Highlights5

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HIGHLIGHTS

3/2009

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Börtz and the Musical Drama

Seven questions for Erkki-Sven Tüür

NEWS New work by Dafgård Gehrmans has signed an agreement for Jörgen Dafgård’s new orchestral work Through Fire and Water. This 13-minute work will be premiered by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Raiskin in April of next year. At present, Dafgård is writing a work for eleven instruments commissioned by the Nordic Chamber Ensemble, with scheduled premiere in 2010.

Photo: Kaapo Hakola

Hakola goes into orbit Kimmo Hakola has composed a new orchestral work called Le nuage d’Oort for the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. It was premiered at a concert on a space theme on 26 August along with additions by contemporary composers to Holst’s classic Planets. The concert with visual effects was conducted by John Storgårds. The HPO also performed the Hakola work at a broadcast guest concert at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm on 30 August.

Gehrmans’ new hire agents Gehrmans Musikförlag has signed new representational agreements with Mongo y Boceta in Spain, InterMusica in Portugal, PWM in Poland, Albersen in the Benelux countries and Schott Musik for China and Japan. The publishing houses are as from 1 January 2009 Gehrmans’ hire agents in each respective territory. Contact information can be found at our website: www.gehrmans.se/english/orkester.

Crusell Week to focus on Kortekangas Olli Kortekangas has been chosen as the focus composer for next year’s Crusell Week. He has been commissioned to write a new work for oboe and strings to be performed by Anni Haapaniemi and the New Helsinki Quartet. Earlier works by him will also be heard at the festival scheduled for the last week of June 2010.

New sheet music from Choralsongs.fi A lot of new material, such as choral works

by Olli Kortekangas and Timo-Juhani Kyllönen, has been added to the Choralsongs.fi website this September. Maintained by the Kopiosto Copyright Society, it is a service developed in collaboration with Finnish publishers delivering sheet music to the client’s email address. At present comprising about 700 choral works, it will reach the one-thousand mark in the course of this autumn. Some of the works are on sale at Fennica Gehrman but others are at present out of print.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Mikko Heiniö brochure and sampler CD Fennica Gehrman has published a brochure on the music of Mikko Heiniö accompanied by a sampler CD. The brochure gives details and a comprehensive catalogue of his works, musical examples and numerous pictures. On the CD are samples of 13 of his works, including Songs of Night and Love (Symphony No. 2), Khora (Piano Concerto No. 7) and the piano quartet The Voice of the Tree, not yet available in commercial recordings. Some of the samples can be heard on the Fennica Gehrman website.

Enquiries about the brochure to info@fennicagehrman.fi.

Aho’s Rituals – recording of the month

3/2009

NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Sound samples and in-depth material are available at

Newsletter from Gehrmans Musikförlag & Fennica Gehrman No. 3/2009 Cover photo: Katarina Giotas as the Duchess of Osuna, from the rehearsals of Daniel Börtz’s Goya (Photo: GöteborgsOperan/Joakim Hovrevik) Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll Design: Göran Lind ISSN 1239-6850 Printed in Sweden by 08 Tryck, Bromma 2009

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H ighlights

3/2009

Photo: Ghadi Boustani

www.gehrmans.se/highlights and www.fennicagehrman.fi/highlights.

The new Kalevi Aho CD “Rituals” was the recording of the month at June 2009 MusicWeb International.

The CD (BIS-1686) includes three works: The Book of Questions for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, the Viola Concerto and Symphony No. 14. According to Dan Morgan, Rituals finds the composer at the very peak of his powers: “In the final poem of The Book of Songs (The Butterflies) the music seems to tremble on the very edge of extinction. Rarely have I heard playing of such translucence; indeed, I found myself listening to this song again, if only to reassure myself that it is as lovely as I had first imagined. ...The CD is a musical and sonic treat. All the strengths and qualities of Aho’s earlier works are here in abundance. Really it’s time we heard more of his music in our concert halls.”

P r emie r es Autumn 2009 Kai Nieminen

Villarosa Sequences to the USA

On a Winter’s Night a Traveller...

(Guitar Concerto)

On 29 November Thomas Jennefelt’s choral suite Villarosa Sequences will be performed in its entirety for the first time in the USA. Miguel Felipe will conduct the Boston Choral Ensemble in two performances in Cambridge and Boston respectively. The Boston Arts writes anticipating the performance: “Jennefelt’s seven-movement symphony for voices combines the meditative qualities of minimalist tone clusters with the drama of vibrant melodic lines to craft a unique choral experience that is at once peaceful and exhilarating.”

