Repertoire tips - Chamber Music

KALEVI AHO

Mysterium (2019) Dur: 25’ for piano left hand and string quartet

The sketches for Scriabin’s unfinished Mysterium inspired Aho to write this work dedicated to its commissioner Izumi Tateno. Enchanting Scriabin-like harmonies serve as a basis for the melodic material. The work opens in shadowy, misty mood. The finale draws the musical material together, fading in mysterious moods.

DANIEL BÖRTZ

Agora (2009-2010) Dur: 15’ for piano quintet

Agora is the Greek word for marketplace; in ancient times it was also a place of assembly where the citizens held discussions and selected persons made decisions. Börtz’s quintet consists of five “character pieces”, including gravity, joy, pleasure, argumentation – all typical of an Agora.

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

Minna – Quintet No. 1 (2017) Dur: 24’ for piano quintet

Minna is the first in a trilogy of quintets on the theme ”Women’s destiny”. The work depicts various events in the life of author and first Finnish feminist, Minna Canth whose willpower is clearly manifested in the forceful and energetic music. But there are also fragile melodies and humorous features here.

ANDERS ELIASSON

Fogliame (1990) Dur: 19’ for piano quartet

Fogliame means foliage and refers to the continually shifting and unpredictable shimmer of light in the shadows of the trees. It is written in a single movement but contains numerous contrasting sections where intensity and allegro alternate with soothing calm and lento –an often repeated indication is dolcissimo. The music develops freely, like when the winds randomly stir the luminous flux among the leaves.

HALVOR HAUG

Trio (1995) Dur: 22’ for piano trio

Haug’s Trio is a deeply expressive work filled with strong feelings, drama, seriousness and mystery. The piece was commissioned by the Grieg Trio, to whom the work is dedicated.

MIKKO HEINIÖ

The Voice of the Tree (Puun ääni) (2006) Dur: 17’ for piano quartet

This exciting quartet was inspired by the poems of Eira Stenberg about trees: their voices, movement, spaces and light. Hitting, tapping and rubbing endow the music with the soulful sound of wood and trees as well as captivating physicality. There are also hints of West African pentatonics and rhythms.

UUNO KLAMI

Piano Trio in F Sharp Minor (1917)

Dur: 5’

Klami completed only the first movement (Quasi allegro) of this piece. The trio was recently edited by Esa Ylönen and Eero Kesti and acts as an enchanting introduction to Klami’s development as a composer. After the folk-song like beginning, the texture becomes more expressive and proceeds with dramatic outbursts.

Piano Trios, Quartets

HELVI LEIVISKÄ

Piano Trio (1924) Dur: ca 30’

The one-movement youthful trio impresses with its directness of expression, affective potential and profound sonority. It focuses on symbols of spirituality: the mystery of existence and spiritual quest were themes that dominated Leiviskä’s life and thoughts and they come across in her music.

Piano Quartet (1926/1935) Dur: 25’

This quartet is considered one of the cornerstones of Leiviskä’s chamber music. It is in three movements featuring religious and ecstatic imagery such as may be found in French, German or Russian neo-Romantic styles.

KAI NIEMINEN

Reflecting Landscapes (2011) Dur: ca 19’ for piano trio

Emily Dickinson’s poem inspired this piece which includes delicate bird motifs and church bells in the opening section. The violin and cello flageolets paint a dream-like atmosphere, leaving room for the piano’s hypnotic movements

MARIE SAMUELSSON

In Horizons (2018) Dur: 13’ for piano trio

Samuelsson composed In Horizons during a stay at the island of Fårö, north of Gotland. She describes the work as ”different meetings of light, dark streaks and forward-looking.” The work was written for Trio Lindgård-Rodrick-Öquist and premiered during the Swedish Music Spring Festival 2018.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Predatory Dances (2003) Dur: 12’ for piano trio

The trio starts out violent and aggressive, in forte fortissimo. Like pursued game the strings rush on with the piano driving them from behind. In between there are sections of calm and rest, and melodic lines that are here and there achingly beautiful. This is also how the trio is concluded: Andante e tranquillo.

JEAN SIBELIUS Trio in C Major (Lovisa Trio) (1888) Dur: 16’ In this work, Sibelius left Classicism behind and adopted an air of melancholy Romanticism. He wrote it at his aunt’s villa in Lovisa, his favourite summer retreat, for the family trio: Jean played the violin, his sister the piano and his brother the cello.

