Nordic Highlights 2 2017

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

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NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Focus on Jacob Mühlrad & Harri Vuori

NEWS Aho’s Sieidi a great hit

Aino Ackté on stage

Tobias Broström news

The Percussion Concerto Sieidi

by Kalevi Aho is becoming the modern Finnish concerto most often performed worldwide. Austrian virtuoso Martin Grubinger is to be the soloist 12 times at major German and Austrian concert halls during the 2017/2018 season. The orchestras are the Dresden Philharmonic, the Bavarian, Southwest German and West German Radio Orchestras and the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz. Grubinger has previously performed it at the Gewandhaus, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Helsinki Music Centre. Colin Currie was the soloist at its premiere in London with the London Philharmonic in 2012 and he has also performed it in numerous other countries.

The opera Aino Ackté by Ilkka Kuusisto is to be premiered in Savonlinna on 27 October. There will be five performances in all, two of them in Helsinki in November.

The producer is the South Savo Music Theatre and Opera Society ESMO. Singing the title role will be Päivi Pylvänäinen, and the conductor will be Jonas Rannila.

The Malmö Symphony Orchestra opens the coming season on 14 September with the premiere of Tobias Broström’s Stellar Skies for flute and string orchestra, with Malin Nordlöf as soloist and Nathalie Stutzmann at the podium. It is one in a series of works with a space theme, including among others the brass ensemble piece Distant Horizons premiered this March by the Gothenburg Symphony’s brass section (it will also be heard twice this July at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele with Jeroen Berwaerts and the Festival Brass Players). Earlier this spring the Malmö Symphony under Ingar Bergby recorded three of Broström’s works for an upcoming CD; the sparkling encore piece Beatnik, the above mentioned Stellar Skies, and Crimson Seas for alto and orchestra, with Anna Larsson as soloist.

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 photos: Men and Women, Ballett Compagnie Oldenburg (Stephan Walzl), Jacob Mühlrad (Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin), Harri Vuori (Amanda Lehtola) 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 2017

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The Heinävesi Music Festival will be showcasing major Finnish works on 28.6.-2.7. The Helsinki Sinfonietta and the Helsinki Philharmonic Choir will be performing Uuno Klami’s Psalmus as well as Jean Sibelius’s cantata Oma maa (My Own Land) and Finlandia at the Festival’s closing concert. Also the orchestral works Traumgesicht and Marjatta by Erkki Melartin are on the festival program. There will be a repeat of the closing concert in Helsinki in September, as part of the 10th-anniversary celebrations of the Helsinki Philharmonic Choir.

Hakola & Puumala premieres

Bergman on disc BIS has released a two-disc album of choral music

by Erik Bergman composed in 1936–2000. The Helsinki Chamber Choir under Nils Schweckendiek presents a varied selection of choral works by the Grand Old Man of Finnish Modernism, from his early ones right up to his last: Vårt land, Op. 146 and Väinämöinen, Op. 147.

Tuomas Mali has released a disc of piano music by Bergman on the Pilfink label – the first recording of the complete Bergman piano works (See: New CDs).

Acclaim for Kortekangas-Sibelius disc The BIS disc by the Minnesota Orchestra of Olli Kortekangas’s Migrations and Sibelius’s Kullervo and Finlandia has reaped outstanding international acclaim. It was ‘Recording of the Month’ of musicweb-international.com in March, and The Guardian praised it as being thrilling and commanding. The Kortekangas work has also been described as cast on a grand scale and its choral and orchestral writing as richly sonorous. Scored for male choir, mezzo-soprano and orchestra, Migrations was a commission from the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä. It is to receive its first performance in Finland in Lahti in October.

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki

Gehrmans has signed an agreement with Ann-Sofi Söderqvist, composer, musician, bandleader, and teacher of composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She has made a name for herself with her compositions for big band, but her palette also comprises symphonic and choral works, etc. The agreement includes two works for symphonic wind orchestra: Quest (2003/2006) and Trumpet Stories (2010/2016), as well as the newly written concert opener Movements for symphony orchestra that will be premiered by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in connection with the ceremonial opening session of the Swedish Riksdag on 12 September. Söderqvist’s choral work What Is Life? has been published earlier by Gehrmans.

Photo: Pelle Piano

Ann-Sofi Söderqvist

Heinävesi Music Festival

Kimmo Hakola has two premieres coming up this summer and autumn. The Sinfonia concertante commissioned by the Tapiola Sinfonietta for Minna Pensola (violin) and Antti Tikkanen (viola) will be performed in Espoo on 22 September with John Storgårds conducting. Before that, Arktinen Hysteria will be premiering his first Wind Quintet, Compressions on 13 July, at the Kimito Island Music Festival.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under Susanna Mälkki is to perform an orchestral work by Veli-Matti Puumala on 22&23 November, commissioned in honour of the Finland 100 jubilee.