Moon Concerto / Månkonsert (Piano Concerto No. 8)

Joensuu City Orchestra, cond. Esa Heikkilä, sol. John Mills 17 September, Joensuu, Finland

Mikko Heiniö

Finnish RSO, cond. Santtu Rouvali, sol. Monica Groop, mezzo-soprano, Heini Kärkkäinen, piano 23 September, Helsinki, Finland

daniel börtz

Goya (Opera in Two Acts)

Open Mind at WMD and on to Japan Rolf Martinsson’s striking concertopener Open Mind was selected

by ISCM’s international jury for the World Music Days’ opening concert in Visby on 25 September, where music from five continents was performed. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra played under B. Tommy Andersson. Open Mind has also been chosen by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sakari Oramo for their Toshiba Grand Concerts Tour in Japan next February, with performances in Fukuoka, Sendai, Hyogo and Tokyo.

The Göteborg Opera, cond. Joakim Unander, sol.

Anders Larsson, Anders Lorentzon, Fredrik Zetterström, Michael Weinius, Ann-Kristin Jones, Katarina Giotas etc.

26 September, Gothenburg, Sweden

Des Jona Sendung on DVD On 26 November the Estonian composer Rudolf Tobias’ grand oratorio Des Jona Sendung ( Jonah’s Mission) will be released on DVD by Video Artists International. 100 years will then have elapsed since the first performance in Leipzig in 1909. The DVD was recorded in Tallinn last autumn with Neeme Järvi conducting the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, choirs and soloists. In conjunction with this, entirely new orchestral material including orche­ stral and vocal scores has been produced by Estonian Classics. Further performances of Des Jona Sendung are planned for 2012 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and with the London Philharmonic, both with Neeme Järvi at the podium.

Kalevi Aho

Historial Pictures / Historiallisia kuvia

Sibelius Academy Chamber Orchestra 2 October, Turku Castle, Finland Minea

Minnesota Orchestra, cond. Osmo Vänskä 5 November, Minnesota, U.S.A.

NILS LINDBERG

Sweet and Kind

Stockholm Cathedral Choir, cond. Gustaf Sjökvist, sol. Margareta Bengtsson, soprano 4 October, Stockholm, Sweden

Jyrki Linjama

Allerheiligentag II

Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, cond. Tibor Bogányi 28 October, Jyväskylä, Finland

Kimmo Hakola

Notturno Urbano

by Juhani Nuorvala has proved to be a lasting hit; it can once again be heard at a concert by the Lappeenranta City Orchestra on 29 October, with Jan Söderblom conducting. Scored for orchestra, it was composed in 1996 and has been performed by almost every professional Finnish orchestra. Abroad it has been heard in, among others, Japan.

Benjamin Staern to be the next “Tonsatt” composer Benjamin Staern will be engaged in the project “Tonsatt” during the period 2010-2012. Tonsatt is a collaboration involving orchestras and ensembles from the south of Sweden, with the purpose to draw attention to and boost interest in the music of our time by creating, introducing and performing new works. Benjamin Staern’s engagement includes composing

Photo: Pekka Mäenpää

Hardenberger at the premiere of Lucernaris

Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, cond. Dmitri Slobodeniouk 3 November, Helsinki, Finland

Olli Kortekangas

Concerto for Organ and Strings Photo: Klas Andersson

Further hearing of Nuorvala hit

An Johannes

new orchestral works for the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and the chamber orchestra Musica Vitae.

Lucernaris top 10 at Rostrum Tobias Broström’s trumpet concerto Lucernaris represented Sweden at the 56th International Rostrum of Composers in Paris this June. 56 works from 29 national radio networks took part in the competition, in which Lucernaris placed among “the top 10 recommended” works. Håkan Hardenberger premiered the concerto on 8 May and will give it another performance with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Dmitri Slobodeniouk in the Estonia Concert Hall, Tallin on 29 January.

