson, Schnelzer and Börtz awarded

self-explanatory music has all the makings of a truly modern classic”, wrote the jury.

Daniel Börtz was awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Music’s Composer Prize 2023 “for an outstanding achievement as a composer with a unique tone language that offers strong feelings as well as existential issues, always coupled to the contemporary scene. In sinfonias and solo concertos, in chamber music and vocal works and in his epoch-making operas, Börtz combines modernism and tradition in a sonorous world of expression and beauty.”

Mats Jansson

Diabelli Variations 2024 Pianist Mats Jansson has commissioned new variations from 18 Swedish composers over Anton Diabelli’s Waltz from 1819. It is the same theme that Beethoven used in his 33 Variations Op. 120, and that 50 more Austrian composers wrote variations on in 1824. 200 years have now elapsed since these were published, and Jansson thought it was time for reflections for our time. The edition ‘Diabelli 2024 – 23 Variations for Piano on Anton Diabelli’s Waltz’ is due to be released in January 2024. All variations will be performed at a concert at the De Geer Hall in Norrköping on 3 April.

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

Photo: Henric Daréus

Matthew Peterson and Albert Schnelzer won this year’s art music prizes when the Swedish MPA Awards were presented on 10 November. In his a cappella choral work An Inner Sky to texts by E. E. Cummings, “Peterson depicts nature and heaven by rich sonorities and nuances, violent outbursts and sudden strokes of fancy. Schnelzer’s oratorio SALT for soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra is about the sea and migration. Here current issues are described with an accessible and timeless tone language, and this almost

Matthew Whittall commissions Matthew Whittall has two big orchestral commissions in the pipeline. One of them, from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), is for a piece for organ and orchestra to be premiered by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Helsinki Music Centre on 22 May 2024. The soloist in this concert conducted by Nicholas Collon will be Susanne Kujala. Žibuokle Martinaitytė The Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Vaasa City Orchestra have asked Whittall to write an Oboe Concerto. Anni Haapaniemi is to be the soloist.

Matthew Whittall will be 50 years old in January 2025.

Matthew Whittall

Lotta Wennäkoski found her awarded CD in a record shop in London

Wennäkoski boom continues Lotta Wennäkoski has received a lot of attention recently. Her CD including three works: Flounce, Sedecim and the harp concerto Sigla won the British Gramophone Award for the best release in the contemporary category in October. On the Ondine disc the Finnish RSO was conducted by Nicholas Collon.

The world premiere of Wennäkoski’s violin concerto Prosoidia by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and violinist Ilya Gringolts on 3 November won great acclaim, and two weeks later the BBC SO performed her Verdigris in Warsaw, Poland. Chamber music by Wennäkoski has also been heard: the Avanti!

Quartet performed her two string quartets (Pige and Flickereth) at a concert in Helsinki on 2 December, and at the same time the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra released a new disc including five works by her: Zeng, Verdigris, Päärme II, Hele and I stället för vingar.

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“Marie Samuelsson has for a long time been a central voice among Swedish composers. In her Concerto for Guitar, Violin and Orchestra, the unusual soloist combination interacts with the orchestra in an elegant and playful manner. By means of concentrated material crafted in great detail, urgent themes of nature and cycles are given shape.

And in this work Samuelsson creates her own unique musical ecosystem.”

O

n 27 November Marie Samuelsson received Sweden’s most coveted prize for composers, the Great Christ Johnson Prize, for her double concerto The Crane’s Beak (Brandnäva) from 2019. It was conductor Christian Karlsen and guitarist Jacob Kellermann who contacted Marie Samuelsson about their idea for this concerto. The Gävle Symphony Orchestra commissioned the work, which had its premiere in November 2019, together with Karlsen, Kellermann and violinist Catharina Chen.

Samuelsson found her inspiration while taking a walk in Tyresta National Park, south of Stockholm. She caught sight of a sign that showed a tender little blue-purple flower, the Crane’s Beak. The text explained that the flower’s seeds only grow when heated up, as for instance after a forest fire. In between fires the plant bides its time in the soil. It was after the extremely hot summer of 2018, when forest fires wreaked havoc at their worst in Sweden. And the Crane’s Beak bloomed in Tyresta.

– I found this exceedingly inspiring, that in the midst of the devastation something still managed to grow. Here was the threat from climate change and the subsequent forest fires, but there was also a glimpse of hope, the power and the will to live that this fragile little flower represented.

