Nordic Highlights No. 4 2018

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

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NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Focus on Marie Samuelsson Armas Järnefelt – an all-round Romantic

Mats Larsson Gothe awarded

Tommie Haglund festival A three-day Tommie Haglund festival took place on 19-21 October in Halmstad. Fifteen of his chamber and orchestral works were performed by top musicians from the USA, England, Denmark and Sweden, e.g. Jakob Kullberg as soloist in the cello concerto Flaminis Aura and Ilya Kaler as soloist in the violin concerto Hymnen an die Nacht. The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra performed under the direction of Joachim Gustafsson. (See: Reviews) NORDIC

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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 Cover photo: Marie Samuelsson (Josef Doukkali) Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll Design: Tenhelp Oy/Tenho Järvinen ISSN 2000-2742 (Print), ISSN 2000-2750 (Online) Printed in Sweden by TMG Sthlm, Bromma 2018

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Photo: Pelle Piano

Söderqvist at the Nobel Prize Concert Ann-Sofi Söderqvist’s Movements opens this year’s Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm on 9 December.

This is music about movements in our time: refugees on the run and people’s vul- Ann-Sofi Söderqvist nerability. Karina Cannelakis conducts the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Söderqvist has also attracted attention during Gehrmans’ 125th anniversary , which was for her choral work What Is Life? part of the project #swedishchoralmusic, and as composer of Gehrmans’ jubilee work, City Life for orchestra, a companion piece to Lars-Erik Larsson’s Pastoral Suite (premiered by O/Modernt Soloists and New Generation on 11 November).

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

The major Christ Johnson Prize has been awarded to Mats Larsson Gothe for his …de Blanche et Marie…– Symphony No. 3. The jury’s motivation is as follows: ”With a personal musical language, an unerring feeling for form, brilliant orchestration and an impressive craft of composition, Larsson Gothe passes on with a sure hand the great symphonic tradition of our time.” The symphony is based on motifs from his acclaimed opera Blanche and Marie and was premiered by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic during their Composer Weekend Festival 2016.

Photo: Romain Etienne

The year 2021 will mark the centenary of the birth of Joonas Kokkonen. More and more music by him has been finding its way back into concert programmes in the past few years, and his opera Viimeiset kiusaukset (The Last Tempis still one of the Finnish operas tations) most often performed. Fennica Gehrman has published a new version of the impressive Requiem he composed in 1981 in memory of his wife.

The arrangement by Jouko Linjama is for organ, mixed choir and soloists. The Cello Concerto has also found an established place in the repertoire; it was heard most recently in the Finals of the International Paulo Cello Competition in October 2018.

Whittall and Heininen commissions Matthew Whittall has been commissioned to write the obligatory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in August 2019. Another work to be premiered next year is the commission from Musica Nova Helsinki for the Crash Ensemble. It will be on the festival’s programme on 2 February, in Helsinki.

Paavo Heininen is composing a piece for violin and orchestra as a commission from the St. Michel Strings. There will be two performances: on 23 May in Mikkeli and 24 May in Helsinki.

The soloist will be Kaija Saarikettu.

Kalevi Aho at 70 Kalevi Aho will be 70 on 9 March 2019. There will be no fewer than 12 premieres during 2019, starting with the Concerto for Two Bassoons composed on the initiative of Bram van Sambeek, himself a bassoonist. This will be at a concert by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra on 18 January, and will be followed the next day by Kirje tuolle puolen (A Letter to the Netherworld) for string orchestra commissioned by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra.

On 11 May, the Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano will receive its world premiere by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Storioni Trio, and the previous day the Lapland Chamber Orchestra and Ismo Eskelinen will perform his new Guitar Concerto. The Lahti Symphony will also celebrate Aho by premiering his 17th Symphony on 4 April – a joint commission by the Lahti and Gothenburg orchestras.

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki/Music Finland

Joonas Kokkonen centenary 2021

Photo: Jesper Lindgren

NEWS

FLASH F L ASH F FLASH L ASH Premiere of Nuorvala’s Flash Flash

Photo: Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin

The opera Flash Flash by Juhani Nuorvala is to be premiered on 9 February, at next year’s Musica nova Helsinki.

There will be two performances, after which it will enter the repertoire of the Espoo Theatre with four more. The production will be directed by Erik Söderblom, with a cast that includes Tuuli Lindeberg, David Hackston, Martti Anttila and Sampo Haapaniemi.

Flash Flash has also been called the Warhol Opera, because the English libretto by Juha Siltanen is an exhilarating rewind of the life of Andy Warhol. The music is a fearless combination of classical, minimalist and pop.

Cecilia Damström (b.

1988) has been awarded the Rosenberg-Gehrmans Scholarship 2018 for a young composer. Gehrmans is also starting a collaboration with her. Despite her young age, Cecilia Damström already has a long list of works, including orchestral, chamber and choral music, as well as two chamber operas. To start with, Gehrmans is publishing three short orchestral Cecilia Damström pieces: Lucrum, Tundo! and Infirmus, as well as a trilogy of quintets inspired by the lives of three women, Aino , Minna and Helene, and the string quartet Letters composed for the Brodsky Quartet.

