Highlights 2 2013

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2013

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFร RLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Daniel Bรถrtz at 70

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki

NEWS

Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams (Photo: Filmikamari)

Cantus arcticus in new Terrence Malick film

Large choral commission for Hakola

Anders Eliasson (1947–2013) When Anders Eliasson died on 20 May, one of the most personal voices in Swedish music fell silent. He will be dearly missed.

Eliasson lived through his music and always went his own way, irrespective of trends and traditions. He wrote more than 100 works: symphonies, oratorios, solo concertos and chamber music, but emphasised that he did not `compose´. He spoke of an “angel of music” and saw himself as a receiver, as one who sensitively listened in, wrote down and conveyed. Yet one palpably feels Eliasson’s strong presence in his music: the restlessness, the melancholy, the pain, the harshness, the beauty and the warmth. An expressiveness that touches the depths of the souls.

The Chorus Sanctae Ceciliae (Ceciliakören) has commissioned Kimmo Hakola to write a largescale choral work to celebrate its 60th anniversary in November 2013. One of the basic missions of the choir founded by Harald Andersén has, from the very beginning, been to commission and perform new works. De kaspiska tigrarnas Gud, the work commissioned from Hakola, is based on texts by Stella Parland. About an hour long, it will be premiered at the Helsinki Music Centre on 22 November.

Nordic Music Days 2013 Music by four of Gehrmans’ composers will be performed during the Nordic Music Days in Helsinki this October: Benjamin Staern’s symphonic prelude Jubilate, Mirjam Tally’s Birds and Shadows for violin and string orchestra, Jörgen Dafgård’s Mahler Revisited for flute, violin, cello and piano, and Anders Eliasson’s Trio for Marimba, Violin and Piano. Choral works by Veli-Matti Puumala (Halkeama) and Olli Kortekangas (De profundis) represent the Fennica Gehrman catalogue in the NMD program.

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2013

Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at

2/2013

Photo: Pål Solbakk

www.gehrmans.se/highlights Cover photos: A Dream Play in Weimar (Photo: Matthias Horn), Daniel Börtz (Photo: Jurek Holzer/SVD/ Scanpix), Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in Malick’s film To the Wonder (Photo: Filmikamari) 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 2013

Trio La Rue to play music

by Nieminen Works by Kai Nieminen can be heard at several concerts this year, in addition to being recorded on the Toccata Classics and Pilfink labels. Nieminen is also the focus composer of the Sääksmäki soi festival, at which Patrick Kleemola will give the Finnish premiere of his guitar sonata A Walk to the Mysterious Woods... and the Trio La Rue will perform works by him on 3 July. Also in the Trio’s repertoire is Nieminen’s Reflecting Landscapes, to be heard at two of its concerts in Italy – in Rome and Naples in October 2013.

New agreement with Mihkel Kerem

NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

HIGHLIGHTS

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus arcticus features at a major turn in the plot in the new Terrence Malick film To the Wonder. The third movement, Swans Migrating, is played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The score of Malick’s film is a veritable anthology of classical and modern music, making the film a breath-taking, rapturous musical and visual experience.

Fennica Gehrman has signed a publishing agreement with Mihkel Kerem for 7 orchestral and 9 instrumental/chamber works.

Kerem (born in 1981 in Tallinn) studied the violin and composition at the Royal College of Music. He lives in London and is active as a violinist, composer and arranger.

Mihkel Kerem has composed more than 100 works, including three symphonies, a double cello concerto, nine string quartets, three violin sonatas and two wind quintets.

He has had several concerts dedicated to his music and has been the focus composer at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and the Aurora Chamber Music Festival. Kerem is also the leader of the Brandenburg Sinfonia and the section principal of the Camerata Nordica. He also performs as a recitalist and soloist. Toccata Classics has released two CDs of Kerem’s compositions.

New commissions

PREMIERES

The Trio ZPR has commissioned music from Tommie Haglund and Anders Eliasson for the concert series “Finally Monday 2013-2014”. Eliasson’s string trio Ahnungen became his very last work. It will be premiered in Stockholm on 10 February 2014.

Fredrik Högberg has been commissioned to write a Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra for virtuoso Jörgen Sundeqvist and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, to be premiered in 2014. The NCO has also commissioned a 10-minute concert-opener by Marie Samuelsson for the 2015/16 season.