St. Michel Strings, cond. Petri Komulainen, sol. Jan Lehtola 5 November, Mikkeli, Finland

ANDERS ELIASSON

Concerto per violino, viola ed orchestra da camera

Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, cond. Juha Kangas, sol. Ulf Wallin, violin, Lars Anders Tomter, viola 25 November, Helsinki, Finland

ANNIVERSARIES Erkki-Sven Tüür: 50 on 16 October 2009 Henrik Otto Donner: 70 on 16 November 2009 Mikael Edlund: 60 on 19 January 2010 Aulis Sallinen: 75 on 9 April 2010 Erland von Koch: Centenary of birth on 26 April 2010 Hugo Alfvén: 50th Anniversary of death on 8 May 2010 Nils Erik Fougsted: Centenary of birth on 24 May 2010 Veljo Tormis: 80 on 7 August 2010 Ingvar Lidholm: 90 on 24 February 2011 Allan Pettersson: Centenary of birth on 19 Sept. 2011 Erik Bergman: Centenary of birth on 24 Nov. 2011 H ighlights

3/2009

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It is said that your music is often influenced by visual ideas. How are they manifest?

You formed the rock group In spe at the age of 17.

Is this sort of music-making still part of your life?

It’s not easy to explain. I treat musical material organised with varying degrees of intensity and density as an architect would treat, say, glass, metal, wood or concrete. In composing my Architectonics series I was interested in the systematic binding together of atonal and tonal relationships, and I sketched some of these as abstract drawings before I began composing.

This spring In spe appeared in its original line-up at the Tartu Music Festival then celebrating its 30th anniversary. This was, however, an exception.

Sometimes I listen to prog-rock to hear if anything interesting is happening.

Action-Passion-Illusion for strings has been one of your most performed works. What was your recipe for it?

In 1993 Tõnu Kaljuste re-formed the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. For its opening concert he asked me to compose a short, quick piece that would begin without a lot of preliminary waffle and have a showy ending. So I did as he asked and called it “Illusion”. After the premiere I felt it could be preceded by some sort of music beginning in a low register and slowly, broadly branching out.

And so I composed “Passion”. I then realised the work was a triptych that needed an opening movement, and the result was “Action”. On the other hand, both Passion and Illusion can be performed independently.

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H ighlights

3/2009

Where do you find your greatest sources of inspiration?

You can never foresee what may be a catalyst for the invention of new musical ideas. In my opinion, you have to live with an open mind and be receptive. Anything that comes my way may prove to be inspiring. But you have to have time to listen to what is happening deep within; the right choices are made in silence.

How would you describe the intellectual climate in Estonia today from a composer’s point of view?

I have to say that when I’m in Estonia, I spend most of my time in my country house on the island of Hiiumaa – either composing or just working on the land or, especially in summer, keeping my visitors company. The atmosphere there is ideal for me. I go to Tallinn from time to time, mostly in connection with musical festivals or concerts or

other cultural events. But as a city it’s too small.

If you want to catch real urban trends you have to go to Berlin or New York. I can’t really answer that question. Somehow I’m just an onlooker on life in Estonia.

What book and CD would you take with you on a desert island?

That’s a difficult question to answer. In a way I’m already on a desert island, but I’ve got lots of books and music here. I don’t have any absolute favourites.

What are your thoughts and plans for the future?

Right now I’m working on my Eighth Symphony, a commission from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. My most distant commission at the moment is for 2013. I’ve been privileged to meet some magnificent musicians who are playing and conducting my works in different countries and I’m very grateful to them for this.

Henna Salmela

Photo: Taavi Kull

Seven questions for Erkki-Sven Tüür

Börtz

and the Musical Drama

Daniel Börtz’s creativity is continually developing. He has composed music successfully in all musical forms imaginable, such as works for solo instruments, songs, chamber music, instrumental concertos and symphonies. But it is as a musical dramatist that he surprises us and enters upon a new course.

His first opera, The Bacchae, premiered at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1991 under the direction of Ingmar Bergman, was a key work in which earlier experiences are summarised. At the same time, it was a starting point toward a new aesthetics of music. A lingering monumentality in his musical language originating partly in the Bergman period came to an abrupt end in 1998 with Marie Antoinette , a work commissioned by the Folkopera in Stockholm with a libretto by Claes Fellbom.

