Nordic Highlights 4 2014

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Kalevi Aho’s opera Frida y Diego

Focus on Wennäkoski & Haglund

Photo: Mats Bäcker

NEWS Eliasson, Börtz and Aho awarded

Fennica Gehrman has published a veritable treasure trove for piano teachers: an album titled Piano Day (Pianopäivä) of 24 pieces by Mirka Vähtäri. These pieces are a source of delight and entertainment: they dream, dare, swing – and will get you hooked. They will also develop your skills and technique with their carefully-devised pedagogical approach. Some of the pieces are sure to be real hits: Rain and Waves is brilliant for the first few piano lessons: a welcome alternative to Chopsticks! See samples of the pieces on our web site.

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at www.gehrmans.se/highlights

Medea at the Royal Opera Cover photos: Erika Back and Matias Haakana in Frida y Diego (Erkka Malkavaara), Lotta Wennäkoski (Maarit Kytöharju/Music Finland), Tommie Haglund (Per Möller) 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 2014

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

Sibelius 150 jubilee year

Marie Samuelsson´s Varför skulle jag inte tro på kärleken (Why Would I Not Believe in Love) for mezzo-soprano and percussion, was premiered at the festival Sound of Stockholm this November by Duo Ego (Monica Danielsson and Per Sjögren). The music is set to a poem

by Magnus William-Olsson, and sung in four languages: Swedish, German, English and Spanish. Conducted by Tobias Ringborg, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic will perform Samuelsson’s Singla this December. The piece was composed in connection with the Weekend Festival 2007 at the Stockholm Concert Hall, and is also included on her acclaimed newly released CD “The Sun Goddess”. At present Samuelsson is working on Afrodite, a jointly commissioned work for the Swedish Radio and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras scheduled to be premiered in the 2015-2016 season.

December 8, 2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius. Among the items on the programme for the jubilee year are the International Jean Sibelius Violin and Singing Competitions and the annual Sibelius Festival. The Sibelius Birth Town Foundation maintains a website at www.sibelius150.fi which includes a calendar of events and concerts during 2015.

Several of the maestro’s hidden gems have been published in recent decades with the kind permission of the Sibelius estate. Read more and listen to sound samples on the Fennica Gehrman composers page.

The Royal Swedish Opera has commissioned a new opera from Daniel Börtz for a premiere scheduled in spring 2016. Börtz has now finished the opera Medea, which is based on the classical drama by Euripides. It is an opera in two acts and 17 scenes, and this time Börtz has written the libretto himself.

New Kai Nieminen CD Pilfink Records has released a CD of music by Kai Nieminen under the title Astolfo. Included are seven chamber music works dating from 1996-2011, e.g.

Reflecting Landscapes and In der Winterzeit for piano trio. The works are performed by Trio La Rue (Virva Garam, piano, Susanna Arminen, violin and Markus Pelli, cello) – a trio that has premiered and performed Nieminen’s works on several occasions.

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki/Music Finland

A piano teacher’s treasure trove

The Les Subsistances festival in Lyon, France is to work with music by Kalevi Aho on January 27–31 in its programme Aire de jeu. The idea is to arrange a meeting place for contemporary music and dance by inviting choreographers to create a choreography to the most adventurous scores by great contemporary composers. Aire de jeu will concentrate on Aho and the music will be performed live. Kalevi Aho will be present at the festival to meet the artists, choreographers and musicians. As an introduction to the performances, musicians from the Conservatoire National Supérieur musique et danse de Lyon will give a short concert of his works.

Marie Samuelsson news

Photo: Georg Oddner

Anders Eliasson was posthumously awarded the Swedish Music Publishers’ Prize 2014 for his string trio Ahnungen – the last work he composed. “As always, Eliasson’s music is deeply personal; intensity alternates with lyrical phrases and melancholy”, writes the jury.

In the category large ensemble/opera Daniel Börtz won the prize for his Sinfonia 12, a work commissioned by the Swedish Radio SO. According to the jury “the expressive human voice is an important source of inspiration for Börtz and the basis of his melodic creativity. In this symphony with a baritone soloist grandiose sections are mixed with chamber music.”

The Finnish Music Publishers Association chose Kalevi Aho as the “Composer of the Year” in September. Aho has been active in composing both large-scale works and chamber music, and his concertos have toured around the world at an increasing rate.