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

PREMIERES

KALEVI AHO

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Photo: Merlijn Doomernik

Commissions are arriving for Lotta Wennäkoski at record speed. The BBC has commissioned an orchestral work from her for the Proms. Called Flounce, it will be premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo at the Last Night of the Proms in London on 9 September.

The Finnish RSO and the Polytech Choir have commissioned a work for male choir and orchestra for Finland’s Independence Day on 6 December, and she has a new work in the pipeline also for the Turku Cello Competition in February 2018.

Wennäkoski’s Guitar Concerto will have three performances in October-November, by the Kymi Sinfonietta (twice) and the Tapiola Sinfonietta with Petri Kumela as the soloist. Three orchestral works by her – the Flute Concerto Soie , Jong and Verdigris are also on the programme for the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra’s Summer Sounds festival on 28 June–2 July.

Martinsson/Larsson collaboration Rolf Martinsson and soprano Lisa Larsson are continuing their unique collaboration, which has resulted in some hundred performances since 2012. In May, Larsson guested the Malmö Symphony Orchestra for a performance of the song cycle Ich denke Dein… The Australian premiere of the same work will take place on 23 November with the Melbourne SO, and the Spanish premiere in January 2018 with the Balearic SO. Ich denke Dein… and Into Eternity were also recorded by BIS records in May with the Malmö Symphony for a forthcoming portrait CD with Martinsson’s music.

Larsson and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic have previously recorded Orchestral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson.

Next year will see a recording, together with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, of Martinsson’s Garden of Devotion and To the Shadow of Reality on the Challenge Classics label.

Schnelzer’s first opera Albert Schnelzer is writing a chamber opera for the Vattnäs Concert Barn, to be performed in July 2018. To Die at One’s Post will depict the hostage drama taking place at a bank in central Stockholm in 1973. This event gave rise to the concept “Stockholm Syndrome”, meaning the victim starts to sympathise with the perpetrator. The libretto was written by Patrik Sörling, who wanted to create a drama that deals with the complicated psychological mechanisms under extreme duress. The two-act opera is scored for a cast of five singers, one dancer and 14 musicians. Two of the roles will be sung by alto Anna Larsson and tenor Göran Eliasson, who are also the founders of Vattnäs Concert Barn, a 300-seat concert hall/opera house built in 2011, situated in a lovely scenic area by the lake Orsasjön in Dalecarlia.

Vattnäs Concert Barn

Dreams for mixed choir Lunds Vokalensemble/Martin Arpåker 6.5. Lund, Sweden Tsurah Hannah Holgersson, soprano, Magnus Holmander, clarinet, Christian Svarfvar, violin, Hanna Dahlkvist, cello, Staffan Scheja, piano 13.5. Stockholm, Sweden (Jewish Culture in Sweden) White Figurations for string orchestra Musica Vitae/Michael Bartosch 19.5. Växjö, Sweden The Preacher’s Speech Gong Percussion Ensemble 7.8. Mariefred, Sweden BENJAMIN STAERN Salomo’s Song Hannah Holgersson, soprano, Magnus Holmander, clarinet, Christian Svarfvar, violin, Hanna Dahlkvist, cello, Staffan Scheja, piano 13.5. Stockholm, Sweden (Jewish Culture in Sweden) Historien om en prinsessa/A Princess’s tale – a companion piece to A Soldier’s Tale Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet, Baiba Skride, violin, Johnny Teyssier, clarinet, Sebastian Stevenson, bassoon, Colin Currie, percussion, etc. Pernilla August and Jonas Karlsson, actors 23.9. Malmö, Sweden (Malmö Chamber Music)

OLLE LINDBERG Festmusik – Cantata to texts

by Martin Luther Boo Chamber Choir/Helena Engart 21.5. Stockholm, Sweden

Piano Sonata No. 2 Sonja Fräki, piano 3.8. Mänttä, Finland Solo XII for viola Hiyoli Togawa, viola 11.8. Luosto, Finland (Luosto Classic) Sateen aikaan Suite for mezzo-soprano and string quartet to poems by Tuomas Anhava Virpi Räisänen, mezzo-soprano, Meta4 String Quartet 24.8. Yli-Ii, Finland (Oulunsalo soi) Mearra – Chamber Concerto for Harp and Strings Ensemble Resonanz, sol. Anneleen Lenaerts 18.9. Gent, Belgium (Gent Festival of Flanders)

TIMO-JUHANI KYLLÖNEN Marimba Concerto Guard’s Band/Jackie Shin, sol. Antti Ohenoja 5.9. Helsinki, Finland

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI Flounce for symphony orchestra BBC SO/Sakari Oramo 9.9. London, UK (Last Night of the Proms)

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen Morten Grove Frandsen, countertenor, Liv Oddveig Midtmageli, soprano, Sofia Wikman, piano 10.9. Farum, Denmark

