Nordic Highlights No.1 2018

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

1/2018

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Focus on Mikko Heiniö & Fredrik Högberg

Olli Kortekangas’ My Brother’s Keeper – opera premiere

NEWS Anniversary work For the jubilee Ann-Sofi Söderqvist has been commissioned to compose a companion piece to one of the most beloved works in Swedish music, Lars-Erik Larsson´s Pastoral Suite. The work will be premiered at Musikaliska in Stockholm on 11 November by O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Hugo Ticciati.

Gehrmans 125 anniversary th

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

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NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at www.gehrmans.se/highlights www.fennicagehrman.fi/highlights Cover photos: Olli Kortekangas: Veljeni vartija/ My Brother’s Keeper (Petri Nuutinen), Mikko Heiniö (Jussi Vierimaa), Fredrik Högberg (Fredrik Högberg) Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll Design: Göran Lind ISSN 2000-2742 (Print), ISSN 2000-2750 (Online) Printed in Sweden by TMG Sthlm, Bromma 2018

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Anders Eby

World Music Series available digitally Herman Rechberger’s World Music Series is now available as digital publications for Apple and Android devices. The series is made up of four books, each covering a certain geographical area. The volumes are Balkania, Scales and Modes around the World, Rhythm in African Music (with sound samples) and Rhythm in Arabian Music. These volumes are indispensable compendia for anyone interested in the theory and practice of world music.

PHOTO: MATTI KOLHO

Gehrmans Musikförlag, in collaboration with the Mikaeli Chamber Choir and its conductor Anders Eby, will pay homage to Swedish choral music in the project #svenskkörmusik/ #swedishchoralmusic. We are producing twelve short films portraying choral works from the period 1893-2018, one work from every decade. It is not necessarily a question of the best-known composers or works, but pieces that we think of as gems that deserve to be discovered by many more people. We release one film at a time, on the last Sunday of every month, in social media under the hashtags #svenskkörmusik and #swedishchoralmusic.

The project has its own Facebook page where we hope that everyone who loves Swedish music will join in, integrate and make comments.

Follow the project on www.facebook.com/ swedishchoralmusic!

The choral works will also be presented live by the Mikaeli Chamber Choir at an anniversary concert on 13 October at the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts in Stockholm.

PHOTO: JANNA VETTERGREN

An homage to Swedish choral music

PHOTO: PELLE PIANO

This year will mark Gehrmans Musikförlag’s 125th anniversary. We are celebrating with a number of exciting projects and activities, supported by Inge and Einar Rosenberg´s Foundation for Swedish Music, which has been Gehrmans’ majority owner since 1950.

During the jubilee year 2018 Gehrmans will be proud ambassadors for Coral Guardians , a project that combines science and music events, in order to increase the awareness of the world´s coral reefs and what needs to be done to secure their survival for coming generations.

Gehrmans will promote this vital topic in connection with various activities.

Among other things, you will be given the opportunity to try out our VR glasses where you can experience what it is like to dive amidst the colourful coral reefs, to the tones of Anders Paulsson´s (one of the founders of Coral Guardians) Coral Symphony. For more information see www.coralguardians.org.

Lotta Wennäkoski news

New CDs: Karlsson & Nieminen BIS has released a CD of music by Lars Karlsson. The new disc by the Lapland Chamber Orchestra features Seven Songs to Texts by Pär Lagerkvist and the Clarinet Concerto . The soloists are Gabriel Suovanen, baritone and Christoffer Sundqvist, clarinet.

Music for guitar by Kai Nieminen can be heard on the critically-acclaimed Pilfink Records release Rites and . Works on this CD and on Nieminen’s earShades lier disc, Notturni, are available at Fennica Gehrman.

Focus on Esa Pietilä

PHOTO: PATRIK STENSTRÖM

Esa Pietilä has a concert of his works at the Helsinki Music Centre on 26 October. There will be several premieres, among them Three Strides of Light for piano performed by Risto-Matti Marin. The programme will also include a piece for tenor saxophone and string quartet, and chamber music for accordion, tenor saxophone, percussion and live electronics. The performers will be the Kamus Quartet, Veli Kujala and Janne Tuomi, in addition to Marin and Pietilä himself.

Awards and nominations Rolf Martinsson has been awarded the royal medal Litteris et artibus for his outstanding artistic achievements as a composer. The medal was presented to him by H. M. King Carl XVI Gustaf in a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on 31 January.

The Los Angeles Phil­h armonic has com­m issioned a new work from Lotta Wennäkoski. It will be conducted by the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Susanna Mälkki at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on 13 November 2018. The concert will be unusual in that it will consist entirely of world premieres of works by European composers.