At present Damström is working on a commission for the Finnish National Opera, a children’s opera Planet of the Animals, which will have its premiere in March 2019. Damström has studied composition at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences with Hannu Pohjannoro, and has just completed her Master’s Degree under Luca Francesconi at the Malmö Academy of Music.

Jacob Mühlrad’s Time

Choral premieres

Jacob Mühlrad’s large-scale a cappella work Time was premiered by the Swedish Radio Choir and Ragnar Bohlin in Stockholm on 17 November. In the work Mühlrad has translated the word time into 27 different languages and arranged them in order of timbre. The work also includes excerpts of the Psalm 19 in Hebrew and in English. Time is an international co-commission from the Swedish Radio Choir, Cappella San Francisco, the Tapiola Chamber Choir and WDR Rundfunkchor Köln. The US premiere is scheduled for 23 February in Berkeley, the Finnish premiere 10 March in Helsinki and the German premiere 14 June in Cologne.

A number of exciting choral premieres has taken place during the past months.

Karin Rehnqvist’s Songs from the North, built on Inuit poems, was premiered by the American chamber choir Sacred & Profane in Berkeley. Kjell Perder’s Befria de förtryckta! (Set the Oppressed Free!) had its first performance with the Danderyd Vocal Ensemble and was heard again at the Lund Sacred Contemporary Music Festival in October.

October also saw the premieres of Anna-Karin Klockar’s Forever Hurts performed by the Esoterics in Seattle, and Sven-David Sandström’s In paradisum by the Lund Vocal Ensemble, at the Lund Choral Festival.

Photo: Marthe Veian

Cecilia Damström

PREMIERES January–March 2019 KALEVI AHO Concerto for Two Bassoons and Orchestra Warsaw PO/ Niklas Willén, sol. Bram van Sambeek, Leszek Wachnik 18.1. Warsaw, Poland Kirje tuolle puolen (Letter to the Netherworld) Ostrobothnian CO/Juha Kangas 19.1. Kokkola, Finland

VELI-MATTI PUUMALA Hommages Fugitifs 2 (9 bagatelles for piano): No. 1 Emil Holmström 30.1. Kaustinen, Finland

MATTHEW WHITTALL A new work for ensemble Crash Ensemble 2.2. Helsinki, Finland (Musica nova)

JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD Tableau vivant for violin and orchestra Malmö SO/Anja Bihlmaier, sol. Daniel Lozakovitj, violin 6.2. Malmö, Sweden

JACOB MÜHLRAD Concert opening piece Gävle SO/Daniel Bjarnason 6.2. Gävle, Sweden

JUHANI NUORVALA Flash Flash (opera) NYKY Ensemble/Nils Schweckendiek, sol. Tuuli Lindeberg, David Hackston, Martti Anttila, Sampo Haapaniemi etc.

9.2. Helsinki, Finland (Musica nova)

ALBERT SCHNELZER Emperor Akbar for chamber orchestra Västerås Sinfonietta/Anja Bihlmaier 21.2. Västerås, Sweden Piano Concerto – This is Your Kingdom Swedish Radio SO/Thomas Søndergaard, sol. Conrad Tao 14.3. Stockholm, Sweden

OLLI KORTEKANGAS When not if (Five Love Songs) Nicholas Söderlund, bass, Hans-Otto Ehrström, piano 9.3. Naantali, Finland

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM Concerto for Two Trumpets and Orchestra Malmö SO/John Storgårds, sol. Håkan Hardenberger, Jeroen Berwaerts 14.3. Malmö, Sweden

TOMMIE HAGLUND Symphony No. 1 Royal Stockholm Philharmonic/ Tobias Ringborg 28.3. Stockholm, Sweden (Stockholm Composer Weekend)

KAI NIEMINEN

String Quartet No. 3, ‘Gestures of Winter’, by Kai Nieminen has already had 15 performances. Composed in 2017 for the Meri-Lappi String Quartet, it extols the wonders of the arctic winter: the Northern Lights, darkness shrouded in mystery, and frosty shivers. The work is one of the items on a CD to be released by Pilfink Records on 5 March and including all three Nieminen string quartets.

While on tour in autumn 2018, the Meri-Lappi Quartet performed also the string quartets by Juhani Nuorvala and Jaakko Kuusisto in addition to Gestures of Winter.

Meri-Lappi String Quartet

Fragmental Reflections Osmo Palmu, guitar 30.3. Oulu, Finland

Photo: Mika Ahonen

String quartets by Kai Nieminen

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Armas Järnefelt – an all-round Romantic

Next year will mark Armas Järnefelt’s 150th anniversary of birth.

Järnefelt was definitely one of the most exciting and most original Finnish composers of the Romantic era. Not until the present century has the richness of his music been truly appreciated.

A

rmas Järnefelt (1869–1958) was born into a patriotic, arts-loving family. His close connection with Jean Sibelius was reflected in his own compositions in National-Romantic vein.

Järnefelt studied with Martin Wegelius at the Helsinki Music Institute in the late 1880s, and composition in Berlin and Paris in the early years of the following decade, combining national elements with his Late-Romantic idiom. The music of Richard Wagner, in particular, became a major model for him.