ANN-SOFI SÖDERQVIST

OLLI KORTEKANGAS VIA – Oratorio Sinfonia Lahti/Osmo Vänskä, EMO Ensemble, Key Ensemble, Kari Vuola, organ, sol. Suvi Värynen, Melis Jaatinen, Tuomas Katajala, Ville Rusanen, Nicholas Söderlund 7.6. Naantali, Finland (Naantali Music Festival)

MARIE SAMUELSSON Five Seasons for string orchestra Musica Vitae/Malin Broman 26.6. Båstad, Sweden (Båstad Chamber Music Festival)

KIMMO HAKOLA Wind Quintet No. 1 ’Compressions’ Arktinen Hysteria 13.7. Salo, Finland (Kemiönsaaren musiikkijuhlat) Sinfonia Concertante Tapiola Sinfonietta/John Storgårds, sol. Minna Pensola, violin, Antti Tikkanen, viola 22.9. Espoo, Finland Photo: Elias Sjögren

Wennäkoski commissions

May–September 2017

Movements for symphony orchestra Royal Stockholm PO/Katarina Andreasson 12.9. Stockholm, Sweden

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM Stellar Skies for flute and string orchestra Malmö SO/Nathalie Stutzmann, sol. Malin Nordlöf 14.9. Malmö, Sweden

JUHANI NUORVALA Variationes ex ‘Bene quondam’ for string orchestra Ostrobothnian CO/Sakari Oramo 16.9. Kokkola, Finland

MATTHEW WHITTALL Notilucent – Trio for Viola, Flute and Harp Finalists of the National Viola Competition 28.9. Tampere, Finland

Sandström turns 75

Sven-David Sandström celebrates turning 75 with a number of premieres during the year. Pianist Peter Friis Johansson premiered Five Pieces for Piano and Orchestra in March with the Gothenburg Symphony, and will give another two performances in November with the Swedish RSO. For the Luther Jubilee the conductor Sonny Jansson and the St. Matthew Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm have commissioned Symphony No. 4 – A Luther Symphony, which will have its premiere on 1 October with baritone Olle Persson as soloist. Under en kvinnas hjärta (Under a Woman’s Heart) commissioned by the Piteå Church Opera, will be premiered on 14 October. It is a one-act opera to a libretto by Leif Janzon about today’s women, with prototypes in the Bible, and it deals with the miracle of childbirth. The cast consists of four main roles for women, a choir of angels (four young girls) and a chamber ensemble.

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Photo: Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin

Jacob Mühlrad

– turning rituals into music Jacob Mühlrad often finds his inspiration in the Jewish liturgy, its ceremonies and rituals. The result is music that is highly suggestive, beautiful and meditative. Swedish choirs, musicians and now also orchestras are standing in line to commission new works by him. His next one will be especially close to his heart, it tells the story of his grandfather who survived the Holocaust.

O

n 27 January it attracted a great deal of attention when Jacob Mühlrad received the Michael Bindefeld Foundation’s Grant, to write a choral work about his grandfather.

– The basic idea behind this work is that we must bear witness to the Holocaust so that it doesn´t happen again, because then it would all have been in vain. My grandfather was a survivor, and I am a third-generation survivor. It is a part of my heritage, a part of my history.

Jacob is composing the work as an imagined dialogue between himself and his grandfather.

– I ask the questions now that I did not ask while he was alive; questions about what happened in the concentration camps Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, where he, among other places, had been confined. The answers are my grandfather’s own words, from the testimonies that he left behind.

The work begins with a quotation of Eli Wiesel: ”for the living and for the dead we must bear witness”, and it also contains fragments from Kaddish, a prayer for the deceased, which has given the work its name.

– Then there are sections that are entirely lacking in text. Music has the advantage that it can communicate what words cannot do.

Kaddish is written for a vocal soloist and mixed choir, where the soloist will represent his grandfather’s voice and the choir will function as a sort of echo of him. The Swedish Radio Choir will premiere the work on 14 October with Eva Dahlgren as soloist.

Inspiration from the Jewish liturgy In his music Jacob returns time and again to the Jewish liturgy, e.g. in his frequently performed choral work Anim zemirot , a setting of the Jewish psalm he used to sing as a child.

And in Nigun for double choir a cappella, in which he wanted to create the atmosphere of

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a Jewish divine service where the melody with text is interwoven with the wordless melody.

– I also wanted to explore the relationship between these two musical elements. The whole work eventually leads up to the wordless prayer.

In the Kabbala, a part of the Jewish mysticism, the melody without words has a higher spiritual value than that with words, since one can communicate so much more with music.

In Silent Prayer, for bassoon and string trio, Mühlrad reverts to the ceremony where people are to read a prayer silently for themselves.

– It never gets really quiet, however, and I have tried to do an interpretation of the mumbling sound that occurs in the synagogue, using pizzicato-tremolo in the strings, while the bassoon was given the role of the preacher.

The use of trope melodies In a number of his works Jacob Mühlrad has drawn the musical material from the trope signs of Torah reading; cantillation symbols, that designate specific melodies, and are found above every word of the Biblical text to indicate how they should be sung. In his most recent work, Tsurah (structure/form) for soprano, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, premiered in May, he has delved more deeply into this.