Here Börtz explores further the human voice and its possibilities, with a much more flexible and mobile orchestra in the background. There is a kind of eighteenth-century aesthetics in the tone language that not only harmonises with the plot but also brings out the musical dramaturgy with its arias, concertati and ensembles, where dramatic passages alternate with more reflective musical flows.

suggestive rhythms, the different subtexts of the character roles. Börtz has a nineteenth-century bel canto feeling for how melodies are used dramatically and there is an almost smarting intensity in the vocal lines. He scales back the music bit by bit to a minimum and then lets the vocal flow through without disturbing either dramatic character or musical substance. With Magnus Gabriel a new musical vitality and sophistication of sound appears in Daniel Börtz’s dramatic music, and it

can undoubtedly be said that this recently gained ground is to be found in Goya, the Gothenburg Opera’s new commissioned work whose world premiere is set for 26 September 2009.

Goya – a mighty fresco

In his next opera, Svall (Surge), also with a text by Fellbom, Börtz plunges from historical time into today’s emotionally charged complex of problems, viz. honour killing. This work, too, was commissioned by the Royal Swedish Opera. But it was Daniel Börtz’s talent for depicting an historical period and its figures with a contemporary perspective and attitude that led to a commission in 2004 from the Läckö Castle Theatre for an opera about the castle’s most famous building propri­ etor, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie. The work was premiered in 2008 at Läckö Castle. The opera Magnus Gabriel, set to a libretto by Iwar Bergkvist, has a new tone and a new touch. Here the sonority of chamber music is predominate. The use of the orchestra is at times discriminating and sophisticated, and then goes on to depict, with complex tempo changes, saturated harmonies and

Photo: GöteborgsOperan/Joakim Hovrevik

Svall & Magnus Gabriel

From the rehearsals of Goya: Michael Weinius as Charles IV and Anders Larsson as Goya

The conception of Goya came originally from the artist and scenographer Lennart Mörck. His vision of the Spanish master and his journey through court drawing rooms and battlefields, his revealing and equivocal portraits of persons in authority, alternating with paintings of the horrors of war in the Spaniards’ bloody uprising against the invader Napoleon, were a decisive impulse for Börtz to take on an operatic depiction of the complex artist that was Goya. The eruptive vitality that characterised Lennart Mörck meant that the basic idea and concept of the work were determined at a very early stage. At Lennart’s death in 2007 work on the text had begun and Magnus Florin had been entrusted the task of writing the libretto.

Goya is the diametrical opposite of Magnus Gabriel. In Goya we encounter a large orchestra with threefold woodwinds, brass, four percussionists, harp and strings. There are seventeen character roles portrayed by twelve singers and an actor.

Like the ample gallery of characters that Goya met throughout his long life, a throng of kings, dukes and duchesses, politicians, inquisitors and Goya’s own family enters the stage. And yet it is no problem to follow what is happening. Börtz’s music is razor-sharp in its language and its characterisation. As in Magnus Gabriel, light texture alternates with the forceful and the monumental.

But in contrast to The Bacchae the grandiose and the powerful elements are not overwhelming. It is packed with meaning and intense, but in a clear dramaturgical context and in continual contrast to the intimate and the sublime. The vocal parts H ighlights

3/2009

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REVIEWS Flow à la Hakola

Opera is a fascinating form of art: at the same time conservative bordering on the reactionary as well as innovative, looking ahead and continually calling into question its roots. When Claudio Monteverdi created L’Orfeo in 1607 the art of opera became accepted. Very little has changed since then except for the purely musical development, but the idea of opera, its body language and its dramaturgy are the same.

It sometimes happens that contemporary composers want to burst asunder the old, abandon it altogether and create new conditions for operatic expression.

Unfortunately, it must be acknowledged that there are few, if any, interesting attempts. The composers and musical theorists of the Renaissance, and their questions regarding the Greek drama, can still be interpreted from new perspectives, and new questions can be posed and further develop the language of music.

In Goya we constantly feel this connection with the basic context of the art form. Like Monteverdi, who in L’Orfeo only had a large room in which to tell his favola, and therefore had to use music’s power to focus and open up the drama, Börtz uses – modern stage machinery notwithstanding – the same technique of music dramaturgy. By shifting from the grandiose orchestral sound and power to the solitary monody – the simple accompanied solo song – Börtz focuses the drama on the stage without utilising lighting, curtains or props. And the singing does not even have to be followed by tones: a rich percussion texture fulfils the same function and a new tension between song and rhythm arises. But Goya is not a traditional operatic work in the sense that it copies the old form and relies on earlier experiences. The work is deeply rooted in Western operatic art. But by choosing to depict the great master Goya, who maintains his artistic integrity and imagination in a repressive feudal society prone to violence, Börtz defies opera’s means of expression.