Kalevi Aho featured in Lyon

Photo: Louise Martinsson

PREMIERES MARIE SAMUELSSON Varför skulle jag inte tro på kärleken

Duo Ego 5.11. Stockholm, Sweden (Sound of Stockholm Festival) JONAS VALFRIDSSON A Dragon Kiss Always Ends in Ashes

Stockholm New Chamber Orchestra SNYKO 7.11. Stockholm, Sweden (Sound of Stockholm Festival) BENJAMIN STAERN Polar Vortex – Symphony No. 1

Martinsson and the Youth Orchestra of Caracas This November Rolf Martinsson went on tour in Europe with the Youth Orchestra of Caracas with sold out performances at Cité de la Musique in Paris and the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Dietrich Paredes conducted the orchestra and Edicson Ruiz was soloist in Martinsson’s Double Bass Concerto.

Gävle SO/Leif Segerstam 14.11. Gävle, Sweden KAI NIEMINEN Quadri Morandi – sul tele di silenzio

Patrik Kleemola, guitar 16.11. Espoo, Finland Towards the Light (from far beyond),

Broström and Schnelzer in Dresden

Photo: Tuire Ruokosuo

Kyllönen’s concerto a competition set piece

Photo: Don Fogg

The Accordion Concerto by Ti m o - J u h a n i Kyllönen has been chosen as one of the set pieces for the prestigious Klingenthal International Accordion Competition to be held on May 4–10, 2015. Taking part in the competition will be 35 accordionists, and the five who get through to the finals will perform Kyllönen’s concerto with an orchestra. Fennica Gehrman has just published a piano score of the Accordion Concerto (See: New publications).

The concerto was composed in 2000–01 and was recorded by Alba Records in 2008. Its spicy rhythmic figures reflect Kyllönen’s many visits to Latin America.

The Dresden Music festival presents works by two Swedish composers in May 2015. Tobias Broström’s Concerto for Two Percussionists and Orchestra will receive its world premiere on 17 May, with the percussion duo Malleus Incus and the Dresdner Philharmonie under the direction of Michael Sanderling. Daniel Harding will conduct the Swedish Radio SO in the German premiere of Albert Schnelzer’s Tales from Suburbia on 15 May.

for string quartet Länsi-Pohjan jousikvartetti 26.11. Keminmaa, Finland PAAVO HEININEN Clarinet Sonata Op. 111

Mikko Raasakka, clarinet, Antti Vahtola, piano 28.11. Helsinki, Finland SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM Force and Beauty

Five dance pieces for violin and chamber ensemble Dance performance. Choreography: Susanne Jaresand, KammarensembleN/Staffan Larsson, sol. Anna Lindal, violin, dancers 4.12. Stockholm, Sweden Dödsskepp i natten,

New multimedia concerto

by Högberg Fredrik Högberg has created a new multimedia concerto for accordion, orchestra and video projections. The concerto is called The Accordion King and is dedicated to the accordion virtuoso Jörgen Sundeqvist and all former accordion kings. Sundeqvist will be the soloist with the Nordic Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Niklas Willén at the premiere on 22 January. As usual with Högberg something out of the ordinary can be expected.

Pekka Kostiainen at 70 The music of Pekka Kostiainen is a byword in choral circles, not only in Finland but also abroad, where his most frequently-performed pieces include The Sons of Jacob playing with Biblical names. There is also a mixedchoir version of this called The Big Sons of Jacob. While humorous works for children’s choir occupy a prominent position in Kostiainen’s choral output, he has also composed music for the church. A freelance composer and choral conductor since 2000, Kostiainen has featured on the programme of many concerts in his anniversary year.

Next spring his music is widely presented at the Leiden Amateur Arts festival, where he will be the Composer-in-Residence.

for solo voice, choir and orchestra Swedish Radio SO/Swedish Radio Choir/Hans Ek, sol. Tommy Körberg 17.12. Stockholm, Sweden ROLF MARTINSSON Ich denke dein…

Tonhalle Orchester Zürich/John Storgårds, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano 14.1. Zürich, Switzerland FREDRIK HÖGBERG Accordion King

Nordic ChO/Niklas Willén, sol. Jörgen Sundeqvist, accordion 22.1. Kramfors, Sweden ALBERT SCHNELZER Tales from Suburbia

BBC SO/Kirill Karabits 13.3. London, UK MIKKO HEINIÖ New work for guitar

Patrik Kleemola 23.3. London, UK OLLI KORTEKANGAS The Return

Tapiola Chamber Choir/Hannu Norjanen 29.3. Helsinki, Finland Höstlig skärgård,

for male choir YL/Pasi Hyökki 11.4. Helsinki, Finland

KIMMO HAKOLA

Re-Joy, for organ

Tuomas Pyrhönen 12.5. Helsinki, Finland

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

Lotta Wennäkoski

paints sumptuous worlds of shimmering timbres While Wennäkoski’s career has unfolded, the orchestra has become an increasingly prominent medium for her. “I want dynamic form but music must also have air. Which is maybe why the orchestra interests me. I want to hear the whole cross-section,” she says.