Summer 2013 Rolf Martinsson Tour de Force

Gothenburg SO/Nikolaj Znaider 15.5. Gothenburg, Sweden Till skuggan av en verklighet

Lisa Larsson, soprano, Kreutzer Quartet 4.7. Karlskrona, Sweden (Lyckå Chamber Music Festival)

Nils Lindberg Om dagen vid mitt arbete

Swedish Radio Choir/Peter Dijkstra 18.5. Stockholm, Sweden

Sven-David Sandström Three Pieces for Two Violins

Trio ZPR (Photo: Goldberg)

Anders Lagerqvist, Per Öman 8.6. Borlänge, Sweden Five Pieces for String Quintet

Uppsala Chamber Soloists 8.9. Uppsala, Sweden

Jyrki Linjama Suomalainen Stabat Mater (Finnish Stabat Mater)

Kari Tikka has made orchestral arrangements of his popular Five Biblical Songs cycle. It also includes the work by him most often performed: Song of Grace (Armolaulu). The Lohja City Orchestra premiered three songs from the cycle last summer with Jyrki Anttila, Hannu Jurmu and Aki Alamikkotervo as the soloists. Tikka is also planning an orchestral version of his Seven Spiritual Songs.

Martinsson residency in Amsterdam

On 11 June composer and pianist Nils Lindberg will celebrate his 80th birthday. During six decades he has composed and arranged music for big bands, choirs, symphony orchestras and various types of ensembles. He has refused to be categorised and has remained a border-transcending personality in Swedish musical life. His musical roots are to be found in Swedish folk music as well as in jazz and art music, a golden trinity that has become Lindberg’s successful hallmark. His latest work is a commission for the Swedish Radio Choir, Om dagen vid mitt arbete, which was premiered under the direction of Peter Dijkstra on 18 May in Stockholm. Also read about Lindberg’s Requiem under repertoire tips.

Das Licht der fließenden Gottheit (Jumaluuden virtaava valo)

Essi Luttinen, mezzo-soprano, Ilmo Ranta, piano 9.7. Kemiö, Finland (Kemiö Music Festival)

Kai Nieminen Ritorno... ( delle città invisibili)

Jyväskylä University SO/Huba Holloköi 24.8 Jyväskylä, Finland

Kalevi Aho EAREGBERG for 4 cellos, ERA for 4 cellos

Martti Rousi etc.

5.7. Sysmä, Finland (Sysmä Summer Sounds)

Albert Schnelzer You Cried for the Moon

Staffan Mårtensson, clarinet, Love Derwinger, piano 14.8. Linköping, Sweden (Östergötland Music Days)

Daniel Börtz Speglande Medea (Reflecting Medea)

Michala Petri, recorder 30.8. Suså, Denmark (Suså Festival)

Festival composers this summer The Lyckå Chamber Music Festival will present a portrait concert of works by Rolf Martinsson on 4 July. The programme comprises the world premiere of Till skuggan av en verklighet (To the Shadow of a Reality), for soprano and string quartet to texts by Karin Boye, Songs on Poems

by Emily Dickinson in a version for soprano and piano, Landscape for violin solo, Duo for violin and cello, and three piano pieces from The Zodiac.

Albert Schnelzer is Composer-in-Focus at the Östergötland Music Days/Linköping Chamber Music Festival on 10–17 August. No less than 12 of his works will be performed, among these the festival commission You Cried for the Moon for clarinet and piano, Requiem for soprano and piano, Emperor Akbar for string orchestra and Azraeel Suite for symphonic wind band.

Rolf Martinsson Photo: Hans Lindén

Lindberg turns 80

Rolf Martinsson will be Composer-in-Residence with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra/ Netherlands Chamber Orchestra at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam during the 2014/2015 season. His residency will feature a sequence of Dutch premieres ranging from orchestral works to chamber pieces, such as the concert opener Open Mind and A. S. in Memoriam for strings.

The Netherlands PO also co-commissioned New Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, featuring Lisa Larsson.

Soli Deo Gloria/Juhani Lamminmäki, sol. Piia Komsi, soprano, Ulla Raiskio, alto, Ritva Koistinen, kantele 29.6. Kokkola, Finland

Photo: Mats Bäcker

Orchestral version of Kari Tikka songs

Albert Schnelzer

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2013

questions for Photo: Johanna Oksanen-Lyytikäinen

Pasi Lyytikäinen 1.The Kuopio Symphony Orchestra commissioned a symphony from you and premiered it in 2008. Could you describe the composition process – before that, you had mostly written chamber music and works for the stage.

