Programme Notes | Winter sky

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Winter sky

Thu 7 November 2024 • 20.15 Fri 8 November 2024 • 20.15

PROGRAMME

conductor Tarmo Peltokoski

cello Truls Mørk

Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023)

Ciel d’hiver (2013)

Dmitri Sjostakovitsj (1906-1975)

Cello Concerto No. 2 (1966)

• Largo

• Allegretto

• Allegretto

Intermission

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Symphony No. 1 (1898-99)

• Andante, ma non tropppo - Allegro energico

• Andante (ma non troppo lento)

• Scherzo: Allegro

• Finale (quasi una fantasia): Andante - Allegro molto

Concert ends at around 22.30

Most recent performances by our orchestra:

Saariaho Ciel d’hiver: Apr 2016, conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2: May 2016 (on tour), cello Sol Gabetta, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Sibelius Symphony No. 1: May 2019, conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste

One hour before the start of the concert, Marien van Staalen will give an introduction (in Dutch) to the programme, admission €7,50. Tickets are available at the hall, payment by debit card. The introduction is free for Vrienden.

Cover: Photo Guille Pozzi

Kaija Saariaho. Photo Maarit Kytöharju and Pekka Uotila for the documentary Echoes of the Universe (2023)
Jean Sibelius in 1899. Photo Daniel Nyblin, coll. Sibelius Museum Turku, Finland

Heading North

Kaija Saariaho depicted the winter skies of the far north; her compatriot Jean Sibelius captured images of the forests and vistas of Finland in his First Symphony. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Second Cello Concerto whilst on holiday in warmer, more southerly climes, but in his work, too, the atmospheric temperature seldom rises above freezing.

Winter sun

If post-war music were as much loved as music of the preceding centuries, Kaija Saariaho would have long ago broken Sibelius’s monopoly on Finnish music. Although they share no characteristics of style, in Saariaho’s wide expanses of sound you can detect a similar northerly atmosphere. In a sense, Saariaho is a polar opposite to composers inspired by the romantic period who sought to express ‘something’ and deployed their composition and instrumentation skills to that end. Instead, she took the acoustic qualities of the sound as her starting point; the specific vibrations, the various overtones resonating from the instruments, the waves of sound produced when you combine these elements – and created poetry. Ciel d’hiver (Winter Sky) is one of the most beautiful examples. The composer utilises an extremely limited palette, just a handful of closely spaced notes that take the place of melodies and themes. This soon leads to an almost physical experience as the thin tones condense into dark, threatening sound blocks interchanging with crystal clear harmonies that create the effect of blinding light. We could not get closer to the Finnish winter sun.

Spring chill

Now that it has become a battlefield, it is easy to forget that Crimea was for a long time a muchloved holiday destination. Dmitri Shostakovich spent many summers here, although his stays could not always be characterised as vacations. He composed almost obsessively, always working on more than one piece at a time. His Second Cello Concerto is the result of one such stay in Crimea in spring 1966. Like his first concerto for cello, this second was also dedicated to virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Shostakovich was never one to infuse his music with merriment, but to have composed such chilly music during a spring vacation points to deep-rooted suffering. For thirty years the Soviet regime had made him jump through hoops and kept a beady eye on every note he wrote for the slightest sign of subversion, intended or not. The liberally minded were terrified; many were taken away, never to be seen again. After the death of Stalin a thaw had indeed set in, but it was too late for the now sixty-year-old Shostakovich who remained scarred for life.

This cello concerto could almost have been a symphony; with its epic outline and almost fatalistic tone it would have been a logical successor to his intense Thirteenth. However, working on the first movement, Shostakovich switched course and wove a compelling cello part into a symphonic structure. He dispenses with the virtuoso elements of the preceding concerto and deploys the soloist as principally a teller of moving tales.

The only rays of sunshine penetrate halfway through. In the second movement, Shostakovich quotes the tune with which street vendors in Odessa used to advertise a

local delicacy – a sampling of Ukrainian local colour. But as is common with Shostakovich, the brief moments of jollity quickly take on a grim aspect, and the final movement sounds, if possible, even more desolate than the first.

Disorientation

None of Sibelius’s symphonies lacked a grand romantic gesture; his music was rooted, after all, in the nineteenth century. But even in this early work we can hear how he differentiated himself from a typical ‘composer of the passions’, such as Tchaikovsky, for whom symphonies needed to express the deepest emotions. Indeed, he was diametrically opposed to Gustav Mahler, who believed that a symphony should ‘embrace the world’ (his own world, especially). For Sibelius, expression was subservient to craftsmanship. His mission was to artfully interweave mostly short motifs, resulting in a continually changing soundscape that created a totally unique drama. His symphonies have no themes and tell no stories; he reserved these idea for his symphonic poems. Nevertheless, Sibelius became so associated with Finnish culture and landscape that it is almost impossible to listen to his work without imagining forests, panoramas, and mythological scenes, certainly in the case of this symphony.

Examples of Sibelius’s individuality are scattered throughout the work, but a perfect example is in the introduction: a solo clarinet hints at folk music from a hard-to-place land, whereupon the orchestra breaks the spell and takes us in a totally different direction. The heroic theme that follows is likewise repeatedly interrupted by magical dances and melodic lines are abruptly broken. An old-school romantic would have grabbed hold of the listener and carried them away; Sibelius, however, challenges the imagination with curtailed storylines and disorienting atmospheric images.

The amazing thing is that everything sounds as a coherent whole. This is primarily due to the refined interplay of related motifs. The melody that introduces the final movement, for example, is identical to the clarinet theme of the first movement – albeit with an entirely different character. Sibelius also creates unity through his unique manner of instrumentation. Characteristic are the bird-like flute and clarinet duets that appear in the first movement and recur throughout the entire work, and in almost all later symphonies, as a kind of thematic signature.