“Timbres mean a lot to me” The world of timbre in Wennäkoski’s music is rich and multi-coloured, but also transparent.

She often incorporates noise and unconventional ways of producing sound.

“Timbres mean a lot to me,” she says. “But I don’t consider myself a spectral composer. I want

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju/Music Finland

“M

y compositions may be born in many ways. But there must be some idea that permeates all the levels, and from which I can derive the name, the sound and possibly even the harmony. Musical phenomena alone do not inspire me; instead, I readily take impulses from the extra-musical world.”

Thus Lotta Wennäkoski (b. 1970) describes the genesis of her works. But though the initial impulses are usually extra-musical, she does not compose descriptive programme music as such; rather, she moulds the ideas provided by the impulses into musical expression. Within the framework of a Modernist aesthetic, her works constitute a coherent, organically-growing entity, and the changes taking place within them have been ones of expression rather than of style.

Lotta Wennäkoski first emerged as a composer in the 1990s, when she was studying composition at the Sibelius Academy, mostly with Eero Hämeenniemi, and where she graduated in 2000. Her other teachers at the Academy included Kaija Saariaho and Paavo Heininen, and in the Netherlands she studied with a teacher representing a very different approach, Louis Andriessen.

The biggest categories in Lotta Wennäkoski’s output are works for orchestra and for instrumental ensembles. Her most sizeable achievement to date is her score for the Finnish silent movie Amor Omnia lasting nearly an hour-anda-half. She composed this for symphony orchestra and later did a shorter version for concert use (Amor Omnia Suite, 2014). She has also written some vocal music and works with elements of other arts, but she does not regard herself as a particularly crossover composer. Some of her works reflect her desire to take a stand on such grave, pressing issues as human trafficking and forced prostitution, as in the monodrama Lelele of 2010–2011.

dynamic form. Transparency is also important; music must have air. Which is maybe why the orchestra interests me. I want to hear the whole cross-section.”

As her career has unfolded, the orchestra has in fact become an increasingly prominent medium for her.

“An orchestra is a laborious instrument but I love it. Chamber music is lighter to produce, but you can do more distinctive things with an orchestra. The potential combinations seem to be endless.”

“I’m interested in fast music” The earlier works of Lotta Wennäkoski were dominated by lingering, fragile moods; as a result, she began to be described as a lyricist. A lyrical element still exists in her music, but in the recent works her range of expression has become much broader, deeper and stronger. She has also upped her tempos, and she more and more often structures the flow by means of a clear pulse.

“I’ve recently been interested in fast music; I do quick timbral music.”

An example of Wennäkoski’s recent rapid-pulsed idiom is Hava (2007). Composed for the Tapiola Sinfonietta, it is a work she describes as “scherzo-like”. It is indeed a quick-figured work in which the focal element of the gestures and textures is the idea of falling, “like the feeling of leaves floating down”.

Quick gestures and a rich colour palette are also a feature of the flute concerto Soie (2008–2009), inspired by various fabrics. The coarse, noise-like sounds in the middle movement, Lin gros (Coarse Linen), for example, express the texture of linen, while the closing movement, Soie, has a silky, rustling feel.

Lotta Wennäkoski’s latest project is a commission for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for delivery in 2015. For this, the client has requested some not specifically-formulated allusion to the music of Jean Sibelius as a tribute to that composer on the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Wennäkoski’s orchestral music will also soon be featured on a new CD by Ondine Records.

Kimmo Korhonen

Photo: Per Möller

Tommie Haglund – a poetic point of view Tommie Haglund, increasingly, composes as if he must find a way to say everything. One immediately feels a poet’s sensibilities at work in his music which charts the course of an ongoing interior journey.

A sense of emergence Haglund’s String Trio (Sollievo dopo la Tempesta) (2013) is, like the violin concerto, a work with an episodal but non-repetitive structure.

Reaching out of the strings is a voice speaking not in words but in forward motion about a bittersweet past. Strength and hope are, as ever, tempered by moments of stumbling fear and loss, false hopes and shadows. Time flows forward and backward, not mechanically, but as it does in the memory, a simultaneous whole. But

Haglund’s works are not existential treatises.

They are not answers cheapened by questions.