Piano Quartet in C Minor (1891) Dur: 6’ Sibelius wrote a theme and seven variations for piano during his stay in Vienna. Afterwards, he arranged it for piano quartet and added an Adagio introduction in C major, which is why it is sometimes known as the C major quartet. This is a form rare in Sibelius’s early output, and the introduction already shows that his musical thinking had taken an orchestral turn.

JOHAN ULLÉN

The Deadly Sins (2006-08) Dur: 37’ for piano trio

These seven tangos each describe the character of one of the Deadly Sins. For example “Envy”, is in the form of a crime passionnel with the violin in focus, “Gluttony”, stuffs itself with new melodies that make the tango grow until it bursts, and the seventh and final tango, “Anger”, is a slow dance in which rage gradually comes to a boil inside.

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

Hem (Päärme) (2014-15) Dur: 11’ for piano trio

A cheerfully brisk piece, the amusing and unusual title of which was prompted by the idea of steady but erratically colourful stitching. The music has a pulsative character, especially in the outer sections. According to the composer, the result is not always intended to be over-neat or regular and noise sounds are also an intrinsic feature of the hand-made texture.

KALEVI AHO

String Quartet No. 1 (1967)

Dur: 30’

Aho’s firststring quartet provides a fascinating insight into the musical world of an 18-year-old. When he showed it to his teacher, Einojuhani Rautavaara, he was told that there was no longer any need to study tonal harmony and formal constructions because he would pass the exams straight away. The quartet begins in variation form. The lyrical second movement has a light, virtuosic middle section that proceeds to the third, quick movement and on to a chorale-like final.

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

String Quartet No. 1 (2013)

Dur: 24’

Broström’s firststring quartet starts out with a lovely, softly billowing firstmovement. It passes over into an energetic and dancing ‘Allegro’, followed by the 3rd movement’s magical, shimmering ‘Calmo’, and the rhythmically violent 4th movement’s pizzicatos. With its whirling sextuplets the fith movement reconnects with the firs, and the opening bitter-sweet violin theme returns. Composed for Brooklyn Rider.

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

Letters (2018)

Written as a commentary on Jan acek’s second string quartet ”Inti mate Letters”, Damström’s music is inspired by the lines that Janacek wrote to his beloved Kamila. In her music, Damström tries to depict the feelings and words that form the content of his correspondence: heav en, hope, fear, fie and much more. The work is dedicated to the Brodsky Quartet and was written on commis sion from the Netherlands Stift Festival.

KIMMO HAKOLA

String Quartet No. 4 (2016)

Dur: 13’

Hakola’s short but wildly intense quartet got an enthusiastic reception at its premiere and was said to have the makings of a small-scale cult work. Its “heavy riff”, players stamping on the floorand other such things provide plenty of surprises. In the composer’s own words, it has the playful, defiatly dramatic, surprising, capricious and unrestrained tour de force of a youthful entity, and it continues his line of exciting quartets; his first on the Unesco Composers’ Rostrum in 1987.

HALVOR HAUG

String Quartet No. 1 (1985)

Dur: 22’

A theme consisting of fie tones, BbA-Ab-B-G, dramatically opens Haug’s firststring quartet. The tone material recurs later in various ways through its six contrasting but connected sections, and the whole string quartet is concluded with the theme in its original form. Composed for the Norwegian String Quartet.

MATS LARSSON GOTHE

In modo lidico (Ein Heiliger Dankgesang) (2017) Dur: 4’

A refletion over the slow third movement in Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15. Larsson Gothe describes how deeply he was moved when he heard this for the firsttime, a feeling that Beethoven had in some way tied together past and present in his lyrical tone language, based on the Lydian church mode. This is something that repeats itself in Larsson Gothe’s piece, which despite the small format contains the formal framework – introduction, exposition, development and coda. Composed for the project Beethoven #without filer and Uppsala Chamber Soloists.

INGVAR LIDHOLM

Three Elegies and Epilogue (1947/86) Dur: 20’

In 1940, the 19-year old Lidholm composed an ‘Elegiac Suite’ in three movements for string quartet, where one can findtraces of inspiration from both Sibelius and Stenhammar. More than 40 years later he wrote a short epilogue, “a Hilding Rosenberg con reverenza,” to celebrate his friend birthday. When Lidholm in 1986 appended this ‘Epilogue’ to the ‘Three Elegies’ he had a reason: he “wanted to see if the youthful tones had any relevance to the composer who wrote the Epilogue.”

String Quartet No. 2 ”AllerDur: 20’

Allerheiligentag III is based on a Finnish folk chorale for All Saints’ Day. Linjama became so attached to the harsh, beautiful melody that it has generated a whole cycle of works. This string quartet is in three movements tensed in diffeent ways by contrasts. The firsthas both swinging softness and cutting sharpness, the Scherzo the wildness of a dance of death and lyricism, and the finalethe irrevocability of a funeral march and tender melodiousness.