The idea of composing a symphony came to me very early on. I did the first sketches for it when I was about twenty. But when I began composing it again ten years later, I did not return to these sketches and instead planned the musical material on a different footing. The main reason was that while I was composing chamber music, I had acquired masses of ideas for an orchestra.

Then again, I had concentrated a lot on vocal music, so there was strong pressure to compose an orchestral work.

2. You have composed chamber music for very different line-ups, and also solo works. Can you tell us more about these?

Par for piano four hands won the Tong Piano Duet chamber music competition in London and it was premiered in Tokyo in autumn 2002.

I wrote it as a sort of triumphant shout and aimed at boisterous, light and action-packed expression. Coma for solo piano, premiered in Berlin, combines methodical German harmony thinking with the impressionistic ethereality of French expression.

I’ve also had the fortune to receive a wide range of chamber music commissions. The most important of these are, for me, the trio Zephyr and the string quartet La Spada del sole. And there is also the solo accordion suite Vuo. 3. Though your own instrument is the flute, you haven’t written all that much flute music, even though your list of works does include some for winds; such as Necto, premiered by the Guards Band in 2010. Is there any special reason for this?

This may sound odd, but I hardly write anything for the flute precisely because it’s my own instrument. I do, it’s true, dream of doing a flute concerto sometime, but that project can wait for another few years. But I have written a big suite for solo recorder, Minimalto.

4. The chamber opera To Helsinki is considered your breakthrough work. Tell us a bit about it.

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It marked the culmination of the musical thinking of my youthful years. In 1997, after I had moved to Helsinki to study composition, I happened to come across Juhani Aho’s novella To Helsinki. The book is about a young student and the first time he travels far from home. It’s ostensibly a genial story about a journey, but under the surface is a powerful tale about how a person changes, and under the influence of the people around him.

5. And what about the Seven Songs for soprano and orchestra, settings of poems by Saila Susiluoto, which you composed after completing the opera?

The Seven Songs were, apart from the solo accordion suite Vuo, the first work in which I started to seek out musical avenues I hadn’t already explored. Whereas the expression in my chamber opera relies on spiky tragicomedy, the orchestral songs are clearly lyrical and serious. I’m still really pleased with the orchestra of the Seven Songs.

Through it I found a lot of new expression, both vocal and orchestral. I later did a version of the cycle for soprano and piano at singers’ request.

6. Last November you were a guest composer at the Moscow Autumn festival. This spring you’ve been a tutor on the Very Young Composers project.

Some of my chamber music was played at the Moscow Autumn festival, and my new Chamber

Vocalise for soprano and chamber ensemble was also premiered there. Music by me was also performed by the GamEnsemble on its Russian tour.

I went along, too, lecturing about my music at the Glinka Conservatory. The festival also brought me lots more performances both for Russia and elsewhere in Europe. The virtuoso accordionist Sergej Tchirkov, for example, has performed Vuo this spring in Venice, Poland and elsewhere.

Working as a tutor on the Very Young Composers project with composer Minna Leinonen was a pleasure and broadened my mind. The concept of the project developed by Jon Deak is quite unique. In it, youngsters composed while vocational music students converted their ideas into musical notation – as authentically as possible. The new works were premiered by a chamber ensemble of players from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Finnish National Opera. Added to which, the youngsters did animations and sculptures.

7. What are you working on right now and what sorts of inspiring works do you expect to do in the future?

I’ve just finished a new work in the Everyday Opera series. Over the summer I’m going to compose a virtuoso accordion work for Mika Väyrynen. Sometime in the near future I also intend to complete my doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy. I’ve got a fine opportunity to take part in this doctoral programme in which eight artists from different fields will be working on their degrees and at the same time developing methods for artistic research.

My aim is to amass as wide a range of resources as possible for my career as a composer.

Working with different arts has been fantastic, especially as regards my works for the stage. It’s been interesting to note that the majority of the questions about making art are the same regardless of genre.

Henna Salmela

Pasi Lyytikäinen (b. 1975) studied composition at the Sibelius Academy and in masterclasses with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Tristan Murail, Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg and others. His interests as a composer are wide-spread: solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal music, and opera. As a composer he has been described as a lyrical modernist. His music is characterised by compact, often softly dissonant harmony, the idea of varying motifs and a classical, polyphonic mode of writing. Some of his most recent works also have theatrical elements.

