Nordic Highlights No. 3 2018

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Focus on Jonas Valfridsson & Tapio Tuomela

Albert Schnelzer’s opera Norrmalmstorgsdramat – The Stockholm Syndrome

NEWS Bo Nilsson in memoriam

PHOTO: MEL MILLS

age of 70 he felt that he had finished with composing and decided to bid farewell to musical creativity with two songs to texts by Gudrun Ekstrand, which were published by Gehrmans in 2007: Vaggvisa för en orolig själ (Lullaby for a Troubled Soul), dedicated to ”all who have lost someone close”, and Genom mitt öppna fönster (Through My Open Window), about the importance of and love for a musician´s or a composer´s life work.

Kortekangas’s Pictures of Life

Success for Pettersson in Musikverein in Vienna on 10 June. The enthusiastic audience was moved by Pettersson’s music.

Seven curtain calls and a cheering audience led to an encore with more Swedish music,

by Wilhelm Stenhammar.

An opera and other Wennäkoski commissions

PHOTO: MAARIT KYTÖHARJU

Lotta Wennäkoski is composing an opera for the Savonlinna Opera Festival. It is based on the libretto Regine by Laura Voipio that won a libretto competition held by the Festival in 2017 and tells of the life of Danish Regine Olsen and her relationship with the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.

Scheduled to be premiered on 13 November with Susanna Mälkki conducting is Hele for 12 players, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Gustavo Dudamel. In September 2019, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will premiere a work it has commissioned from Wennäkoski as the first part of a set of Helsinki Variations commissioned from six composers.

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

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: Anders Larsson & Anna Näsström in Albert Schnelzer’s opera Norrmalmstorgsdramat/ The Stockholm Syndrome (P-J Jansson), Tapio Tuomela (Music Finland/Saara Vuorjoki), Jonas Valfridsson (Victor Gårdsäter) 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

HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

A big new work titled Elämänkuvat (Pictures of Life) for solo voices, symphonic choir, children’s choir and orchestra by Olli Kortekangas is to be performed on 1 August 2019 at the old church in Isokyrö in connection with the Korsholm Music Festival. The libretto is by Pia Perkiö, the stage director is Ville Saukkonen, and the orchestras will be those of Vaasa and Seinäjoki.

Lasting 60 minutes, the cantata is a commission from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and continues Kortekangas’s sizeable series of vocal works.

A concert dedicated to Nordgren The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra is dedicating a concert conducted

by Juha Kangas on 19 January 2019 to the memory of composer Pehr Henrik Nordgren (1944–2008). For this concert, Kalevi Aho, a friend and colleague of Nordgren’s, has been commissioned to write a ten-minute work for string orchestra called Kirje tuolle puolen (Letter to the Netherworld). Also on the programme will be Nordgren’s Koko maailma valittanee (The Whole World Will Lament) and .

Transe-Choral

Three Heiniö focus concerts Music by Mikko Heiniö can be heard at three focus concerts in autumn. On the programme for 7 October at the Helsinki Conservatory is the premiere of Mot natten by Patrik Kleemola, guitar and Erkki Lahesmaa, cello, along with other chamber music performed by Tommi Hakala, baritone, Kristian Attila, piano, and others. Another concert will take place at the Sibelius Museum in Turku on 10 October focusing on Heiniö’s guitar music.

The Key Ensemble is also celebrating Heiniö’s milestone birthday with a concert in Turku on 17 November.

Dedicated exclusively to choral music by him, the concert will be conducted by Teemu Honkanen.

PHOTO: MUSIC FINLAND/MAARIT KYTÖHARJU

The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and conductor Christian Lindberg were met by a crowded concert hall and standing ovations, when Allan Pettersson’s seventh symphony was performed in Musik­verein

PHOTO: MUSIC FINLAND/MAARIT KYTÖHARJU

Bo Nilsson passed away on 25 June at the age of 81.

He had his breakthrough as a radical avant-gardist during the 1950s and 60s with works such as Stunde for soprano and six instrumentalists eines Blocks and the big ”cantata cycle” Brief an Gösta Oswald. He later changed to a more traditional style and composed music to major Swedish TV productions such as August Strindberg´s Hemsöborna and Röda rummet, as well as popular songs. As Bo Nilsson was approaching the

Nominations and awards On 5 September, the Finnish Music Publishers Association chose Kimmo Hakola as Classical Composer of the Year. In defending its choice it said: “He is a fine artist who makes no compromises with his creative self. A strong inner vision combined with what he feels to be the right end result is, for him, a more important source of creativity and incentive than any external pressure. A widely cultured person, he also expends much of his creative energy helping and supporting both his colleagues and the whole of our community in what he does.”

The orchestral song cycle Sju sånger till text av Pär Lagerkvist (Seven Songs to Texts by Pär Lagerkvist)

by Lars Karlsson has been nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize. It is one of the works on a disc of his music recently released by BIS. The winner will be announced in Oslo on 30 October.