In 1893, Järnefelt married Maikki Pakarinen, a soprano, and through her opera career he soon got a chance to conduct opera in Germany.

This paved the way for the role of conductor that would later dominate his career. His interest in Wagner was also visible here, and he would in time conduct almost all the Wagner operas.

Not until the present century has the richness of Armas Järnefelt’s music been truly appreciated. In this respect, he resembles Erkki Melartin, at one time familiar to concert audiences mainly only for his solemn march for the play The Sleeping Beauty; for the name Järnefelt is most often associated with his beautiful Berceuse for violin and small orchestra, in its various arrangements. Astonishingly little attention has been paid to his other works. There are, perhaps, two reasons for this, as he pointed out in a radio interview he made in old age: one was that, like many of his Finnish composer contemporaries, he was overshadowed by the internationally famous Jean Sibelius, and the other was his focus on conducting.

Stylistic diversity The orchestral works of Armas Järnefelt are both original and bold. The instrumental parts are often demanding, especially in the quick passages, and he often arrived at some interesting formal solutions. The most distinctive feature of his music is, however, its stylistic diversity, including the influence of Sibelius and Finnish folk music, and of German, French, Russian and other Romanticism. He wrote relatively few works, but they cover genres ranging from solo songs to stage music and from cantatas to utility music, and it

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was he who composed the earliest Finnish film score, for Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta (The Song of the Crimson Flower, dir. Mauritz Stiller) premiered in 1919.

Järnefelt composed his six-movement Serenade in 1893 while studying in Paris as a pupil of Jules Massenet. It was first performed in Helsinki in the spring of that year.

Some claim they can detect French influences, and the second and third movements in particular call Gabriel Fauré to mind. The special feature of this Serenade is its many eloquent solos.

It is a surprisingly mature piece and reckoned to be one of Järnefelt’s most interesting multi-movement works.

Influences of Central Europe The Symphonic Fantasy (1895) is a romantic synthesis, astoundingly expressive and original. Its National-Romantic ethos is especially marked in the lyrical passages, but the full Romantic trends of Central Europe are also very much in evidence. While studying in Berlin, Järnefelt had been introduced to the very latest ideas on orchestration. The influence of Strauss and Wagner can be sensed in the textures, forms and timbres. The aesthetic world of the Symphonic Fantasy, modern for its times and avoiding clear formal schemes was too much for con-

temporary Helsinki concert audiences and the critics had not a good word to say for it. This must have been a great blow for Järnefelt, as he let the work be forgotten.

The Suite in E flat (1897) consists of five orchestral character pieces representing a variety of styles in Järnefelt’s customary manner. By the time he wrote it, he had been working in Germany for some time, and this can be heard in the Suite. The Finnish national elements have mainly been replaced by, for example, hints of beautiful German folk Ländler, and the movements vary in style from Wagnerian to Romantic Russian.

Possibly the best-known orchestral work

by Järnefelt is the symphonic poem Korsholma (1894), which, like the Symphonic Fantasy, has National-Romantic passages and, among other things, allusions to Finnish folk tunes. The influence of Wagner is audible in the second half, and the piece ends with an imposing quotation from the hymn Ein feste Burg.

Armas Järnefelt was definitely one of the most exciting and most original Finnish composers of the Romantic era, and his first-class works deserve a more frequent hearing.

Pasi Lyytikäinen

Footnote In honour of the jubilee year, Fennica Gehrman is publishing previously unpublished works by Järnefelt. One of these is Miranda, the incidental music to the fairytale play by Topelius (1901). The Lahti Conservatory and Lahti Youth Theatre will be performing it on 1–2 February.

Love and musical flying in Marie Samuelsson’s music

Photo: Josef Doukkali

The Love Trilogy – three commissioned works composed in 2014-2016 – will soon be available on a CD-portrait which aims at answering the question of how contemporary music can be a language of the emotions and express romanticism in a modern way. “From a conversation with Samuelsson I understand how important modern music can be, and how it can, in its own special way, tackle essential feelings and difficult subjects. Above all, I understand that it is still needed”, says the author Elin Hermansson.

2

018 has been an eventful year for Marie Samuelsson. It began with the German premiere of her orchestral work Air Drum III with the MDR Sinfonieorchester, for which the three large ventilating shafts, two metres high, were transported all the way from Stockholm to Leipzig for the concert.

After that she was off to the USA and the American premiere of The Eros Effect and Solidarity.

This year’s work is now completed, with preparations for the new CD production that has been recorded during the past year. The third CD-portrait with Marie Samuelsson’s music includes The Love Trilogy and a work standing on its own, Airborne Lines and Rumbles. The Love Trilogy is the result of three commissioned works composed in 2014-2016. These have so far only been performed separately, but are also intended to be played as a suite, since all the movements are tied together both thematically and musically. According to Samuelsson, this music is more audacious than her earlier compositions, and of course she is hoping in the future to be able to hear all three works performed in the same concert. Airborne Lines and Rumbles is an exciting work from 2009 in which the composer says she started to use material that she later continued to work with in the trilogy. In this way the whole record forms an interesting unity.