Marie relates that she collaborated closely with guitarist Jacob Kellermann.

– We worked a lot with expanded playing techniques on the guitar. This was really exciting as I had not worked so closely with a guitarist before. Among other things, I listed key words that had to do with the theme: dry green leaves, drops of water, flames, fire, ashes, seeds that sprout, blooming, recovery; words that I thought could inspire Jacob. How could these words be transformed into music? Jacob gave suggestions as to how it could sound and then I continued to work from there. The key words were also included in the score and mark out the different sections in the music.

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The premiere was very well received and got excellent reviews. Many people came up to Marie after the premiere to say that they had been deeply moved by the music.

– I also think that the subject in itself had an impact. It was so relevant. Contemporary art music can be very abstract for unaccustomed listeners, but if you have a title or a theme that opens a path into the music, it might be easier to communicate about it. This has always been the way that I work. I believe that art music can create space for reflection, not only musically but also to process current subjects of urgency.

Marie Samuelsson often derives musical material from current issues.

As in Five Seasons , written on commission from Musica Vitae as a modern commentary on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. It deals with heat waves and torrential rains, new insects and plants that thrive in an ever warmer climate.

Here the viola is central, instead of the violin, and we hear sounds from rain, squalls, insects and the chirping of birds. The work includes poems by Mimmi Palm, which are read in between the various seasons.

– These are actually poems written with love for the different seasons. It was my intention that the climate theme would function as an opposite pole and create a tension between the beautiful and the threatening. The idea was that this should lead to reflection. How long shall we still have the seasons?

The work was premiered by Musica Vitae during the Båstad Chamber Music Festival 2017 together with Vivaldi’s music and was subsequently taken on tour. It was also performed during the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm. Samuelsson’s Five Seasons was then interpolated between the movements in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

We find sounds from nature also in the work In the Eye of the Wolf (I vargens öga, 1997) where a lone alto saxophone is accompanied by howling wolves on tape. In her latest orchestral work Calls for New Times (Läten för ny tid, 2021), written for the 30th anniversary of the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra, she was inspired by bird sounds that were later transformed into music. But Samuelsson is not only inspired by the sounds of nature but also by the sounds of the city, sounds that are all around us.

Marie tells about her compositional process.

– What is typical for most of my music is that it begins with a sound idea that I try to concretize into music. I often start at the piano and improvise. My composing is based on a musician’s way of thinking rather than on mathematical or theoretical ideas. I transfer my improvisations to notes and then I develop these ideas in the score.

Photo: Mats Bäcker

Marie Samuelsson: It starts with a sound idea

Marie Samuelsson

Samuelsson has written all types of works: orchestral music, operas, pieces for solo instruments, chamber music, choral works, etc.

– It is awesome to think that I have been active as a composer for 40 years! I started to write music for dance when I was 27.

Now she enjoys working with the younger generation on the musical scene.

– For example, I’m going to write a piece for the Swedish-Irish quintet Ensemble Getögon, which consists of four wind players and percussion, plus electronics. I might even join in with them and sing. One has to renew oneself, you know. But we’ll see if it will be live or on tape, don’t know if I actually dare to do it…

I have also collaborated with conductor Bobby Collins and the Sound Ensemble from Seattle. He also came over with some young composers to work together with KammarensembleN in Stockholm. And then I meet with former students whom I coach. I have more time to do this kind of thing since I retired from my teaching position at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

After having written for many different constellations of musicians Marie has a dream project that she would like to realize.

– Yes, I would really like to write a work for string quartet and orchestra. I already have lots of ideas for this.

Kristina Fryklöf

Mäenpää likes working with a variety of aesthetics.

This wide-ranging approach is reflected in exciting blends and works with assorted stylistic accents.

Photo: Ville Hautakangas

Roope Mäenpää – a versatile talent

The background of a cellist and the presence of musicianship can be felt in Mäenpää’s three string quartets, of which Chasing the Thrill is the latest. Behind the work, there (2021) is the story of a treasure, hidden in the Rocky Mountains in the United States by Forrest Fenn, a cancer patient. The enormous treasure hunt ended up partly with tragic consequences.

Chasing the Thrill is a dense, 10-minute piece, where the suspense is created between a silent sense of expectation and impetuous drama. It was composed for the Tampere-based TEMA quartet Mäenpää has been working closely with.

Similar important partners for Mäenpää are the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, one of Finland’s top orchestras, and the Tampere Raw, an active contemporary music group.