PREMIERES ­­­­­­­Autumn 2018

PAAVO HEININEN

Un sourire dansé

Joensuu City Orchestra/Jurjen Hempel 27.9. Joensuu, Finland

JONAS VALFRIDSSON

Worpswede Triptyk for violin and piano

Anders Lagerqvist, violin, Mats Widlund, piano 4.10. Stockholm, Sweden John Bauer Suite 1918

Jönköpings Sinfonietta, Jönköping Chamber Choir/ Christian von Gehren 4.11. Jönköping, Sweden

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Maggid for cello solo

Johannes Rostamo 6.10. Stockholm, Sweden Time for mixed choir Swedish Radio Choir/Ragnar Bohlin 17.11. Stockholm, Sweden

Tobias Broström is writing a Concerto for Two Trumpets and Orchestra for soloists Håkan Hardenberger and Jeroen Berwaerts, a joint commission from the Malmö Symphony, The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Radio 3/the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conducted by John Storgårds the concerto will have its world premiere in Malmö on 14 March 2019.

BENJAMIN STAERN

Meditation in Colours for organ and strings

Lund Chamber Soloists, Robert Bennesh, organ 6.10. Lund, Sweden (Lund Sacred Contemporary Music Festival)

MIKKO HEINIÖ

Mot natten for guitar and cello

Erkki Lahesmaa, cello, Patrik Kleemola, guitar 7.10. Helsinki, Finland

Digital sheet music in Fennica Gehrman and Gehrmans are delighted to announce our partnership with nkoda, the new subscription service app for digital sheet music, with over 100,000 titles at launch. The first scores include some 600 works from our hire and sales catalogues, from some earlier pieces by Jean Sibelius and Hugo

Alfvén till the music of today, and the aim is to entrust nkoda with our entire catalogues. The scores can be annotated using built-in smart tools.

The app is currently available on a 30-day free trial for iPad, iPhone and Android tablet and other versions are due in September 2018.

Congratulations Lindberg and Börtz

PHOTO:HANS LINDÉN

Nils Lindberg turned 85 in June. With his folk-musiccoloured blend of art music and jazz he continues to score successes with choral classics as Shall I compare , Requiem and A Christmas Thee to A Summer’s Day Cantata. Among his recent works is the Rossetti Suite composed for the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln. Febru­ary of next year will see the German premiere of his Elf Shot, for soloists, choir and symphonic big band.

Daniel Börtz celebrated his 75th birthday in August.

Since he turned 70 he has been busy composing a Sinfonia etc. He recently finished work on his 12, the opera Medea, the large-scale choral work In the Darkness of Voices 65-minute Sinfonia 13, scored for two reciters, three soloists and orchestra, to texts from Kjell Espmark´s Skapelsen (The Creation). Patrik Ringborg will conduct the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in the premiere on 23 May 2019.

saxophone and string quartet Fire! for tenor saxophone Three Strides of Light

for piano Veli Kujala, accordion/live electronics, Esa Pietilä, saxophone, Janne Tuomi, percussion, Risto-Matti Marin, piano, Kamus String Quartet 26.10. Helsinki, Finland (Pietilä focus concert)

JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD

Eclipse – Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra

Camerata Nordica, sol. and leader Hugo Ticciati 27.10. Oskarshamn, Sweden

TUOMAS TURRIAGO

Sonata for Flute and Piano

Sami Junnonen, flute, Tuomas Turriago, piano 10.11. Helsinki, Finland

ANN-SOFI SÖDERQVIST

City Life

O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra/Hugo Ticciati 11.11. Stockholm, Sweden (Gehrmans 125th Anniversary)

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

Hele

Los Angeles Philharmonic/Susanna Mälkki 13.11. Los Angeles, USA

Lisa Larsson’s Traumreise

KIMMO HAKOLA

A new work

Vaasa City Orchestra, Jyväskylä Sinfonia 14.11. Vaasa, Finland (Jorma Panula Conducting Competition) Symphony No. 1

Finnish RSO/Hannu Lintu 12.12. Helsinki, Finland

FRANZ BERWALD/ORCH: ROLF MARTINSSON

Traumreise for soprano and orchestra

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Lahav Shani, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano 28.11. Zürich, Switzerland PHOTO: MAX KELLER

2018 marks the 150th anniversary of the TonhalleOrchester Zürich. It also marks the Swedish composer Franz Berwald’s 150th anniversary of death.

On commission from the Tonhalle-Orchester soprano Lisa Larsson has created Traumreise, a compilation of nine beautiful, and sadly unknown Berwald songs.

Larsson takes us on a journey from Sweden via France and Germany to Switzerland, with Berwald’s settings of Swedish, French and German poetry. The songs have been orchestrated by Rolf Martinsson and will be premiered on 28 November in Zürich under the baton of Lahav Shani. Johannes Gustavsson will conduct the Helsingborg Symphony in the Swedish premiere in December. Already on 25 September Larsson and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic presented a short teaser in connection with the Opening of the 2018 Parliamentary Session.