KAI NIEMINEN

SEPPO POHJOLA

String Quartet No. 4 (2006)

Dur: 33’

Pohjola’s firstfour string quartets have been recorded and the reviews have not been stinting with their praise. According to the late Jouni Kaipainen, the fourth is one of the greatest works by Pohjola and a landmark in Finnish quartet literature. It has two large sections separated by a general pause. Pohjola here varies canonic themes with considerable invention and imagination. The second part evolves and proceeds at times with a lively onward drive. But listen especially to the magical ending: what a delicate, impressive texture!

CARIN MALMLÖF-FORSSLING

The Silver Quartet (1988) Dur: 13’

Five short movements written in a positive and harmonic spirit. Even if there is a certain melancholy that pervades the tone language itself, the overall impression is still bright with the two lively outer movements, and the third movement’s energetic Scherzo played entirely pizzicato. As if to underline the work’s character, the last movement has been given the marking Allegro con felicita (happy allegro).

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

String Quartet No. 1 (1953) Dur: 22’

The new Urtext edition sheds new light on this quartet from Rautavaara’s Neo-Classical early period, with his corrections and comments. Stravinsky and Finnish folk music are present in the rhythmical firstmovement; entering later is a characteristic scale of alternating half and whole tones. After the Slavic romanticism of the slow movement (Andante), the fiddler eturns in a cheerful Gigue.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

String Quartet No.

3

“Gestures of Winter” (2017) Dur: 20’

The four string quartets by Kai Nieminen were inspired by the experience of a starry Arctic night, unsullied by street lamps or other light pollution. The world of sound in each of the four captures the wintry atmosphere and light of Maritime Lapland. Gestures of Winter bears the epithet “Time Around Northern Night Skies…’’. The most recent, 4th quartet was premiered at a streamed concert given by the Sea Lapland String Quartet on 16 February.

PEHR HENRIK NORDGREN

String Quartet No. 11 (2008)

Dur: 21‘

Nordgren’s quartet is introspective and devout in tone. Its distinctive soundscape is the result of the abnormal tuning, which returns to normal in the lively Rondo and is “as if a light were shining from a very confined space”. The Lamentoso interlude is an excruciatingly beautiful meditation on a chorale theme, and the short closing Pietoso epilogue is like a flash of another reality.

String Quartet No 2 – Emperor Akbar (2009) Dur:12’

Inspired by a novel by Salman Rushdie, the character Emperor Akbar’s complex personality is refleted in Schnelzer’s music. The string quartet starts out literally with the emperor decapitating a young rebel. After that, rhythmical and violent passages alternate with achingly beautiful, contemplative scenes. A commission from the Nordland Music Festival for the Brodsky Quartet.

MATTHEW WHITTALL

Bright Ferment (String Quartet No. 2) (2019) Dur: 9’

Strange Geography (String Quartet No. 3) (2019) Dur: 10’30”

Quartet No. 2 was commissioned for the BanffInternational String Quartet Competition. It opens with delightful energy and proceeds towards a more lyrical section featuring some exquisite moments. The compact, introvert third quartet shares the same strands of musical DNA – polyrhythmic beats plus the repetition and refletive beauty typical of Whittall’s music.

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Works for ensemble

CECILIA DAMSTRÖM

Minna – Quintet No. 1 (2017) Dur: 24’ piano quintet

Aino – Quintet No. 2 (2018) Dur: 24’ fl, cl, vl, vcl + prepared piano Minna is the first in a trilogy of quintets on the theme ”Women’s destiny”. The work depicts various events in the life of author and first Finnish feminist, Minna Canth whose willpower is clearly manifested in the forceful and energetic music. But there are also fragile melodies and humorous features here.

Aino was written for Pierrot ensemble. The four movements of the work; Love, Steam, Longing and Iron, represent different emotional states in Jean Sibelius’s wife Aino’s turbulent but fascinating and long life.

MAIJA HYNNINEN

New Holland (2013) Dur: 10’ fl/picc, cl/bcl, cor, trp, perc, hp, vl, vla, vlc

New Holland in St. Petersburg served as inspiration for this piece. Hynninen has captured a glimpse of the history of this magnificent island in the soundscape: the submarine, Morse code and analogue radio sounds inspired the rhythmic patterns, gestures, harmony and timbre. The atmosphere of the present – stillness – governs the general character of the work and the glamour of the designed future is reflected in the urban jazz-inspired middle section.