Music in the name of love When the individual works were to be composed it was both private and societal events that led Marie Samuelsson’s thoughts to love. When our age is described in the media, scope is given mainly to hate, wars and what is frightful, but yet it is love that carries humanity forward in our development. It was also a question of how contemporary music can be a language of the emo-

tions and express romanticism in a modern way.

This is quite in line with Samuelsson’s compositional work in general, which often investigates bodily and sensual presence in music. The solo parts are not seldom worked out in collaboration with the musicians who are going to perform the music. There are no mathematical formulas here, but instead she takes advantage of the physical capacities available. Perhaps this less individualistic way of creating music contributes to a somewhat more organic and vivid result.

The first part of The Love Trilogy, Aphrodite – Fragments of Sappho, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, was written on commission from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and treats of erotic love. In 2014 a previously unknown papyrus fragment – ”The Kypris Poem” – was discovered in London. It was written by the first known female poet, Sappho, who lived on the island of Lesbos. The fragment can be heard here in its first ever setting to music together with four other fragments. In the orchestral sonorities we hear the ocean waves, whose long lines contrast with the seductive vocal parts’ extensions of the tones, melismas that were worked out together with mezzo-soprano Katija Dragojevic.

The Malmö Symphony Orchestra commissioned the second part of The Love Trilogy, A New Child of Eternity, To my two sons, which depicts filial affection. A verse from Göran Sonnevi’s The Impossible (Det omöjliga) (1975), which had long hung on Samuelsson’s wall, inspired the work –”Every child carries / in its body’s swirling core / a new child / of eternity”. The solo part is composed to resemble a small child who cannot sit still, and Samuelsson thinks there is an interesting driving force that makes children want to move around quickly in the early years, to be able later to grow up into adulthood. The orchestral texture answers, supports and calms the whirling solo part, which does not always live in lightness but also goes through difficulties.

Freedom and solidarity In The Eros Effect and Solidarity for chamber orchestra, the third part of the trilogy, love has

been extended to such solidarity as can arise between people. The text to the music which is recited collectively by the orchestra was worked out from George Katciafica’s article The Eros Effect (1989), and opens with the words, ”Humans have an internal need of freedom.” It describes how mankind, by combining rationality and emotional intuition, can come together and create freedom movements. The work was premiered by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra and the conductor Sarah Ioannides, who later took it along to the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra in the USA, where, according to the composer, it led to some heated discussions. In this way the work can also be seen as a political statement, and it appears at a time when there is a greater than ever polarisation between various groups of people.

In Airborne Lines and Rumbles Samuelsson wanted mainly to investigate how a composer could write music on a piece of paper that would make you fly. Is this possible? Different musical levels that move away from and back to one another are now and then interrupted by powerful, unstoppable rumblings. The contrast with the lighter lines reinforces the feeling of taking a running leap. The concept of freedom is also relevant in Airborne Lines and Rumbles, as it is about lifting one’s eyes to dare – something that can be heard in all the works on this record.

Now new challenges are awaiting Marie Samuelsson. At present she is writing a double concerto for the slightly unusual instrument combination of violin, guitar and orchestra, which is scheduled to be premiered by the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in the autumn of 2019.

Elin Hermansson Marie Samuelsson: The Love Trilogy Swedish Radio SO/ Daniel Blendulf/ Malmö SO, Nordic Chamber Orchestra/ Sarah Ioannides, sol.

Katija Dragojevic, mezzo-soprano and Andreas Sundén, clarinet Daphne 1062 (to be released in early 2019)

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RE P ER TO IR E TIPS Vom Himmel Hoch/From Heav’n on High /Enkeli Taivaan (Praetorius) Dur: 7’

Text: J. Suomalainen, E. Ahokainen, O. Paloheimo, J. Haavio (Fin), voice and orchestra: 1111/2000/str

These four songs were originally published in a version for voice and piano. To words by four Finnish poets, they are: 1.

Jouluna (At Christmas), 2. Aattoiltana (On Christmas Eve), 3. Metsän joulu (The Forest’s Christmas) and 4. Legenda (Legend). The mood varies from devout and hymn-like in Christmas Eve to the lively melody of Legend accompanied by pungent figures in seconds.

ILKKA KUUSISTO (arr. 1967-83) 24 Suomalaista joululaulua/24 Finnish Christmas Carols Text: Fin/Swe, some songs also in English, voice and orchestra: 2fl/hp/str (33221)

Kuusisto’s delightful arrangements for small orchestra are lasting favourites. Among them are some of the best-loved Finnish Christmas carols, such as the five Sibelius songs op.

1. Most of them are scored for strings only, but some also include a harp or two flutes. The arrangements have also been recorded, and soloist on the disc is Soile Isokoski.

string orchestra

Lindberg’s cantata is based on traditional English Christmas carols joined together by newly written music to texts taken from the Bible. It comprises a delightful mix of Christmas melodies, Swedish folk music, classical and jazz.