One of the compositions nominated this year for the annual Finnish Teosto Prize is Uniin asti (Until the Dreams) by Wennäkoski, a work for male choir and orchestra premiered by the Finnish RSO and the Polytech Choir in December. The award winner will be announced in April.

PHOTO: AJ SAVOLAINEN/TEOSTO

Jacob Mühlrad has written a short opening piece, Angelous Novus, to Martin Fröst´s new concert project Retrotopia. It was premiered on 9 March by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minneapolis. There will subsequently be performances with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra in April, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in May. Fröst will continue the Retrotopia tour in the autumn.

PHOTO: ELISABETH OHLSON WALLIN

Mühlrad and Fröst in collaboration

Jubilate on European tour The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Sakari Oramo are bringing Benjamin Staern´s colour­ ful concert opener Jubilate on tour to Spain and Italy in May. After performances in Stockholm the piece will be heard in Madrid, Alicante, Udine and Brescia.

Prior to that, in April, there will be a German premiere with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stefan Solyom.

Järnefelt jubilee 2019 Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Armas Järnefelt, a conductor and composer active in both Finland and Sweden. His extensive output includes such evergreen favourites as his Berceuse and other orchestral works such as and Prelude Symphonic Fantasy, Suite for Small Orchestra, Suite in E Flat Major and Korsholm. He also wrote solo songs, choral works and cantatas. The Järnefelt Society is compiling a calendar of events in the jubilee year at www.armasjarnefelt.fi.

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) , of music by Matthew chose Northlands Whittall as its Record of the Year. Says Yle: “Whittall composes music that is not afraid of beauty or emptiness. He gives the listener the right to savour the sound and enough time to figure out the musical events” (See: Reviews).

PREMIERES Spring 2018 JACOB MÜHLRAD

Angelus Novus for chamber orchestra

St. Paul CO/Martin Fröst 9.3. Saint Paul, USA Kata for two celli and percussion Marie Macleod, Astrid Lindell, Mika Takehara 16.4. Stockholm, Sweden

FREDRIK HÖGBERG Absent Illusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses

Düsseldorf SO/Alexandre Bloch, sol. Isabelle van Keulen, violin/viola 16.3. Düsseldorf, Germany Baboon Concerto

Gothenburg SO/Tung-Chieh Chuang, sol. Sebastian Stevensson, bassoon 9.5. Gothenburg, Sweden

MARIE SAMUELSSON

In Horizons for piano trio

Trio Lindgård–Rodrick–Öquist 18.3. Stockholm, Sweden (Svensk Musikvår Festival)

VELI-MATTI PUUMALA Angular Objects in Liquid Time

for flute, clarinet, cello, harp, piano and electronics Defunensemble 12.4. Tampere, Finland (Tampere Biennale)

LARS KARLSSON

Jag vill gå mellan rågen for male choir

Akademiska Sångföreningen/Kari Turunen 14.4. Helsinki, Finland

PAAVO KORPIJAAKKO Neljä myyttistä eläintä/Four Mythic Animals

for accordion 13.-15.4. Lapua, Finland (Minä soitan harmonikkaa – accordion competition)

MIKKO HEINIÖ Symphony No. 3 (Sinfonia Concertante for Percussion and Orchestra)

Turku PO/Anja Bihlmaier 18.5. Turku, Finland

The BIS disc including the Bassoon Concertos and Sebastian Fagerlund

by Kalevi Aho has been nominated for this year’s BBC Music Magazine Awards. The winning recordings will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Kings Place on 5 April.

Samuelsson´s Air Drums in Leipzig

PHOTO: KRISTINA FRYKLÖF

Marie Samuelsson´s suggestive and spectacular Air Drum III was performed for the first time in Germany in January. MDR Sinfonieorchester played under the direction of Kristjan Järvi during the festival Nordic Pulse in Leipzig. Air Drum is an effective concert-opening piece with focus on the percussionists, who play on air drums/ventilation drums that by turns rumble and sing softly. Beautifully illuminated, they also provide a tasteful setting for the concert stage.

MDR Sinfonieorchester & Kristjan Järvi

HIGHLIGHTS

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PHOTO: RIITTA HEINIÖ

Heiniö is a keen marathon runner.

PHOTO: MATTI KIVEKÄS

ERI Dance Theatre in the performance of Ilta (Evening)

Creative balance between tradition and innovation in Mikko Heiniö’s music

THE MUSICAL UNIVERSE of Mikko Heiniö (b. 1948) is stylistically vast and rich in content.

Despite its strong emotional and perceptional charge, his music is subject to strict analytical control. Heiniö once said that contemporary music can in theory use just any material, but not in just any way, and the same still holds. He personally traces the roots of his present expression back to his first symphony, Possible Worlds (1987) .