PASI LYYTIKÄINEN

Taival / Passage (2019) Dur: 11’ fl/picc, cl, cor, vl, vla, vlc, cb This new work commissioned by the Tampere Biennale will be premiered in April. Inspired by the experiences of the wild aroused by nature trails, it addresses the relationship between the composer’s own nature experiences, landscape and soulscape. His aim is, says Lyytikäinen, for his music to express, as openly as possible, a child-like wonder at nature.

ESA PIETILÄ

Asterion (2014) Dur: 18’ tenor saxophone + fl, bcl, cor, pf, vl, vla, vlc, cb Asterion is made up of both improvisational and precisely notated sections. The title refers to the constellation of Canes Venatici (Hound Dogs) in which Asterion is the second brightest star. The saxophone adventures joyfully in the orchestral constellation and enters into the musical interplay and improvisation.

HANNU POHJANNORO

ticulate bestial sounds and gurgling to loud songlike cries and subtle ornaments. From thin, bubbling metal plates imitating water surfaces, to gongs that sound like clattering hooves. She has used many unusual instruments such as the baritone oboe, the bass flute and the contrabass clarinet in order to bring out the dramatic element. Composed for Ensemble Recherche and Lena Willemark.

MARIE SAMUELSSON

Notions (2016) Dur: 12’ cl, bsn, cor, vl, vla, vcl, cb

In Notions (Förnimmelser) the seven instruments function as individual voices with different sounds that speak with and answer one another. Sometimes warm, harmonious chords come in which make the piece alternate between icy and hot. ”The voices symbolise persons who I have encountered in my life. People who I have perhaps lost or won”, says Samuelsson.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Aqua Songs (2015) Dur: 10’ piano quintet Schnelzer has here been inspired by all the water surrounding Stockholm, which can be clearly perceived in the undulating music that is in continual motion. Aqua Songs was written on a commission from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music to celebrate the 70th birthday of H.M. King Carl XVI Gustav.

BENJAMIN STAERN

A Princess Tale (2017) Dur: 17’ 2 actors + cl, bsn, cornet, tbn, perc, vl, cb A sequel to Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, and set to a libretto by Mi Tyler, it takes up where Ramuz’s story leaves off. The scoring is the same as in Stravinsky’s piece and Staern, like Stravinsky, mixes different musical styles. There are hints here of jazz, hymns, Argentinian tango, a waltz in triple and duple time simultaneously and other surprising features.

HARRI VUORI

Kalliomaalaus / Rock Painting

(2014) Dur: 18’ reciter + cl, bsn, cor, 2vl, vla, vlc, cb

Images

hommages (2011) Dur: 12’ fl/picc, cl/bcl, vl, vcl, pf

This is a set of eight short, miniature, impression-like musical flashes as tributes to artists who have greatly impressed the composer: Albers, Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Kafka, Harms, Calvino and Borges. A masterly work, it represents Pohjannoro’s highly compelling style and won a prize in the 2017 Henri Dutilleux Composition Competition.

KARIN REHNQVIST

Bloodhoof (2019) Dur: 42’ Monodrama for mezzo-soprano and 8 instruments: fl, ob, cl, 2 perc, pf, vl, vla, vcl

The point of departure for the work is Ger∂ur Kristný’s poetic tale Bloodhoof, which is based on a saga from the Old Norse Edda about power, threats and assault. Rehnqvist has tried to create a different kind of sound world; from inar-

Text: Eeva Tikka (Fin) Jean Sibelius discovered Finland’s first rock painting in 1911. Vuori was likewise fascinated by these paintings and leads his listeners back to a past in which a shaman tells a legendary myth. The refined yet elemental music seeks to capture the mood of the text, to colour it and convey it to the listener as an overall sharing of our communal heritage.

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

Zeng (2019) Dur: 13’ recorder, percussion, string quartet (or string orchestra)

Hele (2018) Dur: 13’ 1111-1100-01-str (11111)

Zeng was inspired by Hungarian folk songs. The rhythmic and acoustic idea is based on the bouncy, grotesque beat of the ütögardon – an instrument resembling the cello but plucked and beaten with a stick.

Hele was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. It is an energetic, rhythmically playful piece which includes the sounds of some extraordinary instruments such as a typewriter and bird whistles.

Music for percussion

KALEVI AHO

Sieidi (2010) Dur: 36’

Concerto for Solo Percussion and Orchestra: 3343-4331-03-str

Timpani Concerto (2015) Dur: 29’ 3333-4331-02-hp-str

Symphony No. 11 (1997-98) Dur: 34’ for 6 solo percussionists and orchestra: 2322-3221-euph-str Aho’s shamanistic Sieidi has been hugely popular, having been performed some 70 times across the world. It is an extremely tasty and impressive showpiece, a sort of world music in which the soloist roams between the instruments.