Photo: Jurek Holzer/SVD/Scanpix

Daniel Börtz at 70 Daniel Börtz turns 70 in August, but he has hardly slowed his pace. He will soon be in the limelight with two new large-scale works – his twelfth symphony and his sixth opera Medea.

We meet at a café in Stockholm, just a stone’s throw from the Royal Opera. It was here that he in 1991 had his famous breakthrough with Backanterna (The Bacchae) in a production by Ingmar Bergman, and this is where he will return with a new opera. After the complex of problems relating to honour killing in Svall (Surge, 2006) and the conditions of the artist in Goya (2009), it is now time for another drama from classical antiquity: Euripides’ Medea.

Producer, conductor, singers and the premiere date are still hush-hush – the production lies a couple of seasons ahead – but the first act of the opera is finished. He had been toying with the subject for quite a while, but it was not until Daniel Börtz had read the play in a more recent Swedish translation that he found inspiration.

– Medea had been in the back of my mind for years, ever since The Bacchae. It was the kind of drama that I really wanted to take on at some point in time. And then when I reread it – and above all came to read the newly revised translation by Jan Stolpe and Agneta Pleijel – everything fell into place.

He has undertaken to do the libretto this time and made quite a few cuts and rearrangements in the text – with the consent of Jan Stolpe and Agneta Pleijel, of course. About once every six months he meets with them both to get the goahead for his adaptation: – Then we read and I draw and tell and talk about what I am thinking. I have made quite a lot of changes above all to what happens in the chorus, but so far they haven’t berated me, Dan-

iel Börtz points out. He adds that he has a great time relating to this sounding board and not being entirely alone.

What captivated him the most from the beginning, and what has become the fundamental theme, was Medea’s situation as a fugitive. How a human being can end up in such a desperate situation that she totally loses her foothold. About the same time that he started on the work, a tragic event occurred in a nearby town: a woman drowned her two children. Daniel Börtz doubts whether one can draw any sweeping or direct parallels, but nevertheless finds certain similarities: – You can’t really make any comparisons, this is of course a play that was written four-hundred years before Christ, but humans have not changed essentially throughout that time. What it deals with is basically this: humans can be stressed to a point where they lose all good judgment, says Daniel Börtz.

He describes the music as a stylistic continuation of how he composed Goya, a great deal of interplay between tonality and atonality, and all the nuances in between. In the role of the wet nurse one can also find certain similarities to Cassandra in the oratorio His Name Was Orestes. In Euripides the nurse’s role is restricted to the beginning of the play, but Börtz has expanded her part. Like Cassandra’s, it is written for a warm contralto.

– I individualise the chorus; I have them as a female mass, but I individualise often so that they become soloist roles. And the nurse, she is in some way a participant in this, she becomes

that Cassandra type – the one who suffers, who feels compassion.

As usual – one is tempted to say – when Daniel Börtz is working on an opera there is likely to be a musical spillover. In connection with The Bacchae came Kithairon for oboe, Goya’s Face was a digression from Goya, and at the Danish Suså Festival this August there will be a premiere performance of Reflecting Medea, five short solo pieces written for the recorder virtuoso Michala Petri.

– It is a kind of characterisation of Medea, you might say, but there is also a concrete sequence of intervals that is important in the opera.

But for the whole opera Medea we will have to wait a while longer. Daniel Börtz’s twelfth symphony, however, can be heard at a much earlier date: it will be premiered by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Blendulf on 15 February 2014. The score is ready and lies in the windowsill beside our table.

We page through it and discuss motoric drive, a suddenly emerging dream sequence, gongs and glockenspiel sonorities, and an ending in a C major that bursts into pieces. But when we talk about how the work starts out, it is once again a concrete little musical element that proves to be central.

– It has one of those building stones, an irritating detail that calls for me to “do something with this”, and it is the very first chords B minor and G minor. When you start toying with those two chords you discover a great many possibilities that open up. I can’t stop doing this, that’s just the way it is, says Börtz.

It is now forty years since his first symphony was given its premiere in Gothenburg – the compact building blocks of the 1970s have long since been replaced by a form that is leaner – and No. 12 is the first symphony for full symphony orchestra in twenty years, consisting of four movements and with a duration of approximately forty minutes. There is even room for a baritone soloist in the slow movement, in which Börtz has set a poem by Kjell Espmark. And although the orchestra is large, the symphony has an aura of chamber music about it.