They are more. And like Rilke’s poems, they are both hard-wrought and spontaneously generated, part hymn and part synthesis. The String Trio is a work in which we can feel, as in several Photo: Elisabet Löfberg Haglund

L

isteners familiar with Tommie Haglund’s repertoire know his approach to classical music is highly poetic and not at all academicized. Unlike works written for the purpose of demonstrating a composer’s vocabulary and a virtuoso’s aptitude, Haglund’s music charts the course of an ongoing interior journey. It is a literature of spiritual reconnaissance. Although one immediately feels a poet’s sensibilities at work in the music, Haglund’s works are not symphonic poems in the same sense as Lizst’s. The literary currents which flow through Haglund’s compositions do not serve to illustrate. Rather they open apertures to the inward world, and speak in a language of Romantic transformation less akin to Lizst or Grieg, and more akin to Rilke and Novalis.

Hymnen an die Nacht (2005) , for violin and orchestra, is a work which depicts Novalis’ allegory of transubstantiation, not of death and rebirth, but of purification through the pain of the inner journey beyond life and death, the passing through of darkness into light. In Daughter of the Voice (2003), the themes of transformation and ascent are re-codified in the mystical language of the Passion of the Cross.

Here, the rarely explored symbiosis of Jesus and Mary – the agony of the crucifixion physically transmitted from son to mother – is rendered in dual soprano vocals which carry the intense demands of this composition and subject matter.

Haglund with a student at the Luzerne Music Centre

of Haglund’s compositions, a sense of emergence – the poignant relief of triumph over suffering – not conquest but survival – with the rising of each episode.

The String Trio, as well as Flaminis Aura (2000) , engage a subject for which Rilke never found words, and for which Lizst’s symphonic poems did not meet their own challenges. Maybe the difference is in the urgency of creation.

Whereas Rilke never, until his final years, looked down the long barrel of mortality and thus created his work untouched by the immediacy of corporeal pain, Haglund, increasingly, composes as if he must find a way to say everything. The subject of mortality is not, actually, bound to the music. Rather, with Flaminis Aura, Haglund returns to the question of the mystical apprehen-

sion of the spirit. Is there a world beyond our five senses, through which occasionally traces of information permeate? Or is the world of the spirit ours alone, within us, constructed from a palate of Jungian symbols, and impervious to the selective forces of nature? The Latin phrase ‘Flaminis Aura’ can mean many things, among them something ‘felt in the air prior to a vision’. With this key, a vista to the same inner world of Hymnen an die Nacht and Daughter of the Voice, opens.

Inner life and sincerity It was Rilke’s belief that only through poetry could one develop an inner life, and furthermore that this could only be achieved through utmost sincerity. What is meant by sincerity in musical practice? Perhaps it is the antithesis of mechanical performance. More than once I have heard Tommie Haglund despair at the technical perfection of an orchestra and soloists when something deeper is lacking. It would be too much to disparage all music which does not come from deep within, but it would also be not enough to say his music requires spiritual fluidity to perform. It is not music which needs waking up, it is music to awaken to.

Aram Yardumian

The writer is Asst. Professor of Anthropology at Bryn Athyn College, Pennsylvania USA. He is a regular contributor to the arts & culture journal Times Quotidian.

Footnote The Royal Academy of Music has awarded Tommie Haglund Sweden’s most coveted composer prize, the Christ Johnson Prize, for his cello concerto Flaminis aura. Their citation reads: “With liberating seriousness and his own personal stamp Tommie Haglund invites the listener into his poetical universe. The cello concerto Flaminis aura is music that gropes its way forward, and is all the while singable.”

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

REPER TOIR E TIPS Works for saxophone and orchestra

Frida y Diego at the Helsinki Music Centre

KALEVI AHO

NILS LINDBERG

The Bells / Kellot – Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra (2008) Dur: 28’

Mythological Portraits (2001) Dur: 26´

sax-quartet (sopr., alto, tenor & bar.)+2222-3330-02-str

The sound of the church bell tolling at the funeral of Aho’s colleague and friend Pehr Henrik Nordgren was the decisive impetus for this saxophone quartet concerto. Bells or bell-like sounds are heard in each movement, which gives the work a timbre all of its own and creates some extraordinary moments. The quartet mostly has a rather homophonic part constituting a sort of supersaxophone. Each of the players also has some big solos.