Musical fairy tales for young audiences

“T

he performance of the orchestral work Luovus in the beginning of November 2023 in Ottawa was a great experience, my debut abroad as a composer. John Storgårds is the Principal Guest Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and he suggested the work. It is a fantastic, technically skilled orchestra, and everything went well already at the first rehearsal.”

This is how Roope Mäenpää (born in 1990) described the performance of his large-scale work Luovus (2022), characterized by him as a “yoik symphony”. What is special about the work is the yoik part, composed for Niillas Holmberg, a Sámi multi-artist. The Sámi are the only European population group by the status of indigenous people, and according to Mäenpää, it is important that the performer of the yoik part is a Sámi. Mäenpää has a long common history with Holmberg dating back 15 years when they created folk-inspired music together. After that, Mäenpää’s musical interests have expanded and focused on art music, which he studied in his home town in Tampere under the guidance of Jouni Kaipainen, Hannu Pohjannoro and Paavo Korpijaakko among others.

A wide-ranging composer Although the focus of Mäenpää’s work is today in art music, he thinks his wide-ranging background is important. It is reflected in Luovus’s amalgamation of yoik representing the Sámi culture and the orchestral part representing western music, where the orchestral part has been adjusted to a softer direction as per the yoik’s tonal starting points.

“I like to work with many different aesthetics.

The perspective of musicianship, opened up

The musical tales Hipinäaasi ja apinahiisi (2020) and Hyönteissinfonia (The Insect Symphony, 2021) reach out to young listeners, and the idiom in both tends towards tonal. In both works, there is also a narrator alongside the symphony orchestra.

Hipinäaasi ja apinahiisi is based on Ville Hytönen’s book, which Mäenpää discovered already during his studies. At the time, he suggested to the Tampere Philharmonic a work based on the book. To Mäenpää’s surprise, the orchestra reached out years after and placed a commission.

Thanks to its success, the orchestra commissioned immediately a new work from Mäenpää.

The Insect Symphony created thereafter expands the narrator’s role into a dialogue between adult and child and intensifies the understanding of nature and insects. There are also lovely illustrations to be included in the performance.

“Insects are a small but important subject, and the approach here is the collapse of insects and the reduction of pollen. At the same time, the work is a symphony, with the orchestral climax and all”, says Mäenpää.

through my own instrument cello, has also been important for the composing work.”

The broad perspective is also reflected in Mäenpää’s oeuvre in which pieces are consciously created from different starting points, including different stylistic emphases. Jamais vu (2020) represents the core of his art music. It is a work commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, dense in its dramaturgy and rich in its sound. The first performance, however, took an unexpected turn in February 2021.

“The 10-minute piece composed for a large orchestra was already finished when the FRSO informed that due to COVID-19 restrictions the size has to be reduced: ten parts needed to be removed, however not from the strings. It felt awful but was also very educational, as I had to think what was really essential. All in all, it was great that the work could be performed in the first place, although it was streamed without audience. And now, there are two versions available Kimmo Korhonen for orchestras of different sizes.”

The same thing, performance streamed without audience, happened in February 2021 in Tampere to another large-scale work, Käsiin (2020). It is a delicate concerto for kantele, Finland’s national instrument, of which the modern concert kantele was developed in the 20th century.

“It was great to dive into the world of kantele”, says Mäenpää. “I felt that I was on foreign soil, and it was Illustration for the Insect exciting to combine tradiSymphony by Emmi Nieminen tions.”

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R E P ER TO I RE TIPS Exciting, new repertoire for orchestra PANU AALTIO Koli (2022) Dur: 19’

DANIEL NELSON The Ghost Machine Treatise (2023)

Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra 2222-2201-10-str

Dur: 22’ for solo accordion and orchestra 2222-223113-el.git(opt)-el.bass(opt)-str

Aaltio is known as a successful film composer based in Helsinki and Los Angeles.

Nature has inspired this concerto: the wake of the forest in the first movement, with darker colours in the second and finally the return of the light and hope in the finale.

The subtitle refers to the famous Finnish landscape, which has also inspired artists such as Sibelius. Commissioned by Lieksa Brass Week and available also as a piano reduction.

NILS-PETTER ANKARBLOM Smolan Road (2014) Dur: 5’ for chamber orchestra 2222-2210-11-hpstr (alt. 2222-2200-11-str) or symphony orchestra 3333-4331-13-1-str (alt. 22224231-12-1-str)

Smolan Road is found in the rural village of Smolan, a Swedish settlement in Central Kansas that dates back to the 1880s. This piece is written as an orchestral polska, a traditional Swedish folk dance with its typical emphasis on beat 1 and 3. It honors the immigrant spirit through folk music inspired melodies that represent the Swedish heritage those brave voyagers brought with them over the seas.