– My point of departure has been to lift out the trope signs from the literary and religious context, and place them in a purely musical context.

I have broken down the trope melodies and present them first as fragments that I twist and turn, build up again, and then toward the end of the work present them in their original unity.

The work is an attempt to capture the meditative state that the Jewish divine service can evoke.

This very manner of going from fragments to totality is a compositional process that Mühlrad has worked with ever since he started to write music.

As in his first choral work Thoughts and Thoughts, or in the piano piece An Echo of Memories .

Future commissions Jacob Mühlrad has recently turned 26, he has studied at the Royal College of Music in London and will soon receive his master’s degree from the composition programme at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He has already had the privilege of composing for some of Sweden’s most prominent choirs and musicians.

Last year a dream came true when his solo cello piece Pan was premiered by Antonio Hallongren at Carnegie Hall in New York. Going forward, he plans to write more music for orchestra.

– Indeed, that is something I really want to do.

Writing for orchestra is something like writing for choir. I work with the collective as one instrument.

Also in his first symphonic work, On the Verge of Eternity (2016), recently performed by the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Mühlrad made use of trope melodies as a starting point for his composition. While in the string orchestral piece White Figurations, premiered in May by Musica Vitae, he found his inspiration in the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich’s painting ”White on White”.

– Almost the whole work is built on flageolets that I experience as very transparent, bright and white.

An international orchestral co-commission lies ahead; a violin concerto for soloist Christian Svarfvar, to be premiered by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 2020.

– It feels just great. I have already been pondering and have come up with a theme, but I cannot reveal it yet. However, I suspect that it will engender strong reactions…

But before then Jacob Mühlrad will among other things compose a solo cello piece for Johannes Rostamo, financed by a grant from the Anders Wall Foundation, and a major choral work jointly commissioned by the Swedish Radio Choir, the WDR Rundfunk Chor Köln, and the Capella San Francisco, which will receive its premiere performance in Stockholm next autumn.

Kristina Fryklöf

in a world of myth and fantasy The evolution of a composer’s style and expression is only seldom the result of a conscious decision. It is usually imperceptible, like the gradual gathering of a natural force.

Such has been the case with Harri Vuori, whose recent works display features both familiar and new.

Marja and Harri Vuori

H

arri Vuori (b. 1957) is best known as a master of the orchestra, as a composer of works inhabiting a rich, multi-coloured world of timbre. But whereas colour still holds central status, a gradual change has been taking place in other elements.

“My music is indeed moving towards greater, clearer expression. It’s not a radical change; the greater clarity has been mainly in the harmonies and textures,” says Vuori.

Though the inventive fantasy manifest in his use of colour is possibly the most obvious feature of Vuori’s music, it is not the only point of departure. Proof of this are, for example, the two symphonies (2003, 2007) , with their sweeping arches, and the sinfonietta-type Myyttisiä kuvia (Mythic Images, 2002). His largest-scale work so far is the orchestral score of 2009 for the silent film Ollin oppivuodet (The Apprenticeship of Olli, 1920). He has, on the other hand, also composed miniatures such as the Aikakone (Time Machine, 2011–2015) collection of 14 pieces for teaching purposes, grouped in order of technical and stylistic difficulty (to be published during autumn 2017).

Dips into past millennia Ancient myths, especially those of the Finno-Ugrian forefathers, fascinate Harri Vuori.

A certain mythic dimension can also be sensed in his music, hard though it is to define exactly.

“There have always been extra-musical subjects

in my works, but they have now become even more pronounced; nature and myths.”

In Kalliomaalaus (Rock Painting, 2014) he dips deep into the past. It was inspired by the millennia-old rock paintings he has been to see in various parts of Southern Finland. As a tribute to these and the poetry of Eeva Tikka, he wrote not a conventional song cycle but a melodrama for narrator and chamber ensemble. The music relives the powerful archaic moods of the poems; in the closing movement, for example, which is longer than the others, he calls up shamanistic rhythms, sometimes in the 5/8 metre of the archaic poetry of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.

A world more akin to the fantasy of fairy and folk tales may also be a source of inspiration for Vuori. The orchestral Elfenmusik (2009) was inspired by the “Cottingley fairies”, the photos of fairies taken by two British cousins in the early 20th century that caused long and heated debate.

“The idea of entering into the imaginary world of children enchanted me; children see things that adults don’t.”

The result is a five-movement suite with all the magic and colour of a fairytale, seasoned with a pinch of the darker sides of the fairytale world.

Since composing a concerto for the bass clarinet (2001) and the saxophone (2004), Vuori has written one for the guitar called Ctulhu’s Dreams (2016). This is based on the Ctulhu mythology created by the writer H.P. Lovecraft with its

mysterious, imaginary gods. The fact that the solo instrument is a guitar guided the colouring of the orchestral part towards more transparent effects.