– Indeed, I like to have a palette with a wealth of colours, to be able to play around and work with it. Then at times there won’t be so many tones in certain instruments, but where they do come in, they are immensely important. Sometimes it is very useful to force oneself not to have so many possibilities, simply to be able to sharpen one’s pencil and one’s wits, says Daniel Börtz.

Sara Norling

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2013

REPER TOIR E TIPS

Choral works with orchestra

REVIEWS

ANDERS ELIASSON

NILS LINDBERG

Homage to vocal beauty

Dante Anarca (1998) Dur: 80’

Requiem (1993) Dur: 45’

soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra: 3344-4331-14-2hp-str Text: Giacomo Oreglia (Dante Anarca e i suoi sei maesteri, Ita)

2 sopranos, baritone, mixed chorus and enlarged big band: 2000-2440-12-5sax-pf-double bass Text: Requiem (Lat)

One is impressed by the marvellous overtones that Sandström can elicit from the choir…Choir, percussion, organ, soloists and brass together form a glimmering majesty around the text of the Catholic Requiem…In the penultimate movement, “Lux aeterna”, Rombo and Dragojevic sing a duet so lovely that one’s thoughts inevitably go to the classic gem “Flower Duet” from Delibes’ opera “Lakmé”.

Expressen 24.3.

Lindberg combines jazz with Swedish folk music and Gregorian harmonies to create a dark, brooding and gripping Requiem. Expressive vocal parts, including characteristic ancient folk song ornaments, and choral movements in “Gregorian Dalecarlian style” are framed by the mighty and periodically hard swinging big band.

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

KIMMO HAKOLA Song of Songs (2006) Dur: 50’ solo baritone, vocal ensemble, mixed chorus and orchestra: 2222-2200-01-hp-pf+cel-str Text: Bible (Eng)

Song of Songs is a large-scale, radiant oratorio incorporating the whole of the Old Testament Song of Songs in English. Harmony, beauty and lyricism are basic ingredients of Hakola’s music. The very text is, he says, itself like music, and packed with symbolism. It is also an erotic song of praise to love.

On the Last Frontier (1998) Dur: 24’

Sven-David Sandström: Requiem World premiere: Swedish RSO & Swedish Radio Choir/Gustaf Sjökvist, sol. Elin Rombo, Katija Dragojevic, Olle Persson, Matthew Rose, 23.3.2013 Stockholm, Sweden

mixed chorus and orchestra: 3233-4331-12-hp-str Text: Rautavaara after Edgar Allan Poe (Eng)

Photo: Arne Hyckenberg

Eliasson keeps up the tension and energy throughout this seven-movement apocalyptic oratorio. The music moves between the wildly furious, the intensely expressive and the tenderly beautiful, and leads to a radiant final movement where Dante is depicted as the liberator, the sharpest arrow against evil, fraud, dominion and mammon. He is “the beating heart of our future”.

Rautavaara’s fantasy opens with a sumptuous, mysterious orchestral section. Beautiful, shining flute and oboe solos against a choral background alternate with a sea of orchestral sound in stormy majesty. The poem by Edgar Allan Poe made an indelible impression on Rautavaara while he was still a lad, and through the text the choir transports the listener on a mysterious voyage towards the limits of the unknown.

OLLI KORTEKANGAS mezzo-soprano and baritone, mixed chorus, children’s chorus and orchestra: 2222-2221-12-hp-str Text: Wendell Berry, St Francis of Assisi etc. (Eng)

This is a sweeping, ecological work, a reflection on nature and its fragility. The heart of it is the poetry of Wendell Berry, a US poet, farmer and academic. One of the major repeated motifs is the beautiful idea of expanding circles. Included are also some primitive elements such as yoiking, a tradition of the Sámi people in Finland.

HILDING ROSENBERG The Revelation of St. John – Symphony No. 4 (1940) Dur: 75’ baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra: 2222-4431-22-hp-pf-cel-str Text: Bible/Chorales to texts by Hjalmar Gullberg (Sw/Eng)

This is a flaming protest against violence and war. It is also music with long lines and sharp contrasts between dynamic, forceful oratorio blocks, ethereal a cappella choruses, and expressionistically suggestive recitatives for baritone and brass. The development goes from horror towards light and hope of “a new heaven and a new earth”.

TIMOJUHANI KYLLÖNEN Missa Festiva (2008) Dur: 31’

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

soprano, baritone, mixed