The kingpins of Heiniö’s output are his three operas, concertos, orchestral and large-scale vocal works, but equally important are his many compositions for smaller ensemble. One major new addition to his catalogue is his third symphony (2017), to be premiered by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra on 18 May, at his 70th birthday concert.

Sumptuous, colourful worlds of sound, swiftly-soaring melodies, vigorously-beating rhythms and grand gestures. But also loaded retreats into quiet waters, pictorial moods and moments of inner reflection. Musical drama devoid of dead moments.

New takes on traditional genres

The linguistic dimension is pronounced in the music of Heiniö, as demonstrated by his many operas and vocal works. The languages of his chosen texts bear strong cultural meanings, and the same can be said of the titles of his works and their movements.

The five movements of the Maria Suite (2011), for example, address interpretations of the Virgin Mary in five different languages and cultures.

The biggest of Mikko Heiniö’s choral works is Ilta (Evening 2013–2014) , lasting nearly an hour in performance. It paints eleven powerful atmospheres and evokes thoughts and feelings of evening through texts in no fewer than six languages (Finnish, Swedish, English, German, Spanish and French). Evening has been performed both as a pure concert item and as a dance theatre production. Heiniö has collaborated closely with the Turku dance theatre ERI, and both Hermes and Khora are intended both as concertos and as dance works with ERI. “I classify these works as music theatre. I’m sim-

Like symphonies for Sibelius and string quartets for Bartók, piano concertos have become the genre through which Mikko Heiniö has most regularly examined his composer persona. In them, he has sought new takes on the genre, and most of the nine require some unconventional ‘extras’. Three of them have vocal sections, and the sixth (Hermes 1994) and seventh (Khora 2001) were planned as dance works, though they can also be played as concert items. The ninth – Nonno (2011) – is for amplified piano and big band.

“I have consciously sought different takes for the concertos,” says Heiniö. “To me, it’s the only way to keep this genre alive. The same search for novel ideas is also manifest in my chamber music, and I don’t have any two chamber works scored for the same line-up.”

Mikko Heiniö’s three symphonies likewise reflect a similar approach. The second, for example (Songs of Night and Love 1997) , has a big part HIGHLIGHTS

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for baritone, and the third is in the nature of a sinfonia concertante for percussion and orchestra.

“It’s been my idea to create a series of symphonies in which I take stock of my situation at intervals of roughly ten years. There’s been a slightly longer gap between the second and third, but the new one nevertheless continues the same idea. It’s important for it to be a sinfonia concertante and not a percussion concerto.”

Theatre man

ply enthralled by the theatre, which is one reason why I’ve done operas. I might have an easier time if I did something else, but it’s such a fascinating world.”

His operas likewise represent different approaches. The first to be written was the archaicallytinged church opera Riddaren och draken (The Knight and the Dragon 2000). This was followed

by Käärmeen hetki (The Hour of the Serpent 2006), which was staged at the Finnish National Opera. His third opera, Erik XIV (Eric XIV), about the 16th-century Swedish King Eric and his commoner wife, was premiered in the year in which Turku was European Capital of Culture (2011) and was a large-scale production making fine use of modern technology.

Mikko Heiniö is already working on his next opera, to a libretto by Pirkko Saisio. He “might have an easier time” if he did not write operas, but composing them seems to be a force impossible for him to resist.

KIMMO KORHONEN

Footnotes

• Heiniö’s Symphony No. 3 featuring a solo percussion section, piano, celesta and harp is to be premiered by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra at his 70th birthday concert on 18 May. The concert will also include his Maestoso for orchestra. The conductor will be Anja Bihlmaier.

• The Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in Turku is putting on a concert of chamber music on 8 April in honour of Heiniö’s birthday. On the programme will be Café au lait and the Piano Quintet.

Calliope, from the film accompanying Absent Illussions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses

Seven questions for Fredrik Högberg Fredrik Högberg is currently in the limelight with the premiere of two new solo concertos in the spring. A violin concerto and a bassoon concerto, both inspired

by Greek myths and fables.

1

The violin concerto Absent Illusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses will be premiered on 16 March at Tonhalle Düsseldorf. It was written for the Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen, playing both the violin and the viola. What lies behind the work, and is there any message?

My violin concerto is an expression for, and a yearning after, visions. The nine Muses on Mount Helicon inspired the all-round artists and scientists of the ancient world. In our time, when the world is often portrayed as ugly, violent and barren, in art as well as in the media and the debates, I miss the great, and even the naive, visions. Who will show us how it could be, and not merely how it is? I am looking for new Muses who can inspire. Are they there even though we don´t see them?