A web of nature experiences Harri Vuori usually composes on the principle of slow but sure. At one time, he says, he used to make more drawings and sketches while he was composing, but nowadays he works things out in his head more before ‘putting pen to paper’.

Sometimes the inspiration may be unexpectedly powerful. Once at his summer cottage, he heard four swans on the lake joining in diatonic song before flying right over his head. The idea of a composition lodged itself in his subconscious until one day, in the sauna, it burst out and he had to dash out of the sauna and into his study to jot it down. Knowing how seriously the Finns take their sauna, this inspiration must have been truly powerful.

The result was Lentoon (To Fly, 2015) for string orchestra. It is music of firm textures and webs, glissandos, sparkling spectral timbres, swishing tremolo swathes, repetitive figures and in places romantically-tinged harmonies.

Though the initial inspiration was almost Sibelian, with its mythical swans, To Fly is contemporary poetry of timbre and texture at their richest.

Timeless and modernist merge as one, as so often in the music of Harri Vuori.

Kimmo Korhonen HIGHLIGHTS

2/2017

Photo: Amanda Lehtola

Harri Vuori

REPER TOIR E TIPS KALEVI AHO Wind Quintet No. 2 (2014) Dur: 35´ Commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic for its chamber music series, the Quintet is scored for flute (piccolo, alto flute), oboe (English horn), clarinet (A and B-flat), horn and bassoon. This popular piece has been performed several times in the US and Europe and it is a showcase of Aho’s joyfully expressive style.

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM Distant Horizons (2016/2017) Dur: 12´ for brass ensemble: 1hn, 4tp, 4tbn, 1tb

A work with a space theme that starts out slowly with muted trumpets, after which a solo trumpet comes in with a lovely theme consisting of three tones that recur, are expanded and modified throughout the work. The second part has an entirely different character in 6/8 time, with rapidly swirling 16th-notes in the trumpets. In the concluding section the tempo slows down again and passages from the opening section are repeated.

PAAVO HEININEN Small Wolfstock (1996) Dur: 8´ for saxophone quartet

This work derives from Heininen’s big band work Wolfstock.

The first movement is fast and rhythmically expressive, the second tranquil, and the last, Werewolf, is a joyful portrayal of a hunting werewolf.

Idiomatic writing for both individual instruments and the ensemble makes this work ideal for recitals.

FREDRIK HÖGBERG Melancholy Tango (2000) Dur: 10´ for five brass players and their voices

Melancholy Tango was composed for the Stockholm Chamber Brass, and according to the ensemble “the work mixes virtuosity with the burlesque, satire with playfulness and sounding brass with the human voice. It seeks to treat the five instruments equally without denying them their traditional roles. Musically the work swings between Nordic romance and Donald Duck.”

KIRMO LINTINEN C.I.D. (2009) Dur: ca 12´ for wind quintet

A work premiered by the Idée Fixe Wind Quintet in 2010. C (=Canon) and D (= Danza) are opposite poles, their contrasts softened by the Interlude (=I) in the middle. This Interlude is an invention, a sort of fantasy variation on a single note – F sharp/G flat – from which the tonal centre of the final section emerges. The music of Lintinen always has an element of excitement and musicianly skylarking.

ROLF MARTINSSON Airy Flight (2012) Dur: 7´ for trumpet solo (or flugelhorn, soprano saxophone or clarinet) and brass quintet (arr: Daniel Fjellström)

Martinsson wrote Airy Flight as a gift for Håkan Hardenberger on his 50th birthday. It is a light, swinging and alluring bossa nova with the feel of both jazz and baroque, and with a touch of Piazollaesque melancholy. This new version for soloist and brass quintet was premiered by Tine Thing Helseth and the Linné Quintet in February.

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Wind and brass ensembles

MARIE SAMUELSSON Krom (1994) Dur: 8´ for brass quintet

Samuelsson has a perfect balance between the various tone qualities in her brilliant brass quintet. The opening has an almost medieval character with the bright fanfare-like trumpets. An atmosphere of festivity and expectation is in the air. In the slow second section the dialogue between the instruments is more caustic, especially in the abrupt answers of the dark brass. The trumpets eventually take over again, agreement is reached, and it all ends in peace and tranquility.

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM Heavy Metal (1991) Dur: 10´ for brass quintet

In Heavy Metal it is the rhythm that plays the main role. Various rhythmic cells are used simultaneously in the different instruments in a two-against-three relationship, and there are quick tempo changes here. The harmony is simple, the tone material is based on two tones a fifth apart, which begin with the first trumpet. The rest of the instruments gradually come in and more tones and variations are added in a canon technique of sorts.

REVIEWS Mysticism meets everyday life There is an unmistakable tone of Rolf Martinsson and his highly personal expression in melodies and harmonies. Tradition meets exciting reinterpretation… This feeling is intensified by the collaboration with Göran Greider… It is a very successful joint project between these two, who have managed to combine religious mysticism with concrete everyday life… Lisa Larsson, evangelist and soprano, is at the centre of the course of events! She brightens up the narrative with her clear soprano and the fantastic empathy in her performance. Smålandsposten 10.4.