The Timpani Concerto is a half–hour journey of shifting moods, firm handling of form and material well suited to the solo instrument. The third movement sets off a virtuosic display of rhythmic fireworks.

The 11th Symphony proceeds at times with almost Ravelian ecstasy and hypnotic energy. The wondrous last movement is tranquil, ritual-like music in which the percussions are used as ‘sacred’ instruments.

DANIEL BERG

Concertino for Marimba and Strings

(2017) Dur: 9’

Daniel Berg’s elegant Concertino is composed for a virtuosic solo marimba and a less demanding, softly accompanying string texture, in classical style, but with distinct features of jazz harmony. The work is written to enable performances also by amateur orchestras together with a skillful soloist.

ERIK BERGMAN

Vision (1999) Dur: 12’ for solo percussion

On being requested by Keijo Puumalainen to compose this work, Bergman aimed at music using a battery of percussion instruments in a rich world of colours, timbres and rhythms. Vision opens with the faint chinking of the metal discs of a tambourine creating an ethereally sonorous sound world. Metal and membrane percussion instruments – 53 in all – later interact.

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

Theatron (2014/15/17) Dur: 22’ for 2 percussion soloists and orchestra: 3233-4331-12-str or 2222-4231-12-pf-str or wind orchestra: 2131-2332-12-pf-vc-db The marimba and the vibraphone are central in this work. The first movement opens explosively and lets the solo parts play phrases that overlap like a string of pearls. The chorale-like, slow middle movement focuses on the lyrical timbres, while in the last movement, which starts out with an improvisatory calland-response section, the tempo accelerates and the intensity gradually increases right up to the end.

PAAVO HEININEN

Sonatina (1996) Dur: 7’ for snare drum solo Belline (1996) Dur: 3’ for tuned percussion (5 players) These works belong to Op. 59, Points and Lines for Percussion, a collection of short compositions testing limits: things that are compositionally impossible – and most obviously possible. The Sonatina is, says Heininen, a ‘gamble’, an attempt to achieve a classical, though short, three-movement format by means of rhythm and dynamics alone. It can also be played with other sound material with a short resonance, either singly or in combination, hereby creating new tones. Belline can be performed on virtually any instrument.

MIKKO HEINIÖ

Khora (Piano Concerto No. 7) (2001) Dur: 45’

Dance Images for Piano and Five Percussionists  Here the timpani and the percussion instruments combine with a piano, creating a sensual and hypnotic atmosphere. Khora was originally a dance work but can also be performed in a concert version. This is an example of Heiniö’s innovative piano concertos – hybrids full of surprises, intelligence, fantasy and seductive appeal.

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Kata (2017) Dur: 8’ for percussion and two cellos Mühlrad’s Kata is inspired by the body movements in Japanese martial arts, so-called ”katas”. The music fluctuates between rhythmic and meditative features, and is composed so as to give a visual impression with the choreographed movements of the percussion soloist (who plays on Thai gongs and vibraphones) in the foreground.

HANNU POHJANNORO

time exposures (2005) Dur: 16’ for percussion quartet Pohjannoro’s music is subtle, concentrated and full of rich details. This work addresses questions of time and rhythm: even though clock time proceeds at an even pace, the listener’s time does not necessarily. Instead of an endless chain of pulses, time may also be a space in which sounds are located.

MARIE SAMUELSSON

Air Drum III (2000) Dur: 5’ 2222-2220-03-strings

In Marie Samuelsson’s powerful and suggestive short piece, the three percussionists play on air drums that sound like rumbling thunder, while the winds answer with jazzy rhythms. The flutes, followed closely by the orchestra’s other parts, fly through the storm like birds in a flock. A brilliant concert opener that also works fine on stage with the spectacular drums beautifully illuminated in focus.

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM

Concert Pieces for Percussion and Orchestra (2002) Dur: 30’ for 6 percussion soloists and orchestra: 3333-4222-00-strings

This concerto was composed for the Kroumata percussion ensemble, and each of the six percussion parts was created with a specific Kroumata member’s personality and ability in mind. The work consists of three movements, each presenting a group of percussion instruments; wooden, skin and metal. The work is at times extraordinary beautiful and romantic, but with contrasting passages that hit like a kick in the stomach.