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM Wasteland (2021/2022) Dur: 20’ 2222-4231-02-str

In Wasteland, Damström aims to highlight the issues in the textile industry, greenwashing, our overconsumption of clothing, and the importance of recycling.

It is a vibrant, contrasting, and entertaining work in five movements: ‘Wear,’ ‘Toss,’ ‘Sort,’ ‘Burn,’ and ‘Flow.’ In the music, Damström also “recycles” by incorporating short fragments from well-known hymns, national anthems, classical pieces, and pop songs in an ingenious manner.

SAMPO KASURINEN Tango Sinfónico (2018/23) Dur: 7’ for chamber orchestra 2222-2200-01(or2)-str or symphony orchestra 2222-4331-13-hppf-str

“I wanted to do a piece that was fun to play and that isn’t altogether classical or light but something in between,” says Kasurinen. The tango part is only short but plants in the listener’s ear a catchy rhythm that persists throughout the energetic piece.

Composer, arranger and saxophonist, Kasurinen won the composition competition run by the Vantaa Pops Orchestra in 2018 with this piece distantly related to Maurice Ravel’s La Valse.

JACOB MÜHLRAD REMS (2021) Dur: 25’ 3343-4331-14-str

REMS – short version (2021/23) Dur: 7’ for orchestra 3343-4331-14-str or chamber orchestra 2222-2200-01-str

In REMS (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep), Mühlrad explores the enigmatic and vibrant nature of the unconscious dream state. The composition weaves a tapestry of dream-like sonic textures, accentuated by intricate, ornamental motifs. These elements are influenced by an array of sources, such as lullabies from various traditions, as well as sounds of sleep. As the dreamscape gradually subsides, the listener is left with the gentle, rhythmic sound of breathing, in and out.

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This concerto was inspired by inventor Thomas Edison and his plans to build a machine that could trace ghosts via electric energies, a first step toward making contact with the dead. It is a splendidly effective work that creates an uncanny atmosphere, where the orchestra represents the machine while the soloist embodies the spiritual presence of the ghosts, and then the magic energies that arise between them.

PETROS PAUKKUNEN Touched by Sacred Fire (2020) Dur: 12’ 2222-222(II=btrb)1-02-str

This sparkling work is just made as a concert curtain-raiser. The rich, confident handling of the orchestra says much about the young Finnish-Greek composer’s skills and imagination. Now and then, the sparky beginning gives way to meditative and dreamy moods, before finally arriving at magical glitter. Premiered in 2019 at the Sibelius Festival in Lahti.

LARA POE Onerva-laulut (Onerva Songs) (2023) Dur: 23’ for mezzo-soprano and orchestra 3333-4331-11-hp-str

Text: L. Onerva (Fin) These recently-premiered songs proved Poe’s phenomenal talent at handling an orchestra and utterly charmed her listeners.

The magnificently colourful and sensual music delicately follows the text and offers the soloist and audience a rare treat: modern, beautiful and ambitiously executed music. Commissioned jointly by the Lahti and Oulu Symphony Orchestras.

ANN-SOFI SÖDERQVIST Movements (2017/18) Dur: 9’ 3333-4331-13-hp-str

A striking and touching concert opener, reflecting on movements over time with extreme and polarising ideas, on refugees and nature’s ever more powerful movements in the form of weather extremes, etc. The work begins with a lone, slightly sorrowful trumpet that plays an important role throughout the piece. The music fluctuates between the agitated and the more contemplative, between beautiful shimmering sonorities and impetuous rhythmical sections.

And the Mother Sings… (2021/22) Dur:18’

NE W ALBUM S ANTTI AUVINEN

Andalusian Panzerwagen Jazz

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

Susurrus

RIIKKA TALVITIE

Without Irony Tapiola Sinfonietta/Dima Slobodeniouk, sol. Petri Kumela, guitar Alba ABCD 475 (‘Exquisitely Absurd’)

B. H. CRUSELL

Bassoon Concerto Helsinki Baroque Orchestra/Aapo Häkkinen, sol. Jani Sunnarborg Ondine ODE-1424-2

MATS LARSSON GOTHE

Lied von der Erde Ostrobothnian CO/Malin Broman, leader

Alba ABCD 473 (‘Recharged by Nature’)

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Maggid, REMS Royal Stockholm PO/Pablo Heras Cassado, Johannes Rostamo, vcl Warner Classics 5419775021 (‘REMS’)

FREDRIK SIXTEN

Oh Do Not Fear the Darkness, Den dödsdömde, Jag sträcker mina händer mot dig etc.