Chamber Symphony No. 3 (1995-96) Dur: 30’ asax+str

This work for alto saxophone and 20 strings was inspired by the Tunisian film The Silence of the Palace. The film contains a lot of Arabian music, and Aho was greatly attracted by its unique melodic heterophony. The first movement of the Chamber Symphony is scored for string orchestra and can be performed as an independent work. The saxophone does not enter, slowly, until the beginning of the second movement. Towards the end, the soloist slowly starts to leave the stage, still playing in glowing terms.

ANDERS ELIASSON Concerto for Saxophone and String Orchestra (2002/2009) Dur: 25´ asax+str (2002), sop-sax+str (2009)

Eliasson´s concerto is characterised by a kind of spiritual tranquillity, where the lamenting, melancholically singing saxophone and the supporting, billowing strings accompany each other throughout the work. The music flows without a break but there is an underlying multi-movement structure. The serene sections alternate with the more rhythmically accentuated ones in which the tempo is accelerated and the saxophone rushes on in rapid passages.

FREDRIK HÖGBERG Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra (1998) Dur: 26´ sop-sax+2222-2200-11-hp-pf-str

The saxophone introduces itself immediately in Högberg’s concerto, with quick rhythmical, riff-like arabesques that eventually pass over into a happy and harmonious theme. There are some threatening clouds, but the harmony returns at the end of the first movement. The second movement is more rhythmically playful, and in the third yet another light-hearted theme is presented. The finale has a forcefully forward driving character, which is manifested in a wild chase on the virtuoso, fleeing saxophone that lasts right up until the end.

sop-sax+2222-4431-12-str

This five-movement suite opens with a mood-creating prologue based on a traditional Swedish folk melody, played by the horn section alone. And it is folk music, beautifully combined with jazz harmonies in symphonic attire, which characterises the rest of the music. The soprano saxophone sounds lovely in the melancholy melodies, over an accompaniment that alternates between string orchestra, big-band-like sections and full symphony orchestra.

ROLF MARTINSSON Golden Harmony – Soprano Saxophone Concerto No. 1 (2012) Dur: 23´ sop-sax+2222-2200-11-str

In this concerto Martinsson displays his gift for lyricism. The first two movements are characterised by beautiful and romantic melody lines, embedded in exquisite sonorities. Martinsson himself describes the orchestral garb as “a luxurious alloy of sound from the piccolo, muted strings and trumpets, stopped horns and a bowed vibraphone.” The third and last movement offers an energetic finale with breakneck virtuosity.

PEHR HENRIK NORDGREN Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra (1995) Dur: 22’ asax+str (55432)

Nordgren’s concerto could be described as one big cadenza in which the soloist gets bound up in the avalanche of orchestral sound. It was inspired by John-Edward Kelly and commissioned by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. The concerto is in one movement and, in the manner characteristic of Nordgren, the musical soundscape becomes more peaceful towards the end, journeying towards the light.

TAPIO TUOMELA Swap – Chamber Concerto for Saxophone and Sinfonietta (2012-13) Dur: 25’ asax/sop-sax+2222-221(ossia tuba)0-02-str

”Swap” refers to constant exchange of short musical motives between the soloist and members of the orchestra. The lively dialogue takes different forms in the four movements. Sometimes the variations provide a set of “accelerated” interactive passages, where the saxophone triggers the orchestral members towards the extreme of their virtuosity. The soloist may use a wide range of his expressive and technical ability on the alto and soprano saxophone, alternating between extreme rapidity, intensive melodies, and sighing multiphones, finishing with a scent of distant swing rhythms.

LARSERIK LARSSON Concerto for Saxophone and String Orchestra (1934) Dur: 20’ asax+str

Larsson is supposed to have said that the Saxophone Concerto was the best piece he ever composed. It was written in close collaboration with the legendary saxophonist Sigurd Rascher, and the solo part is brilliant. Composed in neo-classical style, it follows the concerto form with two fast outer movements, and a slow middle movement. The music is entertaining, rhythmical and elegant, and in the Adagio movement one gets an inkling of the lyrical and romantic Larsson to come.

HARRI VUORI Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra (2004) Dur: 22’ asax+1111-2100-02-hpd-el.org-pf-str

The saxophone begins by calling up the other instruments in the manner of a snake-charmer. Soloist and orchestra at times build up an enchanting melodic and polyphonic partnership.

Unusual timbres and quick cuts combine in harmonies tinged with yearning. The concerto culminates in an explosive outburst before sinking back into the opening stillness.