In his oratorio Sandström wanted to create a magical and mystical atmosphere. The work is divided into ten short movements and in some places it is breathtakingly beautiful. But round the romantically exquisite melodic solo and duet sections the choir contrasts now and then with rapid rhythmical figures, and the orchestra’s brass and percussion conjure up the occasionally violent nature of the Nativity story.

DAVID SAULESCO Christmas Oratorio (2013) Dur: 55’, Text: Saulesco/Christmas Gospel (Matthew and Luke) (Swe), Mz, T, Bar, mixed chorus, narrator, fl, cl, 2 tpt, 2 perc, organ, str

David Saulesco depicts the Christmas narrative with warmth and humour, and in a postmodern tone language. The music varies between harsh expressionistic sonorities and Nordic romantic melancholy. It is easily accessible but still challenging and harmonically exciting.

FREDRIK SIXTEN A Swedish Christmas Oratorio (2009) Dur: 50’ Text: Ylva Eggehorn/from the Christmas Gospel (Swe) S, descant choir, mixed choir, wind quintet, strings

This work is permeated by elements of Swedish folk music and contains both light and darkness. The newly written texts are meant to show that the innocent child was surrounded by darkness, poverty, alienation and death. But the oratorio is also full of joy and songs of praise. Sixten lets a soprano take the role of the evangelist and instead of more soloists he lets two choruses play different roles.

ANDERS SOLDH (ARR.) O helga natt/O Holy Night (Adolphe Adam) Dur: 4’ Santa Lucia (trad.) Dur: 3’ När det lider mot jul (Ruben Liljefors) Dur: 3’,

Text: H. Jalkanen, I. Salomies, Bible (Fin), S, T, Bar, mixed chorus, orchestra: 2200-2230-11-org.hpd-str

HILDING ROSENBERG Den Heliga natten/The Holy Night (1936) Dur: 32’ Text: Hjalmar Gullberg/Christmas Gospel (Luke) (Swe), S, A, T, B, narrator, mixed chorus, orchestra: 1120-2200-11-0-celstr (reduced version: organ and strings)

This is a colourful drama in which the orchestral texture conjures up images of shepherds out in their fields, the light radiating from heaven, Mary swaddling her child, Herod raging, etc. Rosenberg’s harshness gives way here to a more lyrical tone. For Joseph, Mary and the shepherds

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Lotta Wennäkoski: Hele World premiere: Los Angeles Philharmonic/ Susanna Mälkki, 13.11.2018 Los Angeles, USA

Dur: 35’, Text: Christmas Gospel (St. Luke) (Swe), S, Bar, mixed chorus, orchestra: 2222-2222-12-0-str

ARMAS MAASALO Jouluoratorio/Christmas Oratorio (1945) Dur: 45’

The tradition of performing the Christmas Oratorio has, ever since its premiere, fallen to St John’s Church, Helsinki, where Maasalo was the organist. He was one of the great names in Finnish church music – composer, choir leader and Professor.

The vocal solos in the Oratorio are sublimely beautiful. The music strongly reflects the Finnish hymn tradition and the choral fugues are honed to perfection.

Rounding out the first half was Wennäkoski’s Hele, an eccentric and energetic respite from the broodiness of the first two works. Wennäkoski utilized the slide whistle amid frantic and agile ensemble writing to sometimes atmospheric, sometimes cartoonish, but always surprising effect. New Classic LA/15.11.

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM Christmas Oratorio (2004)

NILS LINDBERG A Christmas Cantata (2002) Dur: 50’ , Text: Bible’s Christmas Gospel (Eng) S, Bar, mixed chorus, big band: 1000-1440-11-0-pf-4saxdrums-db

Lotta Wennäkoski: Flounce US premiere: St. Louis SO/Hannu Lintu, 28.9. 2018 St. Louis, USA

Jan Sandström’s magical choral classic here in a version for strings. The orchestra is divided into a smaller group (string quartet) that plays Preatorius’ hymn in slow motion (preferably in baroque style without vibrato), and a larger string-orchestra group that plays Sandström’s harmonizing music in ordinario.

Between jazz, classical and impro Pietilä’s work operates freely somewhere between jazz, contemporary classical and free improvisation… In Three Strides of Light for piano, Risto-Matti Marin radiated a confident concentration in a wicked boogie-woogie in which the melody line in the right hand gradually escalated into a feral romp.

Hufvudstadsbladet 29.10.

Anneleen Lenaerts

Three popular Christmas songs in arrangements for chamber orchestra by Anders Soldh. Suitable for both amateur and professional orchestras. Included in the series “Popular Arrangements for Orchestra”.

Arranger: Harri Wessman (1994) mixed choir, fl-str (reduced version: 4 voices, fl-str4) (Fin)

Wessman made his highly workable transcriptions as a commission from the Espoo Music Institute. They afford small ensembles an opportunity to perform these popular Sibelius songs. In addition to the version for choir and orchestra there is one for four voices, flute and string quartet.

Around the middle, Wessman has inserted a piece of his own, a Meditation for strings in the style of Sibelius.