Rolf Martinsson: St. Luke Passion Växjö Cathedral Oratorio Choir and Instrumental Ensemble/Sten-Inge Petersson, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano, Peter Boman, baritone, 9.4.2017, Växjö, Sweden

Lyrical, shimmering concerto It is exceedingly pleasant for the listener to be carried away. Especially since the bare chamber-musical, lyrical and shimmering dialogues between the brilliant Peter Friis Johansson at the piano and the orchestra allow such a breathing space… In every movement, too, the billowing undulations end at their foaming top with the piano part as the last instrument highest up in the treble register. Touching the limits of the physically audible. Where the music ceases or where it unites with the universe. Fantastic! Dagens Nyheter 24.3.

Sven-David Sandström: Five Pieces for Piano and Orchestra World premiere: Gothenburg SO/Mario Venzago, sol. Peter Friis Johansson, piano, 22.3.2017 Gothenburg, Sweden

JEAN SIBELIUS Andantino & Menuetto, Overture in F Minor (1889–91) Dur: 6´+9´

Kalevi Aho, Colin Currie and Osmo Vänskä in London in 2012

for brass septet

First editions based on the composer’s manuscripts in their original instrumentation.

Sibelius wrote these works for the brass band that gave park concerts in the town of Loviisa where he spent some happy summers in his youth.

Andante festivo (1922/2016) Dur: 5´ for saxophone quartet (arr: Jari Eskola)

The basis for this transcription was the version for string quartet, the idiomatic adjustments mainly concerning the continuation of the phrases. The double stops in the violin and cello parts are rearranged to make them more suitable for saxophones, but with respect for the original texture.

BENJAMIN STAERN Confrontation (2006/08) Dur: 17´ for solo trumpet and brass quintet

Confrontation is an exuberant work, full of ideas in a way that is typical of Benjamin Staern, where you never know how it is going to end. The trumpet soloist functions as a sender and the brass quintet as a receiver. They confront each other and exchange roles during the trip in an exciting and occasionally frenzied dialogue.

JENNAH VAINIO Odin’s Beard (2008) Dur: 15´ for wind quintet

A work commissioned by the I Fiati Italiani quintet of musicians from La Scala, Milan.

Visual impressions often provide the impetus for Vainio’s compositions, but in this case the stimulus was Norse mythology. What were the acoustics of Odin’s throne room like? Or the carousals in Valhalla where the ale ran free and to which only the most heroic dead warriors were admitted?

Kalevi Aho’s exuberant Sieidi Aho is not known as a composer who economises over style, and premiered in 2012 is no excepthe Percussion Concerto Sieidi tion... There is no holding it back. Vänskä and Aho make the orchestra howl and meow, screech, get worked up and explode… Following Currie’s musical expertise was totally compulsive. The end is really clever: a delicate, radiant string chord and pattering rain pipes that become engulfed in silence. Helsingin Sanomat 27.4.

Kalevi Aho: Sieidi Helsinki PO/Osmo Vänskä, sol. Colin Currie, 25.4.2017 Helsinki, Finland

Tremendous works Bram van Sambeek opens this challenging work (Solo V) with some deep, ripe notes before developing through some wonderfully characterised phrases that seem to bring out the sound of human feelings and emotion… Bassoon Concerto opens with a wonderful blend of sonorities, beautifully done... This is a tremendous concerto of great depth and imagination that deserves to be taken up by solo bassoonists. The Classical Reviewer 5.2.

Kalevi Aho: Solo V for bassoon, Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra CD: Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk, sol. Bram van Sambeek (BIS SACD-2206)

Photo: Stephan Walzl

Men and Women

A touching score, with tragic accents and numerous colours dominated by the original orchestration.

Crescendo Magazine 8.4.

Thrilling and commanding…Olli Kortekangas’s striking Migrations, which Vänskä commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of modern Finnish emigration to North America. The Guardian 23.2.

Olli Kortekangas: Migrations CD: Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä, YL Male Voice Choir, sol. Lilli Paasikivi (BIS SACD-9048)

Antoine Jully: Men and Women, ballet to Allan Pettersson’s Symphony No. 6 World premiere: Ballett Compagnie Oldenburg, Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester/Carlos Vázquez, 12.3.2017 Oldenburg, Germany

Impossible Karin Dornbusch to resist

Golo Berg presented Benjamin Staern’s Worried Souls, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, with enormous enthusiasm, genuine commitment and a brilliant orchestra. A fantastic, powerful work and a hard nut to crack, but impossible to resist!

The phenomenal Swedish soloist Karin Dornbusch, to whom the work was dedicated, also aroused great admiration.

Photo: Jan-Olav Wedin

A touching score by Kortekangas

This combination of music drama, expressive corporeity and illustrative stage design is a universal art-work – full of expression and intensity.