Ragnar Bohlin Chamber Choir DBCD211 (‘Faith, Hope & Love’)

VELJO TORMIS

Reminiscentia: Autumn Landscapes, Winter Patterns, Spring Sketches, Summer Motifs, Hamlet’s Songs, Herding Calls etc.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/ Tõnu Kaljuste ECM 2793 (‘Reminiscentiae’)

EDUARD TUBIN

Music for Strings, Suite from the ballet Kratt Estonian Festival Orchestra/ Paavo Järvi ALPHA 1006 (‘Kratt’)

Concerto for Trumpet, Trombone and Orchestra 2222-4231-13-hp-str

And the Mother Sings is a homage to our planet Earth. In this deftly orchestrated work the composer’s solid experience from both jazz and symphonic music really proves useful. It is dramatic, with majestic brass and rumbling percussion. But it all ends in tranquility with achingly beautiful strings and harp, above which the soloists play their melancholy melodic lines, and you can really imagine the Earth singing.

VARIOUS COMPOSERS

Solitary Poems Anders Paulsson, ssax BIS SACD 2644

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

RIIKKA TALVITIE Without Irony (2009/22) Dur: 25’ Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra 2222-2200-01-pf(+cel&cem)-str

The first movement has some slow sections shrouding the guitar in mysterious weaves.

At the heart is a dialogue between the guitar and harpsichord. The second movement begins with stately, bell-like orchestral chords that gradually transform into a running scherzo. Talvitie uses an e-bow, and the magnetic field this produces makes the metal strings vibrate, thus creating magical, melodic worlds of sound.

Zeng, Verdigris, Hele, Päärme II, I stället för vingar Avanti! Chamber Orchestra/ József Hárs Alba ABCD 529 (‘Zeng’)

HARRI WESSMAN

Laulujen puu, Päivänkukka, Olli’s Solo & other works Tapiolan Laulu/Uli Kontu-Korhonen, Outi Viitaniemi, fl, Timo Korhonen, gtr etc.

Fuga 9484 (‘Laulujen puu’)

Photo: BBC/Mark Allan

REVIEWS Wennäkoski at the BBC premiere in London.

A veritable bull’s-eye

Irresistible positive energy… Vainio has tensed the overall span in a way that really works dramaturgically, the orchestration is effective – the percussions are particularly imaginative. The music has a palpably evocative underlying mood spiced in places with oriental hues… Sylvia’s Lullaby is without question one of Vainio’s most powerful works to date.

Hufvudstadsbladet 21.10.

Jennah Vainio: Sylvia’s Lullaby World premiere: Helsinki PO/Ruth Reinhardt, 20.10.2023 Helsinki, Finland

Börtz is better than Mozart

Börtz lets his music support the text that is conveyed by both reciters and singers. The percussionists, especially, get their scope in the sinfonia in an effective way… Daniel Carlsson’s high male voice in itself gives the music an almost mystical and strained quality… Tonight Börtz is better than Mozart.

Norrköpings Tidningar 6.10.

Wennäkoski – a composer of exceptional talent

Prosoidia seemed tailor-made for Gringolts’ mastery of the expressive qualities of his instrument, from the otherworldliness of harmonics to the rustic colours of folk song and the dark echo of Baroque refinement…

The work shows Wennäkoski to be a composer of exceptional talent and it is dedicated to the memory of one of the people who nurtured that talent, Kaija Saariaho. Bachtrack.com 5.11.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Violin concerto “Prosoidia” World premiere: BBC SO/Roderick Cox, sol. Ilya Gringolts, 3.11.2023 London, UK

More music like this!

The work had an ongoing choreography in which the soloist’s gestures and facial expressions were closely marked in the score…A gripping story without words. The orchestra also contributed to the visual aspect.