2 Each and every Muse gets her own movement

in the concerto, and in between there are three cadenzas and last of all the Tenth Muse. Could you tell us something about how the different Muses are given musical form? And who is the Tenth Muse?

When you read about the Muses in Greek mythology their individual profiles become quite distinct, and I have simply let them take form through my musical intuition. Each one has her own special sphere, but of course they have a great deal in common, too, and the music sometimes impinges on itself to bind together the similarities. Who the Tenth Muse is, is actually up to each listener to decide; the one which is mine is revealed in the work! In the concerto the romantically and fervently beautiful and the explosively ugly and strident get on well together.

Opposites that are suddenly in harmony without requiring consonance. The virtuosity ripples above rumbling layers of rhythms and timbres, and in the midst of this a face takes shape.

3 The concerto is also accompanied by film.

What will we get to see on the screen?

The film shows another depiction of the Muses.

I have worked closely with the artist Caroline Strindlund and with a special technique I have

and rock music that makes me feel comfortable composing shorter movements. It is true that they are joined together in order to maintain the long line, something like islands with bridges between them. And of course I often have an extramusical content, and then it is interesting with both subtitles and short sections. I also like the suite form that I have inherited from Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns and others; that could be part of it.

6 For you, it is not a big step from humour to

captured her when she paints bodies and faces.

A kind of minimalistic video-scenography that accompanies the whole concerto.

4 In The Baboon Concerto for bassoon, com-

posed for the Swedish prize-winning soloist Sebastian Stevensson, your humorous side shines through again. The soloist even gets to act and tell a story. What kind of story is this, and how will it be depicted?

The Baboon Concerto is a narrative loosely based on the story of the lazy grasshopper and the busy ant in the famous fable of Aesop. Sebastian will present the baboon and what he talks about. There will be virtuosity and highly theatrical pranks, and humour too! Sebastian is an incredible musician and an aesthetic soul. He´ll deliver some fantastic moments when the concerto is premiered at the Gothenburg Concert Hall in May.

5 Both these concertos are divided into 14

sections, instead of the traditional three-movement concerto form, and this is also something we have seen in several of your earlier works.

What are your thoughts concerning this?

I think it could possibly be my background in pop

the depth of seriousness. In 2016 your chamber opera Still My Fire was given its premiere and aroused a great deal of attention. It tells the tragic story of the multibillionaire and Tetra Pak heir Hans-Kristian Rausing, who – when his wife Eva dies after an overdose – locks himself in with her dead body in their luxurious London apartment for two months, because he cannot accept that she is dead. How do you depict such a difficult and dark subject?

When the content of the narrative is so powerful and demanding as in Still My Fire, the music does not need to emphasize it but rather it tries to give another approach or reflection. Music that is a little easier to take in can function as a carrier wave for an otherwise unbearable and traumatic story. Something like swallowing down medicine with cognac.

7 What can we expect from you in the near

future?

Well, I have composed quite a lot of music lately, so first it will be pleasant to take a break for a while!

And enjoy the premieres.

Then I have a number of interesting projects in the pipeline that I cannot reveal just yet.

K R I S T I N A F R Y K LÖ F

Premieres • Absent Illusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses: Isabelle van Keulen and Düsseldorf SO/Alexandre Bloch on 16 March.

• Baboon Concerto: Sebastian Stevensson and Gothenburg SO/ Tung-Chieh Chuang on 9 May. • Still my Fire: Piteå Chamber Opera and Norrbotten NEO/AnnaMaria Helsing on 15 October 2016.

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REVIEWS

A dazzlingly brilliant concert Virtuosity and flexibility shone through the first three movements, but it was in the fourth – an outrageous evocation of a Jewish wedding – that the audience experienced in full his taste for the theatrical. With legs which seemed as elasticated as Mr. Bean’s, Kriikku achieved the seemingly impossible feat of simultaneously dancing, shouting, shuffling around the stage and playing breathtakingly virtuoso passagework on the clarinet. This may have been an eccentric concert, but it was a dazzlingly brilliant one.

Straits Times 22.1.

Kimmo Hakola: Clarinet Concerto

Martinsson the wizard

Powerful Wennäkoski work

Pioneering and unprecedented orgy of timbre

Transcendental show-stopper

Wennäkoski both continues the Finnish male choir tradition and modernises it in a way that is fresh and invigorating… There is shamanism and verbal magic…The third movement, to words in Sámi, and the fifth and last movement based on a folk poem are wild and incantation-like. Thanks to the large band of singers, the sound grew and expanded into an intoxicating, murmurous mountain of sound.

Helsingin Sanomat 7.12.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Uniin asti (Until the Dreams) for male choir and orchestra

The return of light is an orgy of timbre. Whittall demonstrates all the magic that can be achieved with the symbiosis of orchestra and choir. The fine dissonances tinkle, the webs fade into one another…

Not all need to compose like Matthew Whittall, but luckily composers like Whittall exist. Through him, Finland’s composition culture has acquired some utterly new dimensions.