Esa Pietilä

Esa Pietilä: Chamber music Kamus Quartet, Risto-Matti Marin, piano, Veli Kujala, accordion, Janne Tuomi and Harri Lehtinen, percussion, Esa Pietilä, saxophone, 26.10. Helsinki, Finland (Pietilä focus concert)

2222-2200-01-0-str

JEAN SIBELIUS Viisi Joululaulua/Five Christmas Songs Op 1 (1895-1913) Dur: 15’

Lotta Wennäkoski

Photo: Patrik Stenström

JOONAS KOKKONEN Joululauluja lapsille/Christmas Songs for Children (1956-66) Dur: 7’, Arranger: Jouko Linjama (2003)

The program opened with the U.S. premiere of “Flounce,” by Lotta Wennäkoski …This is a rowdy and loud, of course, work, tempered only by a melancholic passage on Cally Banham’s oboe. The rest was whimsically scored (a slide whistle?), and rousing fun. St Louis Post 29.9.

JAN SANDSTRÖM Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (1987/2007) Dur: 4’30’’

3333/4331/2perc/str, organ

Fine arrangements for symphony orchestra made by Kalevi Aho for a Christmas release by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in 1998. Known for his skills as an arranger, Aho has a consummate gift for handling an orchestra and creating a rich, full sound. From Heav’n on High begins with a three-minute introduction in which the winds have a chance to shine and in dialogue with the organ.

Rousing fun and energy

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

3333/3431/str, organ

the music has an almost pastoral character, while the Wise Men are depicted with a more oriental tone language and other rhythms.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

KALEVI AHO (arr. 1998) Hosianna (Vogler) Dur: 3’

REVIEWS

Music for Christmas

Fine opening for the season Aho’s Harp Concerto Mearra was a fine opening for the autumn season of the St. Michel Strings.

As their soloist they had Anneleen Lenaerts, a world-class harpist and principal in the Vienna Philharmonic, who filled the church with the tones both daintily elfin-like and solidly grand piano-like she conjured forth from her instrument.

Länsi-Savo 18.9.

Kalevi Aho: Mearra Finnish premiere: Mikkeli City Orchestra/Erkki Lasonpalo, sol. Anneleen Lenaerts, harp, 16.9.2018 Mikkeli, Finland

Photo: Lars Kroon

Photo: Jussi Vierimaa

Amusing, imaginative, expressive Above all, the Piano Quintet sounded surprisingly modern, considering that it has clocked up 25 years… as a bit of amusing and imaginative music theatre such as is fashionable these days... Syyskesän laulu (Late Summer Song) was the most rewarding piece with its eloquent, exalted expression…the high point of the concert. Hufvudstadsbladet 9.10.

Mikko Heiniö: Chamber music Tommi Hakala, baritone, Kristian Attila, Pasi Helin, piano, Patrik Kleemola, guitar etc., 7.10.2018 Helsinki, Finland

Jonas Valfridsson thanking for the applauds

Awesome John Bauer Suite

Finnish composer Lars Karlsson has been called a “modern romanticist… this intriguing new disk is welcome. It offers two of his major later works opening with Seven Songs to texts by Swedish Nobel Prize laureate Pär Lagerkvist… The cycle is dedicated to Gabriel Suovanen, who sings them with great sensitivity. We also have an extraordinary Clarinet Concerto written for Christoffer Sundqvist. In three movements, it is a brilliant display piece for the soloist... www.classicalcdreview.com Lars Karlsson: 7 Songs to Texts by Pär Lagerkvist, Clarinet Concerto CD: Lapland CO/John Storgårds, sol. Gabriel Suovanen, baritone, Christoffer Sundqvist, clarinet (BIS-2286)

Camerata Nordica engages in intricate interplay with a dynamic and powerful performance…

Hugo Ticciati, brilliant on the violin, is adroit in all sections… The movements are full of feeling, and one is carried away and gripped by the work’s dramatic fluctuations. The concluding movement opens up toward brightness and liberation.

Barometern 30.10.

Daniel Nelson

This is a fun and swinging piece based on an ostinato-like motif in which the tuba has a prominent role together with bright strings, whistlings and trombone-glissandi. It is not hard to imagine smoke welling up from chimneys and cog-wheels spinning in time with the music. Göteborgsposten 15.10.

Daniel Nelson: Steampunk Blizzard Gothenburg SO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, 10.10.2018 Gothenburg, Sweden

Imaginative feast for the ears The pulsating and feverish parts are recurring features in Schnelzer’s music, as are also the contrasts between the lyrically beautiful and the raw riffs. But even though he ventures out on the dark side of the moon Schnelzer manages to mould his various impressions into an imaginative feast for the ears.