More like this! Keskipohjanmaa 2.10.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Ele for clarinet and orchestra World premiere: Ostrobothnian CO/Dima Slobodeniouk, sol. Lauri Sallinen, 19.9.2023 Kokkola, Finland

Daniel Börtz: Sinfonia 13 Norrköping SO/Patrik Ringborg, sol. Daniel Carlsson, Johanna Rudstöm, Karl-Magnus Fredriksson etc, 5.10.2023 Norrköping, Sweden

Music for troubled times

It is no doubt possible in the first movement to speak of a kind of lyrical – or in any case singable – pessimism, where the music occasionally meanders along in the most languid lento. But both tempo and drama are intensified in this half-hourlong sinfonia. We could summarize by saying that it is troubled music for troubled times… Somehow the music channels sorrow over a world that refuses to be beautiful.

Dagens Nyheter 23.11.

Daniel Börtz: Sinfonia 15 World premiere: Royal Stockholm PO/Ryan Bancroft, 22.11.2023 Stockholm, Sweden

A super piece

The music has something of the character of a symphonic poem, suggestive of a dreamscape. A mysterious atmospheric opening evoked a surreal woodland scene at dusk… It’s a super piece and received a compelling reading from Søndergård and the orchestra on top form. Edinburgh Music Review 8.11.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Of Footprints and Light (Helsinki Variations) Royal Scottish NO/Thomas Søndergård, 4.11.2023 Glasgow, UK

Diabolical Kratt

This suite from the ballet on the Nordic-Baltic myth of the devilish goblin springs into diabolical life with angular treatment of urgent melodies, all mined from Estonian folksources… The last movement’s procession of very distinctive moods, including the trenchant ‘Dance of the Exorcists’, is really something.

Gramophone 10/2023 Eduard Tubin: Music for Strings, Suite from the ballet Kratt CD: Estonian Festival Orchestra/Paavo Järvi (Alpha 1006 ‘Kratt’)

Inspiring disc

Proceeding from its waltzing beginning, this robust symphony rich in character grows increasingly dramatic in the finale. A welcome come-back in a model performance. Helsingin Sanomat 19.11.

Helvi Leiviskä: Symphony No. 1, Piano Concerto Staatskapelle Weimar/Ari Rasilainen, sol. Oliver Triendl (Hänssler HC23050)

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2023

7

REVIEWS Photo: Gävle Konserthus

PREMIERE S January – March 2024 KIRMO LINTINEN

La permanenza della memoria Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Meta 4 Quartet 18.1. Jyväskylä, Finland

ROBERT SCHUMANN/ORCH: ROLF MARTINSSON

Kinderszenen for orchestra Västerås Sinfonietta/Simon Crawford Phillips 18.1. Västerås, Sweden

KALEVI AHO

Sumussa for string quartet Tempera Quartet 21.1. Kaustinen Chamber Music Week, Finland Symphony No. 18 Mikkeli & Lappeenranta City Orchestras/Erkki Lasonpalo 8.2. Mikkeli, 9.2. Lappeenranta, Finland

ESA PIETILÄ

Kairos Ludus (Concerto for violin and tenor saxophone) Jyväskylä Sinfonia/Maria Itkonen, sol. Pekka Kuusisto, vl, Esa Pietilä, sax 24.1. Jyväskylä, Finland

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

Extinctions Finnish Radio SO/Chloé Dufresne 26.1. Helsinki, Finland Permafrost Ostrobothnian CO/Jan Söderblom, sol. Sonja Vertainen, acc 16.2. Kokkola, Finland (Kokkola Winter Accordion Festival)

Jonas Valfridsson, Mattias Knave, Tobias Ringborg and the Gävle Symphony.

Overwhelming and shattering

It was, simply, overwhelming… Valfridsson’s music brings out the text, gives it depth and intensity… a work and a performance that not only impressed but also deeply moved us. And Mattis Knave, what presence on the stage! The audience was totally captivated from the very first moment, and he had a voice that carried the text and gave it life and urgency.

Arbetarbladet 6.10.

MATS LARSSON GOTHE

Submarea Gothenburg SO/Christian Karlsen 21.2. Gothenburg, Sweden (Nordic – A Fragile Hope)

ŽIBUOKLĖ MARTINAITYTĖ

The monologue is powerful, like in a drama of Shakespeare…the music beautiful, harmonious and creates an atmosphere. Gävle Dagblad 6.10.

Work for Violin and Strings Ostrobothnian CO, sol. Hugo Ticciati 8.3. Kokkola, Finland

Mellifluous and charming

Photo: Music Finland/Maarit Kytöharju

Photo: Morgan Norman

Jonas Valfridsson: Varför älska vi att sjunka (Why Do We Love to Sink?)