A solo clarinet hints at folk music from a hard-to-place land, whereupon the orchestra breaks the spell

The energising unpredictability of Sibelius is only missing in the third movement, where his admiration for Anton Bruckner is slightly more evident than his own originality – although here too he jettisons Bruckner’s massive, organlike sound for a translucent sound picture in which the woodwind section always prevails over the polished brass.

Sibelius would write a further six symphonies, each in turn more original than the one before, to the extent that over time this first symphony became overshadowed and undervalued. This piece does not deserve such a legacy: the material is characteristic and in its execution Sibelius showed that he could compete with the great symphonists of his time. If he had composed nothing else after this work, it would have been regarded as his masterpiece.

Tarmo Peltokoski • Principal Guest Conductor

Born: Vaasa, Finland

Current position: Music Director Latvia National Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Music Director Designate Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Music Director Designate Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Education: piano at Kuula College (Vaasa) and the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), conducting with Jorma Panula, Sakari Oramo, Hannu Lintu and Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Breakthrough: 2022: positions in Bremen, Riga, Rotterdam, and Toulouse

Subsequently: debuts with Hong Kong Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, RSO Berlin, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, SWR Symphonieorchester, Göteborgs Symfoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia

Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic

Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2022

Truls Mørk • Cello

Born: Bergen, Norway

Education: Edsberg Music Institute with Frans Helmerson, with Heinrich Schiff and Natalia Shakhovskaya

Awards: International Tchaikovsky

Competition Moscow (1982); Cassado Cello Competition Florence (1983); UNESCO Prize Bratislava (1983); Naumburg Competition New York (1986); Sibelius Prize (2010); Norwegian Critics Prize (2011)

Breakthrough: 1994 tour in the United States with the Oslo Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons

Subsequently: Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Boston orchestras

Instrument: The Esquire, build by Domenico Montagnana in 1723

Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 1993

Photo: Peter Rigaud
Photo: Johs Boe

Agenda

Wed 13 November 2024 • 19.30

Thu 14 November 2024 • 19.30

Fri 15 November 2024 • 19.30

Sat 16 November 2024 • 13.30 and 19.30

Sun 17 November 2024 • 13.30

Desplat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2

Thu 21 November 2024 • 20.15

conductor Lahav Shani

saxophone Rom Shani

piano Makoto Ozone guest ensembleWDR Big Band

Gershwin Piano Concerto

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite

Ellington Nutcracker Suite

Hefti The kid from Red Bank

Fri 22 November 2024 • 20.15

conductor Lahav Shani

Bruckner Symphony No 8

Music for Breakfast 2

Sun 8 December 2024 • 10.30

Rotterdam, RDM Kantine

For musicians and programme see rpho.nl

Fri 13 December 2024 • 20.15

Sun 15 December 2024 • 14.15

conductor Tarmo Peltokoski

soprano SuviVäyrynen

choir Netherlands RadioWomen’s Choir

Holst The Planets

VaughanWilliams Sinfonia Antarctica

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Chief Conductor

Lahav Shani

Honorary Conductor

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Principal Guest Conductor

Tarmo Peltokoski

First Violin

Marieke Blankestijn, concertmeester

Quirine Scheffers

Hed Yaron Meyerson

Saskia Otto

Arno Bons

Rachel Browne

Maria Dingjan

Marie-José Schrijner

Noëmi Bodden

Petra Visser

Sophia Torrenga

Hadewijch Hofland

Annerien Stuker

Musicians

Kerstin Bonk

Janine Baller

Francis Saunders

Veronika Lénártová

Rosalinde Kluck

León van den Berg

Olfje van der Klein

Jan Navarro

Cello

Emanuele Silvestri

Joanna Pachucka

Daniel Petrovitsch

Mario Rio

Eelco Beinema

Carla Schrijner

Pepijn Meeuws

Yi-Ting Fang

Double Bass

Matthew Midgley

Ying Lai Green

Jonathan Focquaert

Robert Franenberg

Harke Wiersma

Arjen Leendertz

Alexandra van Beveren

Marie Duquesnoy

Second Violin

Charlotte Potgieter

Frank de Groot

Laurens van Vliet

Elina Staphorsius

Jun Yi Dou

Bob Bruyn

Eefje Habraken

Maija Reinikainen

Babette van den Berg

Melanie Broers

Tobias Staub

Sarah Decamps

Viola

Anne Huser

Roman Spitzer

Galahad Samson

José Moura Nunes

Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet

Romke-Jan Wijmenga

Bassoon

Pieter Nuytten

Lola Descours

Marianne Prommel

Bassoon/ Contrabassoon

Hans Wisse

Horn

David Fernández Alonso

Felipe Freitas

Wendy Leliveld

Richard Speetjens

Laurens Otto

Pierre Buizer

Trumpet

Alex Elia

Simon Wierenga

Jos Verspagen

Ricardo Neto

Javier Clemen Martínez

Flute

Juliette Hurel

Joséphine Olech

Manon Gayet

Flute/Piccolo

Beatriz Da Baião

Oboe

Karel Schoofs

Anja van der Maten

Oboe/Cor Anglais

Ron Tijhuis

Clarinet

Julien Hervé

Bruno Bonansea

Alberto Sánchez García

Trombone

Pierre Volders

Alexander Verbeek

Remko de Jager

Bass Trombone

Rommert Groenhof

Tuba

Hendrik-Jan Renes

Percussion

Danny van de Wal

Ronald Ent

Martijn Boom

Adriaan Feyaerts

Harp

Albane Baron

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