Fresh, richly colourful Frida y Diego The music of Kalevi Aho is ablaze with Latino colour from the very outset… All the numerous quotations are woven seamlessly into the operatic narration, and Aho demonstrates his skill as a master of style and orchestration. Rondo 11/2014 The focus in Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is from a fresh angle, and the idea of making Trotsky a dramaturgical catalyst is brilliant… Aho also shows his mettle with his variously-styled signatures, often in the form of leitmotifs… A master orchestrator, he makes his 30-player ensemble resonate like a dream even in dry acoustics. Hufvudstadsbladet 19.10.

Kalevi Aho: Frida y Diego, opera in four acts World premiere: Sibelius Academy SO/Markus Lehtinen, dir.

Vilppu Kiljunen, sol. Erica Back, Matias Haakana, Aule Urb, Sampo Haapaniemi, Saara Kiiveri etc., 17.10.2014 Helsinki, Finland

Impressive Clarinet Concerto The work proved to be a colourful and emotionally impressive jaunt. Kortekangas is particularly skilful at exploiting the clarinet’s ability to produce an almost insubstantially quiet sound. The adroit soloist was Christoffer Sundqvist. Kaleva 1.11.

Olli Kortekangas: Clarinet Concerto World premiere: Oulu SO/Johannes Gustavsson, sol. Christoffer Sundqvist, 30.10.2014 Oulu, Finland

Madetoja’s symphonies shine Madetoja has a fascinating, utterly personal style marked by a straightforward idyllic quality and finely-tuned narrative. Where Sibelius was a master of moods, Madetoja shines in his melodies backed by cunningly-woven rhythmic webs. Rondo 4/2014 Leevi Madetoja: Symphonies Nos 1&3, Okon Fuoko Suite CD: Helsinki PO/John Storgårds (Ondine 1211-2)

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

Photo: Erkka Malkavaara

REVIEWS

Eliasson’s Quartetto d´archi

Finnish composer Kalevi Aho’s magnificent 2011 Theremin Concerto is subtitled Eight Seasons…

Eyck’s ability to produce warm, vocal sounds is unmatched, and at several points she’s required to sing along in duet. The theremin’s velvety lower register can produce extraordinary sounds, though Eyck can do coloratura craziness just as well… A remarkable, emotionally involving contemporary piece that you’d love to hear live. www.theartsdesk.com 27.10.

The emotional temperament of the Dahlkvist Quartet was also well suited to Anders Eliasson´s restless work Quartetto d´archi that begins with intermittent attacks by the strings. The cello part puts a temporary comforting hand on the listener’s shoulder before the lively third movement rushes away again like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Dagens Nyheter 6.10.

Kalevi Aho: Theremin & Horn Concertos CD: Lapland ChO/John Storgårds, sol. Carolina Eyck, theremin, Annu Salminen, horn (BIS-CD 2036)

Photo: Jan-Olav Wedin

This work will amaze…

The Dahlkvist Quartet

The music hurls the listener into eruptive crescendos towards a limit – until it yields to a painful, achingly beautiful song by the strings… a motif in the strings breaks free and prepares the way for a wondrous radiance from an alien world that at the same time sounds archaic and like science fiction… In the third movement´s “Dam breaks open” there is an opening for a new and airier motoric drive and for a singularly beautiful theme in the brass that in the end makes the work’s central and redeeming message glow: not to be afraid of what is hidden on the dark side of the moon. Dagens Nyheter 12.9.

Photo: Music Finland/Saara Vuorjoki

Anders Eliasson: Quartetto d´archi The Dahlkvist Quartet, 4.10.2014 Stockholm, Sweden

Brain Damage

Imposing and hot If anyone has full command of the range of colours in this orchestral palette then Linkola does. The fourth movement is a hotly sensual, nocturnal Habanera with the clarinet at the centre.

Imposing in every possible way. A standing ovation, of course. Österbottens tidning 7.10.

Photo: Hans Lindön

Albert Schnelzer: Brain Damage World premiere: Gothenburg SO/Alain Altinoglu, 10.9.2014 Göteborg, Sweden

Jukka Linkola: Clarinet Concerto “Gipsy Heart” World premiere: Pietarsaari Sinfonietta & BRO/Jukka Linkola, sol.

Christoffer Sundqvist, 3.10.2014 Pietarsaari, Finland

While he [Jörgen Pettersson] dispatches the rapid, virtuosic passages with apparent ease, it is his soulful and bittersweet tone which is particularly memorable during the work’s lyrical passages… Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of these interpretations is the utmost respect that the Norrköping SO and Lindberg give to this music.

Through fanatical adherence to the scores and just pure hard work and commitment, this new recording makes, yet again, the strongest possible argument for Pettersson’s unsung greatness.

Res Musica 6.10.