Keski-Pohjanmaa 7.12.

Matthew Whittall: Northlands, ad puram annihilationem meam, The return of light

Tuomela in compelling mood Tuomela’s Symphony no. 3 is a compelling work…

It proceeded like a musical fantasy, undulating smoothly from one association to another. It was all held robustly together by the flowing movement characteristic of Tuomela’s orchestral writing, the pulsating rhythm merging with dreaminess and the late-Romantic wisps of melody.

Etelä-Suomen Sanomat 7.12.

Tapio Tuomela: Symphony No. 3 ‘Crossroads’

Martinsson is something of a wizard when it comes to sophisticated orchestral sound. In ”Shimmering Islands” the sea is so shimmering and placid. Dynamics and rhythm remain unpredictable; sometimes dramatic vulcanic forces rumble and contrast in the middle of the airy scene. The audience has to listen closely in order to perceive the nuances.

Sydsvenskan 16.2.

Rolf Martinsson: Shimmering Islands

Swedish premiere: Malmö SO/Eun Sun Kim, 15.2.2018 Malmö, Sweden

Singapore SO/Lim Yau, sol. Kari Kriikku 20.1.2018 Singapore

World premiere: Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk, 6.12.2017 Lahti, Finland

World premiere: Finnish RSO, Polytech Choir/Hannu Lintu, 6.12.2017 Helsinki, Finland

The cycle inhabits a sonic landscape somewhere between the Four Last Songs and Camelot, with lush Broadway dissonances, undulating orchestrations and soaring melodies… The final song in the cycle, Mondnacht (Moon Night) is a transcendental show-stopper, swelling and receding with mysterious energy and glorious shimmering orchestrations, around which Larsson’s mellifluous soprano wove magically. Ich denke Dein… is a stunning example of twenty-first century lieder, and Larsson an equally spectacular interpreter.

Limelight 27.11.

CD: Finnish RSO, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki Chamber Choir/Nils Schweckendiek, sol. Tommi Hyytinen, horn (Alba ABCD 416)

My Brother’s Keeper is a great work that has been ten years in the making. The long and careful preparation is evident in the result, which is functional, polished and moving…

An imposing opera with no heroes… The singers have a chance to shine in aria-like scenes.

Helsingin Sanomat 18.2.

The music of Olli Kortekangas has a great, unbridled Late-Romantic glow that is not far removed from the sound world of Gustav Mahler, the mighty flow of Giuseppe Verdi or the sharp Neoromantic triads of Einojuhani Rautavaara. Another aspect of his music is the chamber opera-like sensitivity that makes the encounters so intimate and beautiful.

Aamulehti 17.2.

The music of Olli Kortekangas is extremely skilfully written... The great feelings of the little person are his driving force. There is also an echo of music of that time rewardingly written to allow free association.

Hufvudstadsbladet 17.2.

Olli Kortekangas: Veljeni vartija (My Brother’s Keeper)

World premiere: Tampere PO, Tampere Opera Choir /Santtu-Matias Rouvali, sol. Tuuli Takala, Ville Rusanen, Tuomas Katajala, Juha Kotilainen, Päivi Nisula, Erika Back, Virpi Räisänen, libretto and direction: Tuomas Parkkinen, 16.2.2018 Tampere, Finland

PHOTO: NIKLAS GUSTAVSSON

A consummate artwork

Jacob Kellermann

Benjamin Staern: Air–Spiral–Light

Norrbotten NEO/Christian Karlsen, sol. Jacob Kellermann, guitar, 4.2.2018 Stockholm, Sweden HIGHLIGHTS

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Puumala delves deep The music has both breadth and depth and excites the imagination. It is anything but a pastiche: original and fascinating… Puumala makes full use of the potential of a large ensemble with a whole battery of percussion and lots of brass. Recurring elements are a slowly swelling orchestral texture, a fiercely pulsating passage and material with an archaic or folksy stamp – a feature not unfamiliar in Puumala.

Hufvudstadsbladet 24.11.

PHOTO: SAARA VUORJOKI

Swedish composer Benjamin Staern´s broadly constructed ”Air-Spiral-Light” was successfully premiered in the summer of 2016. Then by able musicians assembled for the festival, now genuinely lived-through by the group in the NEO. Then exciting music-making, now a consummate artwork with a far greater range of expression. With the excellent guitarist Jacob Kellermann still in the centre.

Dagens Nyheter 5.2.