Opus #84 September 2018 Albert Schnelzer: Cello Concerto – Crazy Diamond, Tales from Suburbia, Brain Damage CD: Gothenburg SO/Benjamin Shwartz, sol. Claes Gunnarsson, cello (BIS-2313)

Foto: Ella Nelson

Fervently flowing choral music The Mikaeli Chamber Choir displayed a successful combination of well-tried Ericson repertoire and recently discovered gems from the recesses of Gehrmans Musikförlag…. It was nice to hear the sound of the chorus take on body and colour in Gösta Nystroem’s exciting suite “Golfiner” , and find vigorous harshness in Sven-Erik Bäck’s sacred work “Utrannsaka mig” .… Jazz vocalist Lena Swanberg contributes to the contrasting effect in Ann-Sofi Söderqvist’s forceful “What is Life?”, and among the serene moments of the evening were Jerker Leijon’s steadfast “Hjalmar Gullberg Suite”. SVD 27.10 Choral music by Valborg Aulin, Knut Håkansson, Gösta Nystroem, Sven-Erik Bäck, Ann-Sofi Söderqvist, Mattias Sköld, Gabriella Gullin, Jerker Leijon etc.

Mikaeli Chamber Choir/Anders Eby, Carlos Murakami, piano, sol. Lena Swanberg, 26.10.2018 Stockholm, Sweden (Gehrmans Anniversary Concert + Eric Ericson 100th birthday)

A Nordgren gem Rock Score is, with its spookily fleeting allusions to folk fiddle music, one of the gems in Nordgren’s output for string orchestra. Hufvudstadsbladet 10.10.

Pehr Henrik Nordgren: Rock Score, Violin Concerto No. 4, Horn Concerto CD: Ostrobothnian CO/Juha Kangas (Alba Records 425)

Music with deep impact Three things can be taken from this festival; the uniqueness and value of the music, the consistent excellence of the players and their devotion to this repertoire and finally the impact it has on both the players and most importantly the audiences… If music needs to be able to communicate to be effective then this certainly does. Seen and Heard International 29.10.

Tommie Haglund: Flaminis Aura, Hymns to the Night, Serenata per Diotima, La Rosa Profunda, To the Sunset Breeze, Arcana Lacrimae etc.

Helsingborg SO/Joachim Gustafsson, sol. Ilya Kaler, Jacob Kullberg, John Mills, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Brett Deubner, Niklas Sivelöv, Ann-Kristin Larsson etc., 19-21.10.2018 Halmstad, Sweden Photo: Louise Martinsson

Jörgen Dafgård: Eclipse – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra World premiere: Camerata Nordica, sol. and leader Hugo Ticciati, 27.10.2018 Oskarshamn, Sweden

A short whirling piece in which the music takes unexpected directions…

Rhythmical with powerful brass and heavy tubas, playful jazzy sections, sometimes lilting and a little romantic… Fun and exciting music, energetically performed.

Arbetarbladet 15.9.

Gävle SO/Jaime Martin, 14.9.2018 Gävle, Sweden

Jonas Valfridsson: John Bauer Suite 1918 World premiere: Jönköpings Sinfonietta, Jönköping Chamber Choir, SVF Choir/Christian von Gehren, 4.11.2018 Jönköping, Sweden

Anders Eby and Mikaeli Chamber Choir

Dafgård’s gripping Eclipse

Fun and swinging Steampunk Blizzard

This is insanely entertaining music. The whole work is full of well-developed ideas and displays an impressive breadth of expression. It is at the same time easily accessible and intricate. Jönköpingsposten 4.11.

Photo: Janna Vettergren

Intriguing new disc

A large-scale mythological work oozing auras from that period’s late-Romanticism and Ravel’s Impressionism, with a wordless chorus and a celesta sounding like a music box…music which Valfridsson in a very deliberate, elegant and skilfully orchestrated way plays with in 4-colour sound… The music is more transparent in a continental manner and coloured by modern playing techniques. Dagens Nyheter 5.11.

Virtuoso concert with all the trimmings “Bridge“ is rewarding for all involved and at the same time it is surprising, overpowering and convincing – in short: It encompasses everything that music needs. Leipzig Volkszeitung 28.9.

Rolf Martinsson: Bridge – Trumpet Concerto No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Andris Nelsons, sol. Håkan Hardenberger 27.9.2018 Leipzig, Germany

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2018

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

NEW CDs TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

SCORES

Dream Variations Tobias Broström

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM Mirage for string orchestra

Sven-David Sandström

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM Seven Pieces for Violin and Orchestra

Mirage

GE 13477

for string orchestra

Seven Pieces for Violin and Orchestra

GE 12732 (score) GE 12733 (solo violin) GE 12734 (study score)

SCORE

SCORE

DANIEL BÖRTZ Dialogo 4 – Ricordo Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet, Colin Currie, percussion CCR-0002 ‘The Scene of the Crime’

Albert Schnelzer

JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Jörgen Dafgård

Abrasax – Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra GE 13075 (score) GE 13076 (solo saxophone)) GE 13077 (study score)

ARMAS JÄRNEFELT

Emperor Akbar for chamber orchestra

Abrasax

for chamber orchestra

GE 13407 (score) GE 13409 (study score)

Concerto for Soprano Saxophone xophone and Orchestra

Aamulla varhain

Emperor Akbar

LEEVI MADETOJA SCORE

Tanssilaulu & other works Brass Septet Imperial

SCORE

Mats Larsson Gothe

MATS LARSSON GOTHE Symphony No. 2

Symphony No. 2 “...sunt lacrimae rerum...”