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 16 CD: Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg, sol. Jörgen Pettersson, alto saxophone (BIS-2110)

Martinsson’s intense Forlorn In an idiom that strongly reminds of the Schönberg of “Verklärte Nacht” and now and then of a Fifties’ musical, the Swedish Martinsson set Tagore’s poetry intensely and seriously. Conductor Bas Wiegers let the strings sparkle romantically up to an almost unbearably beautiful ending. Volkskrant 20.10.

Albert Schnelzer

New reference for Pettersson’s symphonies

Rapid thoughts are presented here, but also timeless happenings in music that uninterruptedly and with urgency hammers its message home on the listener… The attitudes here were explosive and heart-rending. And Lindberg had the ability to set the music’s emotional power free.

Norrköpings Tidningar 22.9.

Rolf Martinsson: Forlorn – Three Songs on Poems by Rabindranath Tagore World premiere: Netherlands CO/Bas Wiegers, sol. Lisette Bolle, soprano, Jakob Koranyi, cello, 17.10.2014 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 13 Swedish premiere: Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg, 20.9.2014 Norrköping, Sweden

Exquisite Garden of Devotion Photo: Marco Feklistoff

Martinsson´s tone language blossomed out in soft yet not sentimental passages, in harmonious neatness and easily accessible melodies, with opportunities for the soloist to show what she can do. There are no sharp edges here but plenty of warmth and refinement. Sydsvenska Dagbladet 27.9.

And Lisa Larsson´s sparkling and sonorous, indeed delightful, soprano captured and conveyed both the exquisite music and the emotions of the texts. It is not often that newly written music affords such unmitigated musical joy. Skånska Dagbladet 28.9.

Photo: Music Finland/Saara Vuorjoki

Rolf Martinsson: Garden of Devotion World premiere: Musica Vitae/Fredrik Malmberg, sol. Lisa Larsson, soprano, 25.9.2014 Växjö, Sweden

A splendid impact and charge Jyrki Linjama turns old into new in his Sonata da chiesa II for organ. The magnificently rising and falling arches are grounded on a heartbeat in the pedals and a barely perceptible hallelujah theme. The years have given the idiom of an unconditionally modernist composer a splendid impact.

At the base of Olli Kortekangas’s sonata are chorales…

The themes are somewhere, broken down into rhythms, but the overwhelming charge is what captures most attention. Helsingin Sanomat 10.11.

Jyrki Linjama: Sonata da chiesa II, for organ Olli Kortekangas: Organ Sonata No. 3 – in memoriam World premiere: Jan Lehtola, organ, 8.11.2014 Helsinki, Finland

Jyrki Linjama

Tally’s Lament The piece opens with an airy and metallic crack and the cello´s lovely melody rises out of a cluster. Clouds of sound accumulate, chords of the brass fall and the violins cut sharp patterns in the mighty languidness.

The theme moves from one part to the other, surrounded by atmospheric clouds and dark bands of brass in quite an exquisite manner. All quite exciting; a work in my taste. Gefle Dagblad 9.10.

Mirjam Tally: Lament Gävle SO/Kristiina Poska, 9.10.2014 Gävle, Sweden

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2014

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

CHORAL

ANDERS ELIASSON

HAROLD ARLEN, ARR. MATS HÅLLING

Malaria (a Hummel)

for clarinet, trumpet, trombone, percussion and double bass

Tommie Haglund

GE 12602 (manuscript score)

Over the Rainbow

JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD

Sollievo

Caprism – Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra

Over the Rainbow Lyrics and music: E. Y. Harburg & H. Arlen Arr for TTBB and piano

for solo, male choir TTBB and piano Text: E. Y. Harburg (Eng)

(dopo la tempesta)

TOMMIE HAGLUND

ORCHESTRA GE 12242

Mats Hålling

GE 12362

for violin, viola and violoncello

ANDERS ELIASSON

Sollievo (dopo la tempesta)

PA R T I T U R /S C O R E

Blandad kör

for string trio GE 12580

MATS HEDFORS Tobias Ringborg

9 variations in different styles on a children’s song by Alice Tegnér for violin and piano Agnus Dei (Palestrina) Die Kunst des Lammes (J. S. Bach) Das Zauberlamm (Mozart) The Deaf Lamb (Beethoven) The Lamb Shall Sleep (Brahms) Rhapsody on a Theme by Alice Tegnér (Rachmaninov) To the Memory of a Lamb (Alban Berg) The Silence of the Lambs (John Cage) The Lamb in the TV-age (on “Dallas Theme” by Jerold Immel)

GE 12597 (manuscript score)

Away in a Manger

TOBIAS RINGBORG Bä, bä vita lamm (Ba, ba White Lamb)

Concerto per corno ed archi – Farfalle e ferro

Away in a manger

New setting of the old carol text for mixed choir SATB a cappella

Mats Hedfors

Concerto per corno ed archi

TIMOJUHANI KYLLÖNEN

GE 12487

Variationer över

för violin och piano

KJELL LÖNNÅ ARR.