World premiere: Gävle SO/Tobias Ringborg, sol. Mattias Knave, actor, 5.10.2023 Gävle, Sweden

This third is mellifluous and charming…. By this time Rautavaara had settled into a neo-Romantic idiom which is both attractive in itself and also occasionally harks back to earlier composers. The first of the three movements opens meditatively with the piano entering with a gentle chordal theme – one thinks of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto.

Musicweb International 9/2023

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Photo: Heikki Tuuli

Einojuhani Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3 ‘Gift of Dreams’ CD: Lahti SO/Dalia Stasevska, sol. Olli Mustonen, piano (BIS-2532)

Jacob Mühlrad Seppo Pohjola

Mühlrad’s spiritualized concept concert

Wonderfully varied works

Jacob Mühlrad: REMS, Nigun, Kaddish, Ay Li Lu etc Swedish CO/Martin Fröst, Vokalharmonin/Fredrik Malmberg, , Alexander Wessely, visual arts, Joel Lyssarides, pf, etc, 28.10.2023 Stockholm, Sweden

Seppo Pohjola: String Quartets 5-7 CD: New Helsinki Quartet (Alba ABCD 470)

The religious rite feels close at hand… The thought strikes me that Jacob Mühlrad wants to show that music makes it possible to endure the truth, however unbearable it may be. Music, or art, makes the truth beautiful, and necessary. Dagens Nyheter 29.10.

8

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2023

Each quartet has its own character, but they make a remarkably coherent whole. …These wonderfully varied works confirm that Seppo Pohjola’s contrapuntal, strongly expressive music is perfectly suited to the string quartet medium. I also think it is quite clear that the medium means much to him, and that more is likely to come. MusicWeb International 12.11.

N E W P U B L I C AT I O N S VOCAL/CHORAL

CHAMBER & INSTRUMENTAL

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

DANIEL BÖRTZ

Tidens ordning (The Order of Time) Five songs for bass baritone and piano Text: Oscar Rossi (Swe)

ORCHESTRA/OPERA TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

Quintet for Clarinet/ Basset Horn and String Quartet

Cecilia Damström

Daniel Börtz

Kvintett för klarinett/ bassetthorn och stråkkvartett

Tidens ordning Fem sånger till dikter av Oscar Rossi

LARS-ERIK LARSSON

for bass-baritone and piano

PER EKEDAHL

o purple finch/please tell me why for mixed choir Text: E. E. Cummings (Eng)

Quintet for Clarinet/ Basset Horn and String Quartet

Raschèr-Valse for alto-saxophone and piano Larsson’s long-forgotten waltz from 1935 is now published for the first time.

PER EKEDAHL

GE 14455

GE 14482

E. E. CUMMINGS

SCORE

Allt som bär kärlekens namn for mixed choir Text: Marie Winald Karlström (Swe) GE 14601

Gittan Glans

We Will See Light for mixed choir Text: Psalm 36 (Eng) GE 14617

THOMAS LINDAHL

FRANK HAVRØY

FG 9790550118942

Night Owl Solo for Soprano Saxophone

INGVAR LIDHOLM

FG 9790550118935

Fem haikudikter (Five Haiku Poems) for unison, two or three part choir (opt) Text: Tomas Tranströmer (Swe) Five newly discovered Lidholm settings

GE 14379

OLLE LINDBERG WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Lines Written in Early Spring SATB a cappella

MATTHEW PETERSON

for chamber orchestra

GE 14499 (score), 14501 (study score)

JYRKI LINJAMA

Chants and Spirituals for brass quintet

Te Deum for mixed choir and orchestra

GE 13498 (score) GE 13500 (study score), GE 13501 (chorus score) Benjamin Staern

GÉZA SZILVAY - LÁSZLÓ ROSSA

Chamber Music for young string players I

GE 14561

Let him kiss me

JEAN SIBELIUS

Joululaulu/Julvisa (En etsi valtaa, loistoa/Giv mig ej glans, ej guld, ej prakt Op. 1/4) for descant choir Text: Topelius (Fin/Swe) Based on the complete critical edition “Jean Sibelius Works”, this publication includes three versions: SSAA (G major), SSA (F major) and SA (G major).

FG 9790550118928

TTBB a cappella Sven-David Sandström Martin Hellberg, bearb.