ESA PIETILÄ

Glow for ensemble Blazing Flames for tenor

KAI NIEMINEN

Bartlebooth for piano

OLLI KOSKELIN

Five Pieces for Piano, Discussions with Air

Tuomas Mali, piano 8.12. Helsinki, Finland

HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

PHOTO: MAARIT KYTÖHARJU

PHOTO: PETER KALLO

PHOTO: MARCO BORGGREVE

Double trumpet concerto by Broström

The diversiform musical ethos of Tapio Tuomela Cultural interaction. Passion coupled with pragmatism. A synthesis between the classical musical heritage and ethnic identities. Respect for the intrinsic worth of each and every one. These, according to his composer colleague Jyrki Linjama, are the cornerstones of the musical ethos of Tapio Tuomela. of Tapio Tuomela. Its stylistic and textural solutions may be very wild and dramatic even, yet always in the background is a feeling of classical breeding, of a thorough grounding in not only composition but also the piano and conducting.

His innovative solutions spring from his versatile appropriation of tradition.

PHOTO: MUSIC FINLAND/SAARA VUORJOKI

Practical experience and enjoyment

I

well remember the first time I met Tapio Tuomela, at a piano masterclass in 1979. He was a student in the class and I was its janitor.

When it came out that I was studying composition and my instrument was the violin, Tapio, without more ado, fished the score of a new composition out of his briefcase and began asking me about violin bowings. This says something about the enthusiasm and pragmatism that has accompanied him not only in his composing but also in his many administrative capacities and his networking, both Finnish and international.

Cultural interaction Cultural interaction is an important feature of Tuomela’s composer profile. There was concrete evidence of this in his artistic Doctorate some years ago, focusing on versions of one and the same vocal work in different translations. For example, the differences between the French versus English versions of Fissure for baritone and chamber ensemble, extend far beyond the phonetics and syllables.

They mirror different worlds; they are studies of two different perceptions of reality.

Leonard Ratner writes of the beginning of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in his book Classic Music (p. 112): “This effervescent melody, free as it seems, is still subject to the law of the strict style, to the rule of old Grandpa Fux.” The same thing occurs to me, mutatis mutandis, in the music HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

Tapio Tuomela’s practical experience as both a pianist and a conductor is especially marked in the Piano Concerto he wrote for Iiro Rantala in 2008.

It is a work that weaves tensions between simple metrical shapes and their cunning disruption. In its attitude to time Iiro Rantala is able to draw widely on his experience of jazz, to say nothing of the space set aside in the score for the soloist to improvise. The enjoyment of music-making and the energy radiating from the outer movements is offset in the slow one by frail nature sounds and appealing nostalgia.

The Saxophone Concerto Swap (2012-13) is in many respects a sister work to the Piano Concerto.

Its special feature is the dense, virtuosic tossing of material between soloist and orchestra. The multiphonics and extended string-technique timbres integrate convincingly with the orchestration, which could be characterised by a Richard Strauss-type paradox: the sound is simultaneously transparent and full.

Vocal dimensions Composition studies in Finland in the 1980s often concentrated on things like set theory and gesture metamorphosis. Tuomela recalls how refreshing it was to study in New York and to contemplate the cultural and human signification of music more richly and more directly in his composition lectures: what does music signify? How does music signify?

Delving deep into such questions has opened up routes to vocal music and especially opera. Äidit ja Tyttäret (Mothers and Daughters, 1998-99), to a libretto by Paavo Haavikko, takes a fresh look at the Lemminkäinen myth in the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, and not without humour.

The opera’s synthesis of modern classical music and age-old Finnish ethnicity is a veritable tour de force. It dramatizes various aspects of the

Kalevalaic world: both unadorned sensuality and zeal, mortal fear and the driving force of love. The love incantations are concrete manifestations of a folklore that violates the traditional expurgated, censored versions.

Synthesis of the classical music tradition and ethnic identities is a fundamental element of Tuomela’s vocal works, the texts of which are often taken from ancient Finnish folk poetry. The underlying mood of Mothers and Daughters is tragic, and in this respect it ties in with his more recent operas. Antti Puuhaara (2007-08), based on a folk tale, combines the tragedy of marginality with a strong feel for nature by various vocal means: for the human voice is ultimately the richest and most fascinating source of sound. The opera Neljäntienristeys (Crossroads) premiered in Oulu last year is based on a novel by Tommi Kinnunen that addresses inter-generational tensions in the status of women, spiritual violence and sexuality.

Tuomela has firm links with the northerly regions of Finland, through both family ties and his hobby: fishing. The elemental power of the arctic nature is reflected in many ways in his scores Jokk´ , Vuohenki Luohti (The Song of Vuohenki) in the Sámi language for mezzosoprano and orchestra, and the third symphony Crossroads using material from the new opera.

Meanwhile, the way he gives voice to the marginalised, his respect for the intrinsic worth of each and every one, reflects the human-oriented ethos of his work.