Veli-Matti Puumala: Root

World premiere: Helsinki PO/Susanna Mälkki, 22.11.2017 Helsinki, Finland

Rolf Martinsson: Ich denke Dein…

PHOTO: MERLIJN DOOMERNIK

PHOTO: PETRI NUUTINEN

An imposing, moving opera

Lisa Larsson

Australian premiere: Melbourne SO/Stanislav Kochanovsky, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano, 23.11.2017 Melbourne, Australia

Frida y Diego a hit in Moscow The Russian production of Aho’s opera was a success in Moscow…Aho has undergone renewal as an opera composer, for he saturated himself with Mexican folk music before starting to compose. He also incorporated some direct and swinging quotes from La Bamba and other hits, and the theremin timbres add effects to the dream scenes…The production by the Moscow Chamber Opera is a gratifying rarity, because Finnish opera has usually been performed in Russia only during visits by the Finnish National Opera.

Helsingin Sanomat 15.12.

Kalevi Aho: Frida y Diego

Russian premiere: Pokrovsky State Opera, cond. Dmitri Krjukov, sol. Viktorija Preobrazenskaja, Jekaterina Bolsakova, Aleksandr Polkovnikov etc.

PHOTO: ARNE HYCKENBERG

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio SO

Harding interprets Pettersson

Casting spells on the listener

Exquisite Sandström

When Nieminen composes for his own instrument, the guitar, he casts a spell on the listener… Marco Ramelli has got to play the Stonehenge-evoking, ritual Shades and makes a really big impression picking out the innumerable rhythmic and timbral nuances yet in a way that is natural… Nieminen’s guitar music is a reminder that grey is not the only colour, and that colours look even brighter in the twilight.

Yle.fi 1.12.

Kai Nieminen: Guitar works

In Sven-David Sandström´s mighty “Te Deum” the choir and the organ engage in an intense and fateful exchange of retorts. The choir is driven to an extreme and has to exert itself to the utmost. But the result is singularly beautiful when the voices reach to high heaven in joyfully triumphant crescendos.

Hufvudstadsbladet 17.1.

Sven-David Sandström: Te Deum

CD: Marta Dolzadelli, Marko Rutanen, Marco Ramelli, Patrik Kleemola, guitar (Pilfink, JJVCD-186 ’Rites & Shades’)

The music starts out agitated and seething, as in the late Shostakovich . . . with small motifs shooting up and a recurrent brass chord in the orchestral texture.

Daniel Harding´s interpretation extends over more than 48 minutes – unusually lengthy for this work – and emphasizes the extremes. But it does not lose the charge that is stippled by both percussion detonations and sudden luminosity. Very Mahlerlike, one could say…

Dagens Nyheter 4.12.

Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 7

Among the Bach-inspired sacred works of the 2000s, his ”St. John Passion” is in a class by itself. It is deeply personal and broadly universal, with a choice of poetry as exquisite as his beautiful tone language. Moreover, it is captured in a wonderful recording.

Dagens Nyheter 13.12.

Sven-David Sandström: The Passion of St. John

CD: Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir/Mogens Dahl, Brooklyn Rider, sol.

Daniel Karlsson, Lars Möller, Jens Björn Larsen (EXLCD 30186)

Swedish Radio SO/Daniel Harding, 1.12.2017 Stockholm, Sweden

Brilliant Abrasax The dark orchestral background provides the melancholy while the soprano saxophone straightens out a hopeful arabesque all the way… I enjoyed the groping, questioning and slightly touching thematic

CD: Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble/Erik Westberg, Helena Holmlund, organ (Studio Acusticum SA15 “Chorus Gloriosus“)

figures in the winds against the orchestra´s moodcreating structure, and the exultant pitches that displayed both the instruments´ brilliant sonorities and Paulsson´s virtuosity.

Vestmanlands Läns Tidning 27.1.

Jörgen Dafgård: Abrasax – Concerto for Soprano Saxophone

Västerås Sinfonietta/Jessica Cottis, sol. Anders Paulsson, 25.1.2018 Västerås, Sweden

REPER TOIRE TIPS Music for children KIMMO HAKOLA

Mara and Katti (2011) Dur: 55’

Libretto: Johanna Jokipaltio (in Finnish) Children’s opera for 4 soloists, descant choir and ensemble: cl, hp, pf, acc, vla The opera is packed with action and provides plenty of food for the imagination. The story is about Mara, who meets a singing cat called Katti. During their journey, they encounter the rat king, languish in prison and escape on a scooter. Hakola’s virtuoso fairytale music creates a musical adventure all of its own. Entertainment, humour and intelligent sophistication go hand in hand while the music switches from one genre to another, from children’s song, minimalism and Baroque to archaic style or Balkan music.