Nordwest Zeitung 14.3.

Photo: Johan Sundell

Photo: Heikki Tuuli

The dramatic element in the music is perfectly suited to the inner states when two people are fervently in love with one another… The heart beats wildly and the orchestra gets more intense, but the same is true even when the music is softer. Kreiszeitung 13.3.

Benjamin Staern: Worried Souls German premiere: Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern/Golo Berg, sol. Karin Dornbusch, clarinet, 3.5.2017 Stralsund, Germany

Six Humoresques – passion for the violin

Sweden’s best composer ever As so often in Eliasson’s music: profound seriousness gives way to playfulness, the one is not in opposition to the other… One of the most important records this spring. Svenska Dagbladet 24.3.

The uncompromising, the natural and the humane are what formed Eliasson’s personal expression, and as with Ingvar Lidholm, you will detect a ray of Nordic light… I enjoyed the execution throughout, which was on a very high level.

Svenska Dagbladet 19.4.

A fantastically inventive, original and – despite its virtuosity – surprisingly unforced, flowing set of works in which Sibelius poured a vast amount of love and passion for the violin.

Karjalainen 25.2.

Jean Sibelius: Six Humoresques Opp. 87 & 89 Joensuu City Orchestra/Atso Almila, sol. Réka Szilvay, violin, 23.2.2017 Joensuu, Finland

A Heininen concerto rich in ideas

Four different works by Sweden’s best composer ever. There is not a trace of playing to the gallery here, just beautiful music such as Anders Eliasson understood it, complex but entirely clear.

Tidningen Vi/May 2017

The concerto begins with an impressive motto presented by the clarinet, a church bell, violin and piano. The instruments of the orchestra, together with the clarinet, create an entity tender in tone. Beautiful glimpses were afforded by the piano and clarinet, the violins’ pizzicato passages, the exciting drums, etc…

Mozart in fact seemed slightly lethargic after Heininen’s music so boundlessly rich in ideas. www.saimaasoi.fi, March 2017

Anders Eliasson: Notturno, Senza risposte, Fogliame, Trio CD: Norrbotten NEO (BIS SACD-2270)

Paavo Heininen; Clarinet Concerto World premiere: Lappeenranta City Orchestra/Eero Lehtimäki, sol. Olli Leppäniemi, clarinet, 23.3. 2017 Lappeenranta, Finland

Jacob Koranyi

Schnelzer festival ”Bulletproof” contains both fear and streaks of belief in the future… Contrasts between the lyrically beautiful and the raw riffs are typical of Schnelzer´s music, where calm is often born from the very din… ”Tales from Suburbia” bubbles with activity. The piece is born from a squeaking, both mystical and nightmarish. But above all it is enchanting and imaginative…

The cello concerto ”Crazy Diamond” is also a journey to be sucked into.. Gorgeously beautiful and fervently played by the soloist Jakob Koranyi. Dagens Nyheter 10.4.

The most overwhelming Schnelzer work of the evening was the cello concerto ”Crazy Diamond”, where the soloist Jakob Koranyi gave a fantastic performance. Like Tuonela’s singing swan, that slowly glides over the silent water in the Finnish kingdom of the dead, the cello sings very tenderly about something helplessly lost… Svenska Dagbladet 10.4.

Albert Schnelzer: Bulletproof, Tales from Suburbia, Crazy Diamond Royal Stockholm PO/Evan Rogister, sol. Jakob Koranyi, cello, 6.4.2017 Stockholm Composer Weekend Festival, Sweden

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2017

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

NEW CDs

CHORAL TTINA ANDERSSON

FREDRIK HÖGBERG Krom for alto flute solo

Fredrik Högberg

GE 13128

S Sleep, little Baby, sleep for choir SATB fo Te Text: Christina Rosetti (Eng)

Tina Andersson

GGE 13141

Sleep, little Baby, sleep

KROM

KIRMO LINTINEN

Solo for Alto Flute

Rieha/Frolic for clarinet and piano

choir SATB

OOLLI KORTEKANGAS ERIK BERGMAN

AAnna niskasi niellä kynteni jälkii for fo o male choir Te Text: Michael Baran (Fin)

979-0-55011-334-3

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Complete Piano Music Tuomas Mali

9979-0-55011-335-0 7

Silent Prayer for bassoon and string trio io

for bassoon, violin,

GE 13163 (score and parts), GE 13164 (score)

viola and violoncello

979-0-55011-331-2 97

KAI NIEMINEN

SCORE

BIS-2252 (2-disc set)

Jacob Mühlrad Dreams for mixed choir a cappella

PARTS Bassoon Violin Viola Violoncello

Works for guitar solo: Omaggio a Bruno Munari 979-0-55011-326-88 Riflessioni sul nome Amadeo Modigliani

Pilfink Records JJVCD 166

Te Teoreema for mixed choir fo Te Text: Eeva-Liisa Manner (Fin)