JYRKI LINJAMA

Footnote Tapio Tuomela will be 60 years on 11 October. A concert presenting his latest vocal works will be held on 16.10. at the Helsinki Music Centre. The program includes also a world premiere: Three Folk Ballads for mezzosoprano and ensemble written for Virpi Räisänen and the Zagros Quartet.

PHOTO: VICTOR GÅRDSÄTER

Jonas Valfridsson enters John Bauer’s mythological world

Jonas Valfridsson goes his own way.

He builds structures that are exciting to enter into, arouses suggestive rhythms that make us sway, paints sonorities that we have never heard before. He prefers to write in an associative manner rather than to follow traditional models.

Jonas Valfridsson was born in 1980 in Jönköping, in the same city as John Bauer, the fairy-tale artist, born in 1882. Generations of children (and adults) have loved and admired Bauer´s imaginative paintings of princesses, goblins and trolls. In 1918 Bauer and his whole family drowned in a tragic and widely reported steamboat accident on Lake Vättern, and it is for the centenary of that catastrophe that Valfridsson was commissioned to compose memorial music.

The John Bauer Suite 1918, is a 36-minute work for orchestra and vocalising choir, whose six movements derive their titles from well-known fairy tales that have been illustrated by Bauer. ”Woodland and natural scenery as depicted by Bauer were what triggered my inspiration”, says Valfridsson. “The scenery in these stories and paintings is not all idyllic; rather, much of it seems alluring and treacherous. In Bauer´s mythological world nature is not to be trusted; it can be intrinsically just as cruel and unforgiving as natural disasters. It can be barbarous, ready to devour us the day that civilisation comes to an end… In spite of this, I can still not resist being seduced by nature´s beauty, and it is this ambivalence that I have tried to give form to in the music – the discord between the seductively dangerous and the mysteriously beautiful. The point of departure for my sonorities has been music from around the time of Bauer´s decease, that is, from the early twentieth century.”

The work was commissioned by the Jönköping Sinfonietta and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and the premiere will take place in

Jönköping on 4 November 2018, under the direction of Christian von Gehren.

While at work on the John Bauer Suite Valfridsson received a commission for a piece for bassoonist and soloist prize-winner Sebastian Stevensson and the string orchestra Musica Vitae. Since he was completely absorbed in Bauer´s world he was hesitant, but after hearing Stevensson´s magnificent playing he started work on a Concertino for Bassoon, Svanhamnen (The Swan Maiden) , inspired by Helena Nyblom´s story, with illustrations by Bauer, premiered in January 2018.

Years of study

sion from the Norrköping Symphony after he had won the Anne-Sophie Mutter composition contest with his concert opener A Sudden Recollection: Le Jardin des Plantes in 2013.

Long before that Valfridsson had composed prize-winning chamber music. His Clarinet Quintet You Live on My Skin went to the final for the Aberdeen Music Prize in 2009, and the same year he was awarded the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia grant in Bamberg. More successes were to follow: in 2010 he won the Uppsala Composer Competition with The Only Thing You Keep Changing Is Your Name. It led to the commission of a new work: A Fragmented Memory – My Overgrown Little

Jonas Valfridsson began his musical career, while in upper secondary school, as a guitarist in the local hard rock band. But he soon found that he enjoyed writing music more than playing it, and he therefore began studies in composition. First a couple of years at the Gotland School of Music Composition, thereafter studies in Paris, Stockholm and Gothenburg. He wrote some chamber music in the harsh modernistic style that was in vogue during his period of education. He tried out electronic music, used it in some early pieces, and in later works has taken advantage of some of its possibilities transferred to purely instrumental music. With a mixture of modern expressivity and tonal features in lyrical surroundings, he quickly found himself.

Competition successes Valfridsson soon discovered that it was not so easy for an unknown composer to get his works performed.

One way was to send them to competitions. Already his very first orchestral work, In Killing Fields Sweet Butterfly Ascend , won third prize in the Toru Takemitsu Award 2005, and was premiered by the NHK Symphony in Tokyo. He returned to Japan when the Japanese ”Friends of Stenhammar” in 2014 was to perform his Piano Trio Jag är ingens mor (2002). ”This is actually my second piano trio and one of the most frequently played of my works. I look upon it somehow as my Opus 1 since it is the first work where I was starting to find my own voice – a lyrical, fragmented and delicate piece in which the inspiration for its form comes from modern poetry, a verse from a poem by Katarina Frostenson.”

His interest in Japan had been aroused and he was fascinated by the fact that the Japanese without misgivings in many contexts blend the ancient with the hypermodern. During his trip he took the opportunity to visit the ancient temples at Kamakura, a dizzying experience that for once would inspire him to create actual concrete melodies. The orchestral Temples of Kamakura , was written in 2015 on commis-

John Bauer: Little Princess Cottongrass

Tree House (2013), in which childhood memories appear, are included and result in a wonderful, lively fantasy. During the period when Valfridsson was composer-in-residence with the Sinfonietta Riga . This work he wrote Bikernieki Forest (2015) depicts the forest with the same name just south of Riga, where mass graves and monuments after the murder of 35.000 people during World War II made an indelible impression on him. The work is dedicated to the victims and their next of kin.