BENJAMIN STAERN

Konnakol Variations (2019) Dur: 10’ for solo percussion and winds: 2262-a. sax-t.sax-2431-11-0-db

In Staern’s work the inspiration from Indian ‘Konnakol’ is especially evident in the first part where the soloist plays pattering, rapid figures on the congas and the bongos, while the orchestra marks the beat by hand-clapping. In the second part the soloist changes to metal and wood, creating a calm and meditative atmosphere. The expression shifts in the third part, becoming more aggressive, chasing and driving, with intense drumming in focus. The orchestral percussion latches on toward the end and duels with the soloist. It all leads up to a quiet, slightly mystical coda with a simple xylophone solo.

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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.

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.

JEAN

SIBELIUS

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

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?

ANDERS ELIASSON

Fantasia per sei strumenti (2010) Dur: 10’ fl-cl-pf-vln-vla-vlc

In Anders Eliasson’s Fantasia we are plunged directly into the music that takes off light and airy, like a bir d fleeing from approaching danger; apprehension is lurking in the background. It is energetic, tense and forward-driven. Then suddenly we end up in an exquisitely beautiful section of peace and calm, where the music conveys a feeling of loss and melancholy. Commissioned by Norrbotten NEO.

FREDRIK HÖGBERG

Déjà vu (2004) Dur: 10’ cl-tbn-perc-pf-db Déjà vu was written for the Norwegian BIT20 Ensemble. It is a rhythmical, virtuosic and playful piece with some visual finesse – the percussionist plays both the vibraphone and the drum set, but gets less and less time to move between the instruments, which creates some stress… This sure is swinging music and, as so often with Högberg, one can imagine the twinkle in his eye.

JUHA T. KOSKINEN

Fourrures (2007) Dur: 8’ cl-vln-vlc-pf

When writing this work, Koskinen was inspired by the musicians of the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble and a poem by Osip Mandelstam. The title Fourrures means “furs” and the composer writes: “In a cold hostile world we need a warm, maternal hiding place, although Mandelstam did not hide; instead he had the courage to expose openly his deepest thoughts. I’d like to see my piece Fourrures as a synthesis of many elements with several interacting levels.”

TOMMI KÄRKKÄINEN

Fragilia (2003) Dur: 8’ guitar and string quartet

In Fragilia Kärkkäinen has created a piece with a brand new, almost animal power. During the composition process the ‘fragileness’ started to fade and the piece began to get many virtuosic and percussion-like episodes. As a contrast it includes a sort of a quote from Jimmy Page’s Rain Song. Kärkkäinen’s own interest in percussions is manifest in such inventive sound effec ts as different taps on the sound box and stamping feet. The piece can also be played as a solo guitar version that has been recorded by Janne Malinen.

KIMMO KUITUNEN

Triple Duos (2008) Dur: 24’ fl-cl-perc-pf-vln-vlc

In this sextet 15 differently characterised duos interact in 15 triple duo constellations. The role and timing of the duos in the musical drama as a whole was dreamt up before any signs were made on the empty score. Packed with a variety of details, vigour and driving energy, the piece is dedicated to the Estonian Ensemble Ü, which has also recorded it.

MAGNUS LINDBERG

Zona (1983) Dur: 17’

for cello and ensemble: afl-bcl-perc-hppf-vln-db

Zona represents early Lindberg. The name comes from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, in which the main character leads his clients to a site known as The Zone (Italian “zona”). The music begins as a high shimmer from which the cello gradually emerges as soloist. The cello part is extremely virtuosic, covering a wide spectrum of timbres and testing the very limits of expression. Zona is in three movements performed without a break.

TIINA MYLLÄRINEN

Squarcio (2011) Dur: 8’ fl-ob-cl-trp-trb-pf-vln1-vln2-vla-vlc-cb Squarcio has the explosive energy typical of Myllärinen’s music and grows in overlapping crescendos. It may be divided into two parts, the expansive first leading to a denser, more layered second. The music is marked off by strong, polyrhythmic eruptions and ever-denser crescendos that carry the piece to its close. There is, however, one more surprise in store just before the final build-up.

MARIE SAMUELSSON

Fantasia in a Circle (2011)

Dur: 9’ fl-vln-vlc-pf

The piano sound is in focus in Samuelsson’s suggestive Fantasia and gives the piece its special character. It is at times modified by an e-bow, which creates a sort of drone, and in addition the pianist uses rubber mallets to strike the strings. The other instruments circulate around the piano, melodies are created and timbres glide in and out of one another, creating new mixtures of colour.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Wolfgang is Dancing (2004)

Dur: 8’ cl-vln-vlc

There is rhythm and dancing when Mozart meets Klezmer in this piece. Schnelzer got the idea when he sat at the piano and played some Mozart pieces and just for fun inserted klezmer scales into the music. He suddenly imagined an irritated Mozart who has lost inspiration and is sitting and drinking in a bar. In come some street musicians and start to jam with him. His inspiration returns and Wolfgang begins to dance.