And in combination with the dramaturgy of the libretto and the stage, the opera prisms from former times are turned once more to new positions where the colour spectrum and the reflections provide new light constellations and the music-shaping answers must be reformulated. It is precisely in these new contexts that Daniel Börtz’s opera Goya is so fascinating: because of its virtuoso realisation, form-giving power and the new answers to musical poetics and gestures.

At the same time, Goya points to opera’s multiplicity, complexity and superior capacity to make its listeners feel both intimately moved and interactive.

Anders Wiklund

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Professor at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg H ighlights

3/2009

Högberg’s earworm Rocky Island Boat Bay by Fredrik Högberg, especially, falls under the category of new discoveries…The main movement is significant, too, with its varied and enjoyable, at times lovely jazzy, material. As is also the Finale, which with the nostalgic and beautiful Love Song manages to plant yet another “earworm” into our auditory canals.

Klassik Heute 12.8. / Rasmus van Rijn Fredrik Högberg: Rocky Island Boat Bay

CD: Norrköping SO, cond. Mats Rondin, sol. Øystein Baadsvik, tuba (BIS-CD-1685)

…The Meta4 Quartet – and Kimmo Hakola – really do have flow. Hakola’s String Quartet is like a blazing fire… Meta4’s performance was both hair-raisingly furious and crystal-clear… Hakola was the right partner for Beethoven’s B flat major Quartet, Op. 130. The original finale, the Grand Fugue, particularly, reaches beyond the possible in the same spirit.

Helsingin Sanomat 18.8. / Jukka Isopuro Kimmo Hakola: String Quartet No. 1, A même les échos 1

Meta4, 16.8.2009 Helsinki Festival, Finland

Successful surprise Hakola wants to do things differently, to take the listener by surprise, and in this he is successful.

The nuage d’Oort as he portrayed it sparkled in shades at times warm and at others ominous.

Helsingin Sanomat 28.8. / Samuli Tiikkaja Hakola’s work proved clearly to be the brightest of all the satellites.

Hufvudstadsbladet 29.8. / Mats Liljeroos Kimmo Hakola: Le nuage d’Oort

World Premiere: Helsinki PO, cond. John Storgårds, 26.8.2009 Helsinki, Finland

Quirk and twists in Larsson’s quartets If you haven’t yet made the acquaintance of the music of this interesting Swede this is a really good starting point. The music is, superficially, easy to listen to but has sufficient quirks and twists and turns to keep you wondering what is going to happen next. The Stenhammar Quartet plays magnificently and the recording and presentation are excellent.

MusicWeb International August / Bob Briggs Lars-Erik Larsson: String Quartets

CD: The Stenhammar Quartet (Daphne 1035)

Aho’s String Quintet was premiered at the Kemiönsaari Music Festival

A blend of old and new

Symphonic organ work by Aho

Aho’s Quintet is a coherent, mature work in which he allows alienating harmonic worlds to grow up round romantic motifs. The four movements create a broad entity that culminates in a magnificent final build-up.

Helsingin Sanomat 27.6. / Veijo Murtomäki

A great, impressive work the four movements of which form a thrilling entity. On the one hand it bows to the largest organ works by Bach in many movements. On the other hand it draws on the tradition of the French organ symphony. …Its two- and four-part fugues are masterpieces of the art of composition, at the same time music that builds up to a strong climax…

Helsingin Sanomat 27.6. / Veijo Murtomäki Kalevi Aho: Alles Vergängliche, Symphony for Organ

Kalevi Aho: Hommage à Schubert (String Quintet)

World Premiere: Sonja & Katinka Korkeala, violin, Marko Ylönen & Katja Kolehmainen, cello, Ulla Soine, viola, 7.7.2009 Dragsfjärd, Finland

World Premiere: Jan Lehtola, 25.6.2009 Mänttä, Finland

Photo: Mats Lijeroos

The art of opera

Photo: Pekka Mäenpää

are demanding, but not to the extent that the singers have to damage their voices. It is a mighty fresco that Daniel Börtz lets us share in, and it is also the most nuanced and richly coloured musical drama of his that we have experienced so far.