If you by chance were to meet Jonas Valfridsson on a street in Stockholm, you would perhaps take him for a bureaucrat, impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, on the way to his office. Most likely he would actually be on the way to his work, to a well-functioning studio where he creates most of his imaginative works of art. It is vital for him to have a job to go to, where he can shake off the shackles of everyday life and enter straight into his dream workshop. For it is often dreams, memories, experiences that come alive when his note-writing pen is activated. Then tones gush forth from worlds that no one has ever visited before.

STIG JACOBSSON HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

REPER TOIRE TIPS

REVIEWS

­­­­­­­Works for descant choir Text: William Shakespeare (Eng) In his attractive musical settings of Shakespeare poems, Ekedahl has tried especially to make all parts in the chorus equally interesting to sing. He has incorporated some catchy melodic arabesques, and there is also a hint of reminiscences from English madrigals. The songs in the suite can be performed separately.

ULRIKA EMANUELSSON

KARIN REHNQVIST

Der Herr ist mein Hirte (2007) Dur: 8‘ SSAA

Text: Psalm 23 (Ger/Sw) A joyous and beautiful setting of the wellknown psalm text, also including folk music elements and suggestive whisperings. The work was commissioned by the 8th World Symposium on Choral Music.

JAN SANDSTRÖM / MICHAEL PRAETORIUS

Det är en ros utsprungen/Es ist ein Ros entsprungen/Lo, How a Rose E´er Blooming (1990/2017) Text: Yoik and English Ulrika Emanuelsson gives us wintry Nordic Dur: 4’ SSAA + SSSSAAAA Arctic Yule & Arctic Elements (2017) Dur: 6’ SSAA

sonorities in her kaleidoscopic potpourri with fragments of Yuletide songs and sing-along yoik, including features of rhythmical improvisation.

OLLI KORTEKANGAS

Harmony (2005) Dur: 5’ SSAA

Text: composer after I Ching, the Book of Changes (Eng) Harmony for descant choir was commissioned for the Florilege Vocal de Tours choral competition 2006. It represents tuneful choral Kortekangas and poses a host of exciting technical and expressive – yet not unreasonable – challenges.

Three Studies (2011) Dur: 6’ SSAA

Text: phonetics, Hajime Kijima (transl. L. Levis) (Eng) The celebrated Children’s Chorus of Washington sang in the premiere of Kortekangas’s oratorio Seven Songs for Planet Earth at the Kennedy Center in 2011, after which they commissioned this work from him. Each Study operates within one clear texture, and the middle one has room for improvisation.

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Anim zemirot (2017) Dur: 8’ SSSAAA

Text: Jewish liturgical poem (Hebrew) Jacob Mühlrad is often inspired by the Jewish liturgy in his composing, and in this work he has set the psalm text Anim zemirot, sung in the synagogue at the end of the Sabbath. It is magnificent, suggestive and innovative. Here in a new version for descant choir.

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

I min älsklings trädgård / In My Lover’s Garden (1993) Dur: 9’ SSAA

Text: Edith Södergran, transl. J. Mäntyjärvi (Swe/Eng).

A set of three songs, the first of which (I de stora skogarna) is beautiful and lyrical and the third (Lyckokatt) light and playful.

Mellan gråa stenar begins with a melody for the altos accompanied by the others with figures in seconds or thirds. Sometimes the roles change, and the voices form a hypnotic weave evocative of a flock of birds.

Wenn sich die Welt auftut (When the World Surrenders) (1996) Dur: 10’ SSSAAA

Text: Lassi Nummi, transl. by I. Schellbach-Kopra (Ger) A work commissioned by the Mädchenchor Hanover based on inspiring poems which Rautavaara felt as being extremely personal. The five movements can also be performed separately or in different combinations. The opening Freude steigt ins auf is based on a jolly triplet rhythm that is varied in the most popular, fourth song, Der Brief.

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Text: Trad. (Sw/Ger) Sandström used Praetorius’ Christmas hymn as a starting point for his otherworldly composition for double choir a cappella, where the tones seem to stretch out into eternity.

The four-part ‘Choir I’ is singing Praetorius in slow motion, while the contrasting, harmonizing music of the eight-part ‘Choir II’ is hummed throughout. The work has become a modern classic among choirs. In 2017 a new version was published, transcribed for descant choir by Mette Østby Madsen.

URMAS SISASK

Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro (1991) Dur: 6’ SSAA

Text: Lat The ostinato figures and repetitions in the text give this work a hypnotic atmosphere above which rise the first sopranos’ melodies. Sisask’s works reflect his interest in shamanistic cultures, medieval vocal polyphony and Estonian rune singing, and many of his choral works, this one included, draw on ecclesiastical texts in Latin.