REMS Jacob Mühlrad

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM

GE 14567 (score) GE 14568 (parts)

Let Him Kiss Me for male choir Text: from Song of Songs (Eng)

SCORE

GE 14496 (score), GE 14498 (study score)

Fanfar för Ravinen for brass quintet

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM (ARR: MARTIN HELLBERG)

for viola/violin and orchestra

FG 9790550117662 (score & parts)

JACOB MÜHLRAD

BENJAMIN STAERN

GE 14573

Dubbelkonsert för en

REMS (short version) for orchestra

FG 9790550118881

You are My Hiding Place for female choir Text: from Psalm 32 (Eng)

SCORE

Double Concerto for One

GE 14223 (score), GE 14225 (study score)

FG 9790550118874

för kör | text: tomas tranströmer

GRETA DAHLSTRÖM

Folksong from Houtskär (Folkvisa från Houtskär) for string orchestra

MATS LARSSON GOTHE

then when A-go for guitar

ingvar lidholm fem haikudikter

Albedo for symphony orchestra

Submarea for orchestra

OLLI KOSKELIN

OLLE LINDBERG

Symphony No. 1

GE 14598 (score)

FG 9790550118867

Lines Written in Early Spring for mixed choir Text: William Wordsworth (Eng)

Tobias Broström

LARS-ERIK LARSSON

Tintinnio II for flute

GE 14564

SCORE

DANIEL BÖRTZ

A God Disguised: Prelude (Förklädd gud: Förspel) The instrumental prelude is now available in a separate edition.

Six Winter Scenes/ Kuusi talven kuvaa for piano

GE 14574

Fanfar för Ravinen för brasskvintett

SCORE

FG 9790550118898 (full score and parts: 1st, 2nd & 3rd violin, viola, violoncello).

short version for orchestra

for orchestra score score

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Norrmalmstorgsdramat (The Stockholm Syndrome) Opera in two acts Libretto: Patrik Sörling (Swe)

Sven-David Sandström

Te Deum

GE 13302 (score), GE 13304 (study score) GE 13305 (piano reduction)

for mixed choir and orchestra

SCORE

BENJAMIN STAERN

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

En strimma hav (A Streak of Sea) (reduced version) for young players and choir ad lib.

Composed for El Sistema Sweden Text: Edith Södergran (Swe)

Balai for solo guitar

FG 9790550118904

Balayettes for two guitars

Musik: Albert Schnelzer Libretto: Patrik Sörling

Norrmalmstorgsdramat – att dö på sin post en opera i två akter för fem sångare och kammarensemble

GE 14146 (score), GE 14148 (study score), GE 14149 (chorus score)

FG 9790550118911

Sigla for harp and orchestra

PA R T I T U R

Benjamin Staern Text: Edith Södergran

FG 9790550118850 (solo part) En strimma hav

Five Christmas Songs Op. 1 for voice and piano Text: Topelius, Joukahainen (Swe/ Fin/Eng) A new, Urtext edition based on the critical edition. The lyrics are given in three languages.

for young players and choir ad lib. reduced version

SCORE

For further information contact us at:

FG 9790550118959

DANIEL WIKSLUND (ARR: KATARINA HELLBERG)

GE 14558

Nattuggla

Night Rowing on the Lake/ Yösoutu järvellä for piano

Salve Regina for mixed choir

Silvertärnan (Silver Tern) for female choir Text Daniel Wikslund (Swe/Eng)

Thomas Lindahl

LAURI KILPIÖ

SATB a cappella

for large orchestra

Daniel Börtz

GE 14586

ALLT SOM BÄR KÄRLEKENS NAMN

B E AT N I K

GE 13957 (score), GE 13959 (study score)

GE 14059 (score), GE 14060 (solo part), GE 14061 (study score)

Night Owl (Nattuggla) for soprano saxophone solo Written for the Solitary Poems project

SATB a cappella

Symphony No. 1 – Albedo

Double Concerto for One for viola/violin and orchestra Raschèr-Valse for alto saxophone and piano

o purple finch/ please tell me why

GITTAN GLANS

Tobias Broström

GE 13070 (score), GE 13072 (study score)

GE 14409 (score), GE 14410 (parts)

GE 14391

Beatnik version for large orchestra

Gehrmans Musikförlag AB Daniel Wikslund

Silvertärnan SSAA a cappella

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 Fredrikinkatu 61 A 22, FI-00100 Helsinki, Finland

Tel. +358 10 3871 220 info@fennicagehrman.fi Web shop: www.fennicagehrman.fi Hire: hire@fennicagehrman.fi Sales: customerservice@kirjavalitys.fi