FREDRIK HÖGBERG

Higgins & Mr. Wrengengengengeng (1993) Dur: 50’

Text in Swedish and English A musical fairy tale/ballet for narrator, dancers and orchestra: 2222-2220-13-0-pf-str An exuberant musical fairy tale and dance performance. The narrative grew out of the collaboration of a hundred preschool children. It is about the little princess whose unicorn is abducted by the evil wizard Mr. Wrengengengengeng.

She gets help from the good-natured Higgins, who lives alone in the forest with his flowers. We also meet the pirate “Piano”, a pair of dancing cactuses, evil trolls, et al. The music is stirring, imaginative, humorous and entertaining. It is rhythmical and full of dance, Spanish rhythms, waltzes, jazz, folk music and rumbling troll drums.

PEKKA JALKANEN

The Trip to Panama (Oh, wie schön ist Panama) (1989) Dur: 28’

Text: Janosch (in Finnish, Swedish, English or German) A musical fable for narrator, treble recorder, harpsichord and ensemble: fl/afl/2perc/ str(44321) This is a delightful, throughcomposed musical fable based on a charming story of friendship and adventure by Janosch. A bear and a tiger are taking a trip to the Panama of dreams. In the course of their exciting adventure, they meet live beasts of the forest and learn new things.

According to Jalkanen, the work takes the form of a set of variations in which the musical texture moulds itself around the events of the plot.

ERLAND VON KOCH

Pelle Svanslös/Pelle Schwanzlos/Peter Tailless, the Cat (1948/88) Dur: 60’

Libretto: Gösta Knutsson (in Swedish and German) 16 soloists and orchestra: 1111-1110-01-pf/cel(kbd) A colourful children’s opera based on the popular children’s books by Gösta Knutsson about the adventures of a cat without a tail. You meet his friends but also cats that constantly tease him for being tailless. The opera consists of 33 short musical numbers, divided into seven scenes, in which the composer captures the characters of the various cats in the story by giving them an easily recognisable theme. The opera’s frisky, rhythmic and lighthearted music matches to perfection the good humour and high spirits of the text.

ILKKA KUUSISTO

Muumiooppera/Die Muminoper/The Moomin Opera (1974) Dur: 65’

Libretto: Esko Elstelä after Tove Jansson (in Finnish or German) 7 soloists, 2 other roles, dancers and orchestra: 1111-2111-02-hp-str A jolly opera based on the children’s book Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson, in which a nearby volcano causes a massive wave to flood Moominvalley. The Moomins and their friends take refuge in the opera house as it floats by and begin studying this vocal art. Kuusisto’s music gleefully borrows from many genres and introduces its young audiences not only to traditional opera but also to oratorio, operetta and even dance music.

BENJAMIN STAERN

Snödrottningen/The Snow Queen (2016) Dur: 70’

Libretto: Anelia Kadieva Jonsson after H.C. Andersen (in Swedish) 11 soloists, children’s chorus and orchestra: 2222-2220-02-hp-pf/ sampler-str The Snow Queen is based on H.C. Andersen´s well-known fairy tale about Gerda, who ventures out to save her friend Kai after he has been abducted by the Snow Queen.

The evil and the goodness are easily recognizable in the music, depicted with sharp dissonances and noise, or in major/minor harmonies. The music is congenial with the tale, it is full of flashes of wit and swarming with musical references. It is an opera replete with excitement, humour and a heart-warming message, friendship´s victory over evil.

HIGHLIGHTS

1/2018

N E W P U B L I C AT I O N S C H A M B E R & I N S T R U M E N TA L J.S. BACH/ARR. KALEVI AHO

UUNO KLAMI

Contrapunctus XIV

KAI NIEMINEN

Tema con 7 variazioni e coda per violoncello ed orchestra

from Die Kunst der Fuge four-part instrumentation Score and parts:

Shades around Stonehenge

for guitar solo

FG 979-0-55011-322-0

Piano reduction:

JEAN SIBELIUS

FG 979-0-55011-408-1

FG 979-0-55011-411-1

Six Humoresques

TOIVO KUULA

DANIEL BÖRTZ

Opp. 87 & 89 for violin and orchestra A new piano reduction based on the Urtext orchestral version

Kamarimusiikkia – Chamber Music

A piacere

for recorder and harpsichord

Instrumentation and level of difficulty vary from work to work.

Score and parts:

GE 13270

FG 979-0-55011-274-2

FG 979-0-55011-308-4

NEW CDs MATS BERGSTRÖM (ARR.)