BENJAMIN STAERN

Bells and Waves (2010)

Dur: 30’ for 11 instruments: fl-ob-cl-bcl-bsn-perc-pf-vin-vla-vlc-db

An eventful chamber symphon y in five movements, wher e the first seethes with life and energy. The second is more tranquil, one can imagine church bells in the distance and boats slowly gliding by in the fog. The third is rhythmically complex and playful, while the forth is reflective, and you can hear the fateful ringing of a ship’s bell. In the last movement the music gushes forth in a torrent of rapid toccata-like figures un til it finally fades away and disappears into nothingness.

Chamber music with piano

KALEVI AHO

Three tangos (1999) Dur: 11’ for violin, guitar, double bass, accordion and piano Aho comes very close to the world of the traditional Argentinean tango in this tonal, melodic and dance-like work for chamber ensemble. The Tango lamentoso and Tango appassionato revolve around C minor, while the Tango dolente is mostly in G minor. Temperament and virtuosity are required if the players are to give a convincing performance of this work.

DANIEL BÖRTZ

Agora (2009-2010) Dur: 15’ for piano quintet Agora is the Greek word for market place; in ancient times it was also a place of assembly where the citizens held discussions and selected persons made decisions. The piano quintet Agora consists of five “character pieces”, including gravity, joy, pleasure, argumentation – all typical of an Agora.

JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD

Mahler Revisited (2010) Dur: 4’ for flute, violin, cello and piano Mahler Revisited is a short paraphrase of the second movement of Mahler´s Fifth Symphony. Only a small part of the movement´s thematic material has been used – and in a very different way, bringing out the intrinsic mechanical and polyrhythmic tendencies. One is reminded of clocks, cog wheels and gear mechanisms. In glimpses and towards the end the contrasting lyrical character breaks through.

ANDERS ELIASSON

Fogliame (1990) Dur: 19’ for piano quartet Fogliame means foliage and refers to the continually shifting and unpredictable shimmer of light in the shadows of the trees. It is written in a single movement but contains numerous contrasting sections where intensity and allegro alternate with soothing calm and lento –an often repeated indication is dolcissimo. The music develops freely, like when the winds randomly stir the luminous flux among the leaves.

MIKKO HEINIÖ

The Voice of the Tree (Puun ääni, 2006) Dur: 17’ for piano quartet

This Piano Quartet commissioned by the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival was inspired by poems about trees and wood by Eira Stenberg. The properties of wood as a material are made clear as the instruments are hit, tapped and rubbed. Despite the faint hint of West African pentatonic melody and rhythm, the dominant qualities are physicality, sensitivity and unpredictability.

MAGNUS LINDBERG

…de Tartuffe, je crois (1981) Dur: 11’ for piano quintet Lindberg’s early breakthrough work, written when he was 22, scored success at the Unesco Composers’ Rostrum and has been popular ever since. It is a work of fantastic intensity and has a firm dramatic span. The year before, Lindberg had composed some incidental music for a play on the theme of Molière, and elements of this crop up in different ways in this Piano Quintet.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Predatory dances (2003) Dur: 12’ for piano trio Schnelzer succeeds in making the piano trio sound like a whole orchestra. The trio starts out, violent and aggressive, in forte fortissimo. Like pursued game the strings rush on with the piano driving them from behind. In between there are sections of calm and rest, and melodic lines that are here and there achingly beautiful. This is also how the trio is concluded: Andante e tranquillo.

TAPIO TUOMELA

Pierrot (2004) Dur: 16’ for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano Tuomela’s Quintet ‘Pierrot’ is bursting with rhythmic energy. The title alludes to the line-up of Schönberg’s song cycle Pierrot Lunaire, and also to Commedia dell’arte. The dramatic scheme relies on the contrasting of two elements: a quick, whimsical character that is interrupted by slow music marked by melancholic gestures.

ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR

Architectonics II (1986) Dur: 10’ for clarinet, cello and piano Architectonics VII (1992) Dur: 8’ for flute, bass clarinet and piano

Architectonics is a series of seven works scored for various chamber ensembles. Tüür moulds his architectonics using different building blocks and has no inhibitions in the way he combines dissimilar stylistic features. The music is full of tensions and contrasts: tonality and atonality, tranquil meditativeness and explosive theatricality – all side by side. Architectonics VII is also available as a version for flute, cello and harpsichord.