Linde’s orchestral works

CD: Gävle SO, cond. Petter Sundkvist (SSACD 1133)

Quo Vadis – a drama of fate The work stands out as a drama of fate. The vocal sections constitute stations in the restless orchestral flow. The chorus functions as in the Greek drama, while the soloist – given a moving interpretation by Michael Weinius – stands as the lone human being before the surrounding powers that the orchestra conjures up under the able direction of Johannes Gustavsson. It is here reminiscent of Allan Pettersson’s music: growing in wrath and subsiding in resignation but continually born anew, driven by a blind life instinct.

Dagens Nyheter 18.5. / Thomas Anderberg Anders Eliasson: Quo Vadis

Photo: Marina Chumachenko

Linde’s output is thoroughly tonal, and his early works already show complete mastery of orchestration, and a sound grasp of architecture and structure.

This fine, very approachable music has been recorded superbly...The project deserves every success.

Audiophile Audition 3.7. / Peter Joelson Bo Linde: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3

World Premiere: Swedish RSO, Swedish Radio Choir, cond. Johannes Gustavsson, sol. Michael Weinius, 15.5.2009 Stockholm, Sweden

Fascinating Edlund

Attractive, earnest music

Like all art of great value, Edlund’s music arouses the desire to listen to it more than once. The listener never gets finished with his fragrant, immensely delicate music, just more and more fascinated. Taking his starting point in the rock music of the 60s, and guided by his own uncompromising stance, he has over the years chiselled, filed and polished Swedish art music into perhaps the most discriminating of personal styles.

Svenska Dagbladet 6.5. / Carl-Gunnar Åhlén Mikael Edlund: The Lost Jugglery, Solo, Jord, Blue Garden, Music for Double Wind Quintet

Kyllönen has been much performed in Finland, partly because he was an inde­ pendent voice, moving east, one might say, when other Finnish composers moved west. But it is surely also because his music is good, solid work, and I can hardly imagine better performances of this music. I recommend this disc generally, and especially to those who would like to explore a different voice in modern Finnish music.

Fanfare 2009 / Alan Swanson Timo-Juhani Kyllönen: Symphony No. 1, Lichtenthal, Accordion Concerto No. 1, Concerto grosso

Albert Schnelzer and the Brodsky Quartet at the Nordland Music Festival

Passionately lyrical A new work destined for London is the String Quartet No. 2 by the young Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer. He celebrates the spectres of Shostakovich, Berg, Ravel – yet speaks with a confident and passionately lyrical voice all his own.

The Times 10.8. / Hilary Finch Albert Schnelzer: String Quartet No. 2 – Emperor Akbar

World Premiere: The Brodsky Quartet, 6.8.2009 Nordland Music Festival, Bodø, Norway

Schnelzerian humour and verve

Svenska Dagbladet 18.8. / Sofia Nyblom Albert Schnelzer: String Quartet No. 1 – The Devil in the Belfry

World Premiere: The Weber Quartet, 16.8.2009 Kalv Festival, Sweden

Photo: Finnish National Opera/Heikki Tuuli

With melting vibrato, this fine ensemble performs Albert Schnelzer’s surrealistically inspired String Quartet No. 1. The quartet, with the title The Devil in the Belfry, has a recognisable “Schnelzerian” humour and verve in the staging of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story about the little town Vondervotteimittis.

Jorma Hynninen as Aleksis Kivi

CD: St. Petersburg State Academic Capella SO, cond. Alexander Chernushenko, sol. Matti Rantanen, accordion (Alba ABCD 256)

Wonderfully evocative This is wonderfully evocative music, idiomatic and supple… Nieminen writes very well for his solo instruments, giving them a thorough workout and integrating them with the orchestral textures in a marvelous way. The flute and clarinet concertos are highly sophisticated and unflaggingly interesting, not to mention tuneful and breezily ruminative in nature. While, of course, Debussy haunts the proceedings, I kept thinking of a more sedate version of Ibert as a model. But in many ways, this music transcends either of those folks, and I found every moment quite enjoyable. …I cannot imagine anyone who would be less than enthralled by this music.