ORCHESTRAL

CHORAL

UUNO KLAMI SCORES NOW AVAILABLE FROM FENNICA GEHRMAN

DANIEL BERG/ FREDRIK DUVLING

Sonata No. 1 G minor, Partita No. 1 B Minor, Sonata No. 2 A Minor, Partita No. 2 D Minor, Sonata No. 3 C Major, Partita No. 3 E Major

Karelian Marketplace / Karjalainen tori Op. 39

MBCD05 “Bach – Sei solo“

FG 979-0-55011-404-3

FG 979-0-55011-403-6

Mats Bergström, guitar

Northern Lights / Aurore boréale Op. 38

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM

Scènes de la vie campagnarde / Scenes from Country Life

Jesu, meine Freude; Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir; Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied Rondeau 8075605

LARS KARLSSON

Lapland ChO/John Storgårds, sol. Gabriel Suovanen, baritone, Christoffer Sundqvist, clarinet

GE 13250

TOIVO KUULA / ARR. SIRKKA KUULA

GE 13281

Toccata Classics 0416

KAI NIEMINEN

Guitar works: Omaggio a Bruno Munari, Northern Spells, Shades around Stonehenge, Sonata ‘A Walk to the Mysterious Woods’

PER EKEDAHL

Five Shakespeare Songs

Vol. 1: FG 979-0-55011-393-0 Vol. 2: FG 979-0-55011-394-7 Vol. 3: FG 979-0-55011-395-4

Hedvig Paulig, soprano, Ilmo Ranta, piano, Jan Söderblom, violin

for choir SATB a cappella Text in Latin

FG 979-0-55011-407-4

Songs to Swedish texts

ERKKI MELARTIN

REIBJÖRN CARLSHAMRE

FG 979-0-55011-406-7

Soitinnuksia jousiorkesterille / Orchestrations for String Orchestra Score and parts:

BIS-SACD 2286

GE 13249

Ubi caritas

Opernredoute 1929 for orchestra

Seven Songs to texts by Pär Lagerkvist, Clarinet Concerto

for speech choir, body percussion and percussion Texts in English

FG 979-0-55011-405-0

Une Nuit à Montmartre Op. 8 – Piano Concerto

Kammerchor Hannover/Stephan Doorman

5 Funny Pieces for the young choir

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Bulletproof

for orchestra

GE 13012 (score) GE 13014 (study score)

Marta Dolzadelli, Marko Rutanen, Marco Ramelli, Patrik Kleemola, guitar

for choir SSAA a cappella Text: William Shakespeare (Eng)

JOONAS KOKKONEN/ ARR. JOUKO LINJAMA

Requiem

Arrangement for organ, soloists and SATB choir Linjama’s skilled transcription brings the much-loved Requiem

by Joonas Kokkonen to new platforms; it is now possible to perform the work with soloists (2), mixed choir and organ.

Vocal score: FG 979-0-55011-412-8

Pilfink JJVCD-186 ’Rites & Shades’

OLLE LINDBERG

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Mässa till tröst/Consolation Mass

Anim zemirot

for mixed choir, childrens choir and violin Text in Swedish and English

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

Die erste Elegie

GE 13251 (score)

EERO SIPILÄ

ALEXANDER JAN ÖBERG

For mot jord

VELJO TORMIS

Laevas lauldakse etc.

Kampin laulu Choir/Kari Turunen KLCD 006 ’Jalat maassa’

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

Works for Cello and Piano: Sonatas for Cello and Piano 1&2, Two Preludes and Fugues, Sonata for Cello Solo, Song of My Heart

Tanja Tetzlaff, cello, Gunilla Süssmann, piano Ondine ODE-1310-2

Video lessons

are taught by Professor Géza Szilvay and consist of 4 years’ systematic Minifiddlers video lessons help teaching material, starting with complete beginners and following violin teachers develop their the Colourstrings books. professional skills and provide practical tools for working with Minifiddlers is a distance little Colourstrings students. education solution to violin study They are also suitable for parents developed by Caprice Oy, Finland. wishing to support their child’s Information and videos at practising at home. The lessons www.minifiddlers.org.

Idem perpetuo

for choir SATB a cappella Text: Anna Simonsson (Lat) GE 13248

For further information about our works or representatives worldwide check our web sites or contact us at:

HIGHLIGHTS

3/2012

Gehrmans Musikförlag AB Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden Tel. +46 8 610 06 00 • Fax +46 8 610 06 27 www.gehrmans.se • info@gehrmans.se Hire: hire@gehrmans.se Web shop: www.gehrmans.se Sales: sales@gehrmans.se

Fennica Gehrman Oy Ab PO Box 158, FI-00121 Helsinki, Finland Tel. +358 10 3871 220 • Fax +358 10 3871 221 www.fennicagehrman.fi • info@fennicagehrman.fi Hire: hire@fennicagehrman.fi Web shop: www.fennicagehrman.fi Sales: kvtilaus@kirjavalitys.fi (dealers)