Jacob Mühlrad Silent Prayer

ERIK BERGMAN Choral Works 1936–2000 Helsinki Chamber Choir/ Nils Schweckendiek

JJACOB MÜHLRAD D Dreams for choir SSAATTBB fo Text: Langston Hughes (Eng)

55011-325-1

Sonata: A Walk to the Mysterious Woods

GE 13152

55011-320-6

Northern Spells 55011-321-3 Quadri Morandi 55011-324-4

M. PRAETORIUS/JAN SANDSTRÖM Ö Det är en ros utsprungen/Es ist ein Ros entsprungen NNew version of Sandström’s well-known aarrangement fo for choir SA + SSAA Te Text: Christmas Hymn (Sw/Ger)

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA Gift of Dreams (Piano Concerto No. 3) Reduction for 2 pianos This piano reduction is now available for the first time. The work was composed for Vladimir Ashkenazy and it is a masterpiece of modern concerto literature.

KKARIN REHNQVIST

Driven for guitar

DDAVID SAULESCO

MATTHEW WHITTALL

R Romanska bågar/Romanesque Archess for choir SATB fo TText: Tomas Tranströmer (Sw/Eng)

Leaves of Grass 12 preludes for piano Inspired by Walt Whitman’s verses these preludes explore a wide range of styles and sonorities.

The entire suite can be performed as a grand, one-hour work or in different selections.

GGE 13142 (Sw), GE 13147 (Eng)

MATTIAS SKÖLD M A Thousand Suns for choir SATB fo TText: from Bhagavad Gita (Sanskrit)

979-0-55011-279-7

Mattias Sköld

A Thousand Suns

GGE 13143

VELJO TORMIS ARR. T. KANGRON Üheksa eesti pulmalaulu (Nine Estonian Wedding Songs) for female choir Text. trad (Est)

Tobias Broström

Suite for Strings

979-0-55011-343-5

for string quartet and string orchestra

SCORE

JENNAH VAINIO

GE 12982 (score), GE 12984 (study score) Mats Larsson Gothe

MATS LARSSON GOTHE “...de Blanche et Marie...” – Symphony ony No. 3 GE 12895 (score), GE 12897 (study score)

BIS SACD-2025

GGE 12252 (score), GE 13182 (cello part)

979-0-55011-314-5

Suite for Strings for string quartet and string orchestra

Toccata Classics TOCC0356

V Världsklockan (The World Clock) for choir SATB and cello (revised version) fo Te Text: Harry Martinsson (Sw)

JENNAH VAINIO

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

SATB, violoncell

TOMMIE HAGLUND Flaminis Aura, Il regno degli spiriti, Sollievo (dopo la tempesta), Serenata per Diotima Gothenburg SO/David Afkham, Malmö SO/Joachim Gustafsson, Trio ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen, Julia Kretz-Larsson, violin

GGE 13170

979-0-55011-332-9

SCORES

Världsklockan

EINAR ENGLUND Complete Music for Solo Piano Laura Mikkola

“...de Blanche et Marie...”

At Midnight for SSAA choir Text: Sara Teasdale (Eng) 979-0-55011-336-7

Golden Harmony Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra GE 12162 (study score), GE 12163 (solo part)

SELIM PALMGREN SE Piano Concerto No. 4 “April”, Piano Concerto No. 5, A Pastorale in Three Scenes, Exotic March Pori Sinfonietta/Jan Söderblom, sol. Janne Mertanen Alba ABCD 400

Pilfink Records JJVCD 178 “Notturni – chamber music by Kai Nieminen”

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

S (Four Seasons) Shiki FFour haiku of Santōka Taneda fo for mixed choir (Japan) 9979-0-55011-348-0

EXLCD 30186

MATTHEW WHITTALLL SCORE

KAI NIEMINEN The Tale of Astolpho on the Moon, Poems from Standstill Time and Silence, Uccelli della Notte, I Can Hear Northern Lights…II, Pan, Waves of Sorrow, The Smile of Flamboyant Wings, Julvers Tuomas Mali, piano, Erkki Palola, violin

The Passion of St. John Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, Brooklyn Rider, Daniel Carlsson, countertenor, Lars Møller, baritone, Jens Bjørn-Larsen, tuba

Symphony No. 3

ROLF MARTINSSON

for choir SATB

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA Hommage à Liszt Ferenc for string orchestra

Mirjam Tally

979-0-55011-333-6 (study score)

MIRJAM TALLY Lightfields for chamber orchestra

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

Lightfields for chamber orchestra

SCORE

GE 12469 (score), GE 12471 (study score)) Johan Ullén

JOHAN ULLÉN The Deadly Sins version for piano and string orchestra GE 12848 (score), GE 12850 (study score), GE 12849 (solo piano)

The Deadly Sins Seven Tangos for Piano and String Orchestra

score

Gehrmans Musikförlag AB

Fennica Gehrman Oy 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

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)