GE 13144 (score) GE 13146 (study score)

for orchestra

ANN-SOFI SÖDERQVIST

Ȭ ęȱ ã

Movements for orchestra GE 13200 (score) GE 13202 (study score)

Movements for orchestra

SCORE

SCORE

Pilfink JJVCD-196 (‘Barcarola’)

PEHR HENRIK NORDGREN Concerto No. 4 for Violin and Strings, Rock Score, Concerto for Horn and Strings Ostrobothnian CO/Juha Kangas, sol.

Jari Valo, violin, Jukka Harju, horn Alba Records ABCD 425

VOCAL

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

MIKKO HEINIÖ

DANIEL MÖLLER

Amen for male choir and tubular bell Text: the word Amen

Lux aeterna for mixed choir SAB Text from Requiem Mass (Lat)

FG 9790-55011-299-5

GE 13392

Harp Concerto, Symphony No. 9 etc.

Helsinki PO/Leif Segerstam, sol. Marielle Nordman Ondine ODE 1236-2D (90th Anniversary Edition)

Lux æterna

JEAN SIBELIUS

För kör SAB a cappella Daniel Möller

Five Christmas Songs

LARS KARLSSON

KJELL PERDER

Kaksi joululaulua (Two Christmas Carols) for SSAA choir Text: Paula Hiekkala (Fin)

Befria de förtryckta!/ Set the Oppressed Free! for mixed choir SATB Text: Jes. 58:6-11 (Swe/Eng)

FG 9790-55011-458-6

GE 13341

MATTHEW WHITTALL Christmas Hath a Darkness, Huron Carol (arr.)

Audite Chamber Choir/Jani Sivén

Befria de förtryckta!

Alba Records NCD 56 (’This Advent Moon’) Blandad kör a cappella

ANNA-KARIN KLOCKAR Forever Hurts for double choir SSAATTBB Text: Karin Boye, Paul Laurence Dunbar (Eng) GE 13480

KARIN REHNQVIST THE INTERNATIONAL WINNER OF POLYPHONOS COMPETITION

CHAMBER & INSTRUMENTAL

Songs from the North for 1–3 soloists and mixed choirr SSAATTBB Text: Inuit poems (Swe/Eng)

Anna-Karin Klockar

2018

FOREVER HURTS

Songs from the North for soloists and mixed choir

GE 13351

Text by Karin Boye and Paul Laurence Dunbar

Works by Uuno Klami Arranged for Organ Arr. Esa Ylönen FG 9790-55011-448-7

for mixed choir SSAATTBB

OLLI KORTEKANGAS

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM

Mustaa, mustaa for SATB choir

Life for male choir TTBarBarBB Text: Emily Dickinson (Eng)

FG 9790-55011-421-0

Life

ESA PIETILÄ Brisk for violoncello and marimba

for male choir Sven-David Sandström

FG 9790-55011-457-9

GE 13469

Onni hymyilee for SATB choir, soprano and piano

In paradisum for mixed choir SATB Text from Requiem Mass (Lat)

FG 9790-55011-422-7

Sanasotaa for SSAATTB choir and piano Text: Tuomas Parkkinen (Fin) Three songs from the opera Veljeni vartija (My Brother’s Keeper).

In paradisum

FG 9790-55011-456-2 Mixed choir a cappella

GE 12929

Som eldflugan tänds och slocknarr Three songs for voice and piano Text: Tomas Tranströmer (Swe)

FG 9790-55011-423-4

GE 12854

TIMO-JUHANI KYLLÖNEN

MATTHEW WHITTALL

The Touch of Christmas/Joulun kosketus for soprano solo, mixed choir (SAT or SAB), piano and glockenspiel Text: Timo-Juhani Kyllönen (Eng/Fin)

Christmas Hath a Darkness – Four Carols for Advent for mixed choir Text: Christina Rossetti (Eng)

ALBERT SCHNELZER Ȭ ȱ ã

ȱ Ě ȱ § ȱ ȱ

FG 9790-55011-460-9 (English), 55011-459-3 (Finnish)

Nils Lindberg

för sång och piano text: Tomas Tranströmer

FG 9790-55011-455-5

Elf shot Elverskud

Apollonian Dances version for string quartet and percussion GE 13048 (score and parts) GE 13049 (study score)

Albert Schnelzer

Apollonian Dances for string quartet and percussion

SCORE

BENJAMIN STAERN Two Souls, One Mind for brass quintet

Benjamin Staern

Två själar, en tanke Two Souls, One Mind for brass quintet

GE 13349 (score) GE 13350 (parts)

SCORE

TUOMAS TURRIAGO

Erlkönig

NILS LINDBERG Elf Shot for SSB soli, mixed choir and big band Text: A traditional Danish ballad (Eng)

Three Strides of Light for piano

Sonata for Flute and Piano

for big band, mixed chorus and three soloists

FG 9790-55011-462-3 Klaverutdrag/Vocal score

GE 13489 (vocal score)

JACOB MÜHLRAD Time for mixed choir SSAATTBB Text: Excerpt from Psalm 19 of the Book of Psalms (Eng/Hebrew), the word time in 27 languages GE 13475

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Gehrmans Musikförlag AB

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