Fanfare Sept/Oct 2009 / Steven E. Ritter

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki

CD: Kroumata, Trio Mats, Mats Zetterqvist, Boel Adler etc. (CAP 21447)

Kai Nieminen: Palomar (Flute Concerto), Through Shadows I Can Hear Ancient Voices (Clarinet Concerto), Vicoli in ombra

CD: Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, cond. Patrick Gallois, sol. Gallois, flute, Mikko Raasakka, clarinet (Naxos 8.572061)

Rautavaara’s opera caused a lump in the throat Sydämeni laulu (The Song of my Heart) caused a lump in the throats of performer and audience alike… The orchestra, conducted by Mikko Franck, captured both the deep and wonderfully beautiful melodic undercurrent of Rautavaara’s music and the roistering of the drinking session.

Helsingin Sanomat 14.9. / Veijo Murtomäki Aleksis Kivi is a poignant and well-written opera…

Rautavaara cleverly incorporates Kivi’s original texts in his libretto, thereby giving it extra beauty value.

Hufvudstadsbladet 14.9. / Jan Granberg Einojuhani Rautavaara: Aleksis Kivi, Opera in Three Acts

Finnish National Opera Orchestra, cond. Mikko Franck, sol. Jorma Hynninen, Riikka Rantanen, Ville Rusanen etc., 12.9.2008 Helsinki, Finland

H ighlights

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NEW CDs

new publicati o ns C H A M B E R & I N S T R U M E N TA L Kimmo Hakola

ALBERT SCHNELZER

Diamond Street

Dance with the Devil

FG 979-0-55009-606-6

GE 11390

for solo clarinet

for piano solo

Frozen Landscape

NILS KLÖFVER (arr)

for cello or violin and piano

Nils Klöfver Collection

GE 11391

arrangements for violin or flute and guitar (see also New CDs)

MIKAEL EDLUND

The Lost Jugglery, Solo, Jord, Blue Garden, Music for Double Wind Quintet

Kroumata, Trio Mats, Mats Zetterqvist, violin etc Caprice CAP 21447

Lamento – for the Naughty Children under the Second Umbrella

Four Aquarelles (Tor Aulin)

for violin, clarinet, cello and prepared piano

GE 11481

Zigeunerweise (Pablo de Sarasate)

GE11394 (score and parts)

GE 11482

Predatory Dances

Salut d’Amour (Edward Elgar)

for piano trio

GE 11483

GE 11389 (score and parts)

Sonata in D, Op.1 No. 13 (G. F. Haendel)

Requiem

GE 11484

NILS LINDBERG

for soprano and piano Text: Edith Södergran (Swedish)

version for string quartet

Solitude

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day

GE 11392

GE 11160 (score and parts)

for cello solo GE 11393

BENJAMIN STAERN

Solitude

Arpalinea

for violin solo

for guitar solo

NILS KLÖFVER (arr)

Variety Lights (Aulin: Four Aquarelles, de Sarasate: Zigeunerweise, Elgar: Salut d’Amour, Haendel: Sonata in D etc)

GE 11397

GE 11464

String Quartet No. 2 – Emperor Akbar GE 11420 (score and parts)

Wolfgang is Dancing!

Björn Kleiman, violin, Nils Klöfver, guitar

for violin, clarinet and cello

Nota Bene Productions NBP021

GE 11395 (score and parts)

CHORAL Salem Al Fakir/ ARR: DANIEL MÖLLER

Good Song

BO LINDE

Orchestral Works Vol. 3 (Pensieri sopra un cantico vecchio, Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2)

Gävle SO, cond. Petter Sundkvist Swedish Society SACD 1133

for mixed choir (SAB) and instruments Text in English A song by the successful Swedish pop singer Salem Al Fakir GE 11414

Per Gunnar Petersson

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM

Lucernaris – Concerto for Trumpet, Live Electronics and Orchestra GE 11398

Géza Szilvay

Colourstrings Violin ABC

Book E: FG 979-0-55009-543-4 Book F: FG 979-0-55009-544-1

Violin Concerto GE 11362

HALVOR HAUG

Adventsmusik

Symphonic Picture

GE 11407

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day

Fredrik Sixten

GE 11158

for mixed choir (SATB) and organ Text in Swedish A less advanced setting for choir with a virtuoso organ part

TUTORS

SCORES

GE 11229

NILS LINDBERG

version for string orchestra

Jubilate Deo

Einojuhani Rautavaara

12 Concertos

Various performers (previously released material) Ondine ODE 1156-2Q (4-CD set)

for mixed choir (SATB) a cappella Text in Latin Exuberant, magnificent a cappella music GE 11442

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