AGNETA SKÖLD

Agnus Dei (2015) Dur: 2’30’’ SSAA

Text: Lat The music of Agneta Sköld´s Agnus Dei brings Gregorian chant to mind, but in a modern tone language. A meditative and sonorous work.

VELJO TORMIS

Üheksa eesti pulmalaulu / Nine Estonian Wedding Songs (arr.)

Dur: 9’ SSAA

Text: Trad. (Est) A recent arrangement for high voices by T. Kangron. The nine songs in the set vary in character from quick and cheerful to more lyrical, depending on the topic (e.g., Waiting for the Wedding, Wedding Ride, The Bride Cries for Home). Once again, Tormis brings archaic melodies and traditions back to life. A separate English translation of the text is available.

JENNAH VAINIO

At Midnight (2016) Dur: 4’ SSAA

Text: Sara Teasdale (Eng) Alto staccatos imitate the relentless tick of the second hand of a clock. Beautiful melodies and delicate harmonies emerge as the work proceeds.

Teasdale’s powerful text conjures forth an ominous midnight mood. The work is dedicated to the Kaari-Ensemble and was premiered at the Berlin Philharmonie in February 2017.

Lindberg’s early Ritratto is a modern outburst that radiates joy and energy. It is like the fleeting movement, shimmer and heave of resonant electromagnetic waves. Its clear tensile span seems to be dominated by elemental fire, flaring and dying.

Helsingin Sanomat 1.7.

Magnus Lindberg: Ritratto

Avanti!/Dima Slobodeniouk, 28.6. 2018 Porvoo, Finland

Simply wonderful Pettersson The Seventh has needed a good modern recording for some time, and finally it has one... The Norrköping players are once again on superb form, responding to Lindberg’s advocacy just as keenly; but then this music is in their blood… what caught my ear as much in both symphonies was the orchestral balance, with so much of the detail coming through as never before. Simply wonderful.

Gramophone July 2018 Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7

CD: Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg (BIS-2240)

Catchy Flounce Lotta Wennäkoski’s Flounce is brilliant orchestral music with trumpets and percussion as the driving force, readily motoric, with stirring rhythms and dynamics that threatened to send the Concert House roof and walls flying.

Hufvudstadsbladet 12.8.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Flounce

Finnish RSO/Hannu Lintu, 10.8. Turku Music Festival, Finland

Impressive Rautavaara entity Rautavaara’s gentle and harsh impulses are combined in the interpretations to form impressive entities…

In the Neo-Baroque Sonata for Solo Cello, Tetzlaff’s playing grows out of an incomparably velvet sound…

Sydämeni laulu (The Song of My Heart) suits the cello just as well as the original baritone voice.

Helsingin Sanomat 1.6.

Tetzlaff’s and Süssman’s vision of this music is lucid and profound, never overly sentimental but always highly expressive.

Finnish Music Quarterly 25.5.

Einojuhani Rautavaara: Works for Cello and Piano

CD: Gunilla Süssmann, piano, Tanja Tetzlaff, cello (Ondine ODE 1310-2)

PHOTO: MUSIC FINLAND/SAARA VUORJOKI

PER EKEDAHL

Five Shakespeare Songs (2017) Dur: 14’30’’ SSAA

Magnus Lindberg’s Ritratto

Elgant Wirén When listening to Dag Wirén´s elegant string serenade you come alert. He has his gay and lively rhythms and pregnant melodies to fall back on…

The Third Symphony is expansive in its dynamics; you notice that the composer is serious even when he is playful… ”Divertimento” is a little rougher, a bit in the direction of Stravinsky. But absolutely, distinctly recognizably Wirén, a reliable guide in our Swedish neoclassical music literature.

Opus #83 June 2018 Dag Wirén: Symphony No. 3, Serenade for Strings, Divertimento, Sinfonietta

A pianistic treasure trove Laura Mikkola opens up this pianistic treasure trove …The Sonatina is like a microcosm illustrating Englund’s aesthetics: speed and flow, marching rhythms and playful comments one after the other. The Piano Sonata is more meditative and also the biggest and weightiest of the works for piano.

Hufvudstadsbladet 21.3.

Einar Englund: Complete Music for Solo Piano PHOTO: HEIKKI TUULI

CD: Laura Mikkola, piano (Toccata Classics TOCC 0356)

Laura Mikkola

Psychologically gripping opera

Tonal euphony for orchestra

Albert Schnelzer´s music sucks the audience right in, relentlessly and fatefully. The music is remarkably singable and melodious in a melancholy way, even though the first-rate Vattnäs Chamber Orchestra under conductor Fredrik Burstedt brings out the agitated drive, the urgent rhythms and the pulsating nervous tension.

Svenska Dagbladet 15.7.

This is without exception, in the best sense, accessible music, which nevertheless contains sharp contrasts.

From the distinct profiles of the ten songs with orchestra to the ”Concerto for Orchestra” with its complex web of parts. I am impressed by the composer´s ability to vary sonorities and intensity…

Lisa Larsson is a superb vocal soloist; her singing is nuanced, with a tone that is clear as a bell; her diction is impeccable and without any mannerisms.

Opus #83 June 2018

Anders Larsson & Anna Näsström

(The

World premiere: Vattnäs CO/Fredrik Burstedt, sol. Anna Larsson, Göran Eliasson, Anders Larsson, Tobias Westman, Agnes Auer, dancer: Anna Näsström, libretto and direction: Patrik Sörling,13.7.2018 Vattnäs, Sweden

Magical Schnelzer The cello concerto “Crazy Diamond” as well as the concerto for orchestra “Brain Damage” convey a feeling of meeting what is unfamiliar and unimaginable, a kind of close encounters of the third kind… in ”Tales from Suburbia”, he alienates the suburb in a way that arouses its slumbering magical potential.

That alone is a colossal achievement in itself.

Dagens Nyheter 28.6.

Superbly performed and recorded to BIS’s usual superlative standards, this is a powerful trio of works which has the hands of a master craftsmen behind them – both in their creation and performance…

MusicWeb International August 2018 Albert Schnelzer: Crazy Diamond, Tales from Suburbia, Brain Damage

CD: Gothenburg SO/Benjamin Shwartz, sol. Claes Gunnarsson, cello (BIS-2313)

PHOTO: P-J JANSSON

Stylistically it is melodious minimalism in the John Adams mould…Rhythmically intense it certainly is… very cantabile… the more dramatic moments also receive their due in powerfully intense, ‘physical’ music. This score is a triumph in every way.

Seen and Heard International/24.7.

At best, Schnelzer´s tone language lets the singers rest in introverted brooding… Such as Anna Larsson´s self-restrained motherly admonitions in a telephone aria… Or the many fine ensembles… A highlight for the little orchestra is the suggestive dance for the mute person among the hostages, here interpreted by dancer Anna Näsström.

Dagens Nyheter 14.7.

Albert Schnelzer: Norrmalmstorgsdramat – att dö på sin post Stockholm Syndrome ) Opera

CD: Iceland SO/ Rumon Gamba (Chandos CHSAS 194)

Rolf Martinsson’s works are bold and uncompromisingly personal, eschewing avant-garde modernism and engaging us with solidly expert conventional techniques of composition and orchestration….

Having all of these works together in BIS’s superb SACD sound and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on top form is a real treat.

MusicWeb International June 2018 Rolf Martinsson: Open Mind, Orchestral Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, A. S. in Memoriam, Concerto for Orchestra

CD: Royal Stockholm PO/Andrew Manze, Sakari Oramo, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano (BIS-2133 ‘Presentiment’)

PHOTO: TURKU PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Aho’s Timpani Concerto – a marvellous piece The Timpani Concerto finds the composer at his engaging and immediate best. It’s a bravura work that modulates from quiet, tingling introspection to bold, thundering outbursts… It’s all so refreshingly direct, with not a note wasted on empty gestures. Then again, that’s a familiar aspect of this composer’s style. …Goodness, what a marvellous piece this is, and how gratifying it is to discover that Aho, 70 next year, has lost none of his flair and energy.

MusicWeb International July 2017 Kalevi Aho: Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra, Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra

Kalevi Aho and Ari-Pekka Mäenpää

CD: Turku PO/Erkki Lasonpalo, Eva Ollikainen, sol. Ari-Pekka Mäenpää, timpani, Sonja Fräki, piano (BIS-SACD 2306)

HIGHLIGHTS

3/2018

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 KIRMO LINTINEN

JARI ESKOLA (ED.)

Ballata Concertante

Finnish Repertoire for Alto Saxophone and Piano

for octet (cl, fg, hrn, vl 1, vl 2, vla, vcl, cb)

Transcriptions of works

by Finnish composers of the early 1900s.

FG 979-0-55011-440-1 (score and parts)

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

979-0-55011-442-5

TUOMAS TURRIAGO

JENNAH VAINIO

Diesel Rhythm Canticle

for flute, clarinet and guitar

Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano FG 979-0-55011-451-7

FG 979-0-5011-430-2 (score and parts)

MATTHEW WHITTALL

Song of My Heart (Sydämeni laulu)

PAAVO HEININEN

Event Horizons - Sonata for

Alto Saxophone and Piano

for cello and piano Rautavaara reworked his beloved song from the opera Aleksis Kivi for cello and piano in 2000.

Sonata for Piccolo and Piano Op. 116 FG 979-0-55011-436-4 Sonata for Bassoon and Piano Op. 122 FG 979-0-55011-438-8 Sonata for Contra­ bassoon and Piano Op. 138 FG 979-0-55011-439-5 Sonata for English Horn and Piano Op. 137 FG 979-0-55011-437-1

FG 979-0-55011-432-6

COLOURSTRINGS STARTER PACKS

FG 979-0-55011-431-9

MARIE SAMUELSSON

I horisonter/In Horizons

for violin, cello and piano GE 13342 (score)

JEAN SIBELIUS / ARR. NINO ATANASKOVIC

TIMO-JUHANI KYLLÖNEN

Theme and Variations

Alleluia Songs

for guitar An idiomatic transcription of the Sibelius’s solo cello work dating from 1887.

for saxophone trio (soprano, alto, baritone). Three pieces originally written for women’s choir. FG 979-0-55011-445-6

FG 979-0-55011-449-4

(score and parts)

NEW CDs

LÁSZLÓ ROSSA – CSABA SZILVAY – GÉZA SZILVAY

Colourstrings Duos for Violin and Cello, Vol. 1 & Vol. 7

Volume 1 includes 21 new and thrilling compositions and volume 7 “Songs from Various Nations” is an around-the-world trip of 11 pieces by Rossa.

KALEVI AHO

Colourstrings Viola ABC (Book B) FG 979-0-55011-253-7

SCORES

Fem årstider/Five Seasons

for string orchestra and audio file (Poems by Mimmi Palm)

GE 13090 (score), GE 13092 (study score)

MATTHEW WHITTALL

MATS LARSSON GOTHE

Ricerco 2

Northlands

GE 13374 (score) GE 13375 (solo parts) GE 13376 (study score)

for horn and strings Northlands’ recording by Alba Records won Finnish Broadcasting Company’s Record of the Year prize in 2017.

for bassoon and orchestra

PEHR HENRIK NORDGREN

Sonata for Cello, String Quartet No. 3, Equivocations, String Quintet

DANIEL NELSON

Steampunk Blizzard GE 13401 (score) 13403 (study score)

Kokkola Quartet, Marko Ylönen, cello etc.

Alba ABCD 421 ’Evocation’

VOCAL

WILHELM STENHAMMAR

MARJUKKA ESKELINEN – SAARA-MAIJA STRANDMAN

Symphony No. 2

Antwerp SO/Christian Lindberg

Lasten lied! (Children’s Lied!)

BIS-2329 Sången, Two Sentimental Romances, Reverenza

A repertoire compendium for the very young singers and pianists in Finnish.

Gothenburg SO/ Neeme Järvi

FG 979-0-55011-443-2

BIS-2359

EDUARD TUBIN

Vanemuine SO/Paul Mägi Vanumuine 740447-314662

Alba Records ABCD 423 ‘Sixth Sense’

GE 13422

DANIEL MÖLLER

GE 13392

Nu tändas tusen juleljus/ A Hymn of Homelessness for choir SSA

Risto-Matti Marin, piano

for mixed choir SSAATTBB and mezzo soprano Text: based on quotes by Elie Wiesel, Michael Bliman and the Judaic Kaddish (Eng)

Cantata for soloist, mixed choir SATB, two violins, double bass and organ. Text: Irma Schultz (Sw)

MATTIAS KOIJ/GUNNEL MAURITZSON

The Wine-dark Sea

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Kaddish (Short version)

Lux æterna

GE 13425

MATTHEW WHITTALL

FG 979-0-55011-450-0 (study score)

HANS KENNEMARK

Talita koum!

Symphony No. 2 “Legendary”

FG 979-0-55011-601-6

MARIE SAMUELSSON

TOMMIE HAGLUND

GE 12975 (score) GE 12977 (study score)

BIS-2176

#2 contains Minifiddlers videos for one year (1st year package) and two books: Colourstrings Violin ABC Book A and Handbook for Teachers and Parents (new 2018 edition).

PIRKKO SIMOJOKI – GÉZA SZILVAY

for soprano and orchestra

Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet

FG 979-0-55011-600-9

No. 1: FG 979-0-55011-452-4 No. 7: FG 979-0-55011-453-1

La rosa profunda

Wind Quintets 1 & 2

#1 contains Minifiddlers video subscriptions for one year (1st year package) and two books: Colourstrings Violin ABC Book A and Colourstrings Violin ABC Duettini.

Text: Emmy Köhler, Fred Kaan (Sw, Eng) GE 13415

for mixed choir SAB Text in Latin

PER GUNNAR PETERSSON

Nunc dimittis

for mixed choir SAB, solo and organ Text: Luke 2:29-32 (Lat, Eng) GE 13400

KARIN REHNQVIST

Jag lyfter mina händer

(I Lift My Hands) for mixed choir SATB, divisi In memory of choir conductor Bo Johansson Text: Jacob Arrhenius/ Jesper Svedberg (Sw) GE 13332

AGNETA SKÖLD

Den levande Maria/ The living Mary

for mixed choir SATB and organ. Suite in five movements to texts by Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Ebba Lindqvist and Luke 1:46-55 (Sw, Eng) GE 13390

RICHARD WAGNER

Fem sånger till dikter av Mathilde Wesendonck (Wesendonck-Lieder)

for voice and piano in Swedish interpretation by Patrik Ringborg GE 13300

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)