Blandad kör

Masters in this Hall

Tolv preludier

French carol for mixed choir SATB a cappella Text: William Morris (Eng) GE 12499

Twelve Preludes inspired by

JAN SANDSTRÖM Blandad kör

The Lord is My Shepherd

Claude Debussy’s Préludes: premier livre for piano

GE 12546

For SAB and organ

Per Gunnar Petersson

Det är en ros utsprungen / Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming / Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen

for string orchestra Can be performed separately or with choir, version for SATB (SK 8403) or TTBB (GE 11522)

Twelve Preludes

for piano Inspired by Debussy’s Préludes: premier livre GE 12575

MIRKA VÄHTÄRI Piano Day / Pianopäivä

24 Catchy Pieces for Piano FG 55011-221-6

HARRI WESSMAN Five Trumpet Pieces for Alevtina Parland

for trumpet and piano FG 55011-223-0

NEW CDs

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen

for mixed choir SAB and organ Text: Psalm 23 (Eng)

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming Ȋ Det är en ros utsprungen

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM Force and Beauty

GE 12519

GE 12511

I min älsklings trädgård / In My Lover’s Garden

ALBERT SCHNELZER

for female choir A suite of three choral songs to texts by Edith Södergran, English translation by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (Swe/Eng) 1. In the Great Wide Woodlands (I de stora skogarna) 2. In between Grey Stones (Mellan gråa stenar) 3. Lucky Cat (Lyckokatt)

Animal Songs

Five songs for soprano and orchestra Text: Margaret Atwood (Eng) GE 12308 (score), GE 12309 (soprano part)

Brain Damage - Concerto for Orchestra GE 12521

Brain Damage Concerto for Orchestra

PA R T I T U R /S C O R E

Benjamin Staern

BENJAMIN STAERN

Worried Souls concerto for clarinet and

Worried Souls

Folkwang Kammerorchester/ Johannes Klumpp, Kathrin Ten Hagen, violin

Nordisk mässa (Nordic Mass)

Tiina-Maija Koskela, soprano, Nicholas Söderlund, bass baritone, Tuomas Tainio, percussion, Kari Vuola, organ

Albert Schnelzer

FG 55011-222-3

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

Two Christmas Songs (Tuokoon joulu, Tule lapsen luo), Christmas Song Arrangements, Adventus for organ

PA R T I T U R /S C O R E

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra

OLLI KORTEKANGAS

version for string orchestra

Five dance pieces for violin and chamber ensemble

ANDERS ELIASSON

ARS 38 157 (“Northern Lights”)

Jan Sandström

GE 11165

PER GUNNAR PETERSSON The Lord is My Shepherd

MARTIN SKAFTE

PA R T I T U R /S C O R E

French Carol Arr for SATB

Kjell Lönnå

Masters in this Hall Martin Skafte

Farfalle e ferro Concerto for Horn and Strings

Accordion Concerto FG 55011-219-3 (piano reduction)

Bä, bä, vita lamm

Anders Eliasson

for mixed choir SMzATBarB and cello Text: Tomas Tranströmer (Swe) GE 12467

Concerto for clarinet and symphony orchestra Nordisk mässa

symphony orchestra

PA R T I T U R /S C O R E

GE 11892 (score), GE 11893 (solo part)

Blandad kör, violoncell

Recording: Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir & Toke Møldrup, vcl, cond.

Mogens Dahl (EXLCD 30164)

MIRJAM TALLY Lament

for orchestra GE 12280

New Finnish Christmas Music (”Star Tracks / Tähtiraidat”)

KAI NIEMINEN Reflecting Landscapes, Capriccio, Astolfo sulla luna, Poems from Standstill Time and Silence, Waves of Sorrow… In memory of… , Notturno,” Uccelli della notte”, Epitaph, In der Winterzeit

Trio La Rue Pilfink Records JJVCD-137

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM Nordisk Mässa (Nordic Mass)

Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir/ Mogens Dahl, Toke Møldrup, cello EXLCD 30164

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Gehrmans Musikförlag AB

Fennica Gehrman Oy Ab

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