JOHAN ULLÉN

The Deadly Sins (2006-2008) Dur: 37’ for piano trio

Seven tangos, each describing the character of one of the Deadly Sins. For example “Envy”, is in the form of a crime passionnel with the violin in focus, “Gluttony”, stuffs itself with new melodies that make the tango grow until it bursts, and the seventh and final tango, “Anger”, is a slow dance in which rage gradually comes to a boil inside.

REPERTOIRE TIPS

21st century string quartets

TOMMIE HAGLUND

Il regno degli spiriti (Land of Souls) (2001) 23’

We can listen to sounds never heard before, integrated into the well known, when Tommie Haglund lets chords proceed according to a logic that at first amazes us but afterwards seems quite natural. This is nocturnal music with all that that implies. Commissioned by the Medici Quartet for their 30th anniversary and premiered at the Cambridge Music Festival in 2001.

FREDRIK HÖGBERG

More is More (2006) 10’

An energetic and lively work the title of which is a play on the concept “less is more”, but just the opposite. There are a great many tones and a whole lot of energy contained in this quartet. It is also a homage to Maurice (More is) Ravel whose only string quartet has been a major source of inspiration for Högberg throughout the years. Commissioned by the Weber Quartet.

JUHA T. KOSKINEN

String Quartet No. 1 (2005) 15’

A work premiered at the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan in 2005, when Toshio Hosokawa gave Koskinen a chance to write it for the Diotima Quartet. The main rhythmical material comes from a poem by the 13th century Italian poet Iacopone da Todi. There are also two musical flashbacks from Koskinen’s opera Madame de Sade. The intensity and charge of the quartet are relieved in the Oceanico Epilogue built on hypnotic triplets.

KIMMO KUITUNEN

Leino meets StrQ (2000/2008) 12’

This three-movement quartet could be described as vocal music for strings. It is based on Kuitunen’s Erotessa for choir. The original text by the Finnish poet Eino Leino can be projected onto a screen in the background, as was done at the performance by the Zagros quartet. The work represents homogeneous dodecaphony in the spirit of the second cantata by Anton Webern. It also has lyricism and vigorous rhythmic elements.

PEHR HENRIK NORDGREN

String Quartet No. 11 (2008) 21‘

Nordgren’s last quartet is introspective and devout in tone. Its distinctive soundscape is the result of the abnormal tuning, which returns to normal in the lively Rondo and is “as if a light were shining from a very confined space”. The Lamentoso interlude is an excruciatingly beautiful meditation on a chorale theme, and the short closing Pietoso epilogue is like a flash of another reality. Commissioned by the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival and premiered by the Tempera Quartet.

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

Seven Pieces for String Quartet (String Quartet No 4) (2009) 16’

Seven short pieces of varying character where the listener can never feel really sure of what comes next. Sandström is continually full of surprises. Commissioned by the Weber Quartet.

ALBERT SCHNELZER

String Quartet No 2 – Emperor Akbar (2009) 12’

Inspired by a novel by Salman Rushdie in which Emperor Akbar is one of the main characters. He has a very complex personality, and this is also reflected in the music. The string quartet starts out literally with the emperor decapitating a young rebel. After that, rhythmical and violent passages alternate with more contemplative scenes. A commission from the Nordland Music Festival for the Brodsky Quartet.

FREDRIK SIXTEN

Chaconne (2007) 6’

With the first eight bars the basic harmonic structure of the whole work is laid out. There is a kind of pulse, but where the variations fluctuate between the passionate, the melancholy, the sublime and the fervent. The conclusion is surprising but yet so still. Commissioned by the Forza Quartet.

HARRI VUORI

String Quartet No. 2 (2005) 20’

In typical Vuori style, the quartet represents delicate, readily-accessible modernism with microtones, spectral timbres and glittering glissandos that create a dream-like atmosphere. The heart of this three-movement quartet is the middle Pastorale; its cantus firmus is a song by Otto Kotilainen. The last movement has a big cello cadenza. Premiered by the Avanti! Quartet in London.

VICTORIA YAGLING

String Quartet No. 2 (2001) 18’

Yagling was herself a cellist, and this work demonstrates her vast knowledge of string instruments’ potential. The quartet opens with a melancholy Adagio and continues with a vivid and lyrical Moderato con moto. The Scherzo is a highly efficient virtuoso movement charged with drama and temperament, and in the finale the violin melodies soar in Russian mood, striking straight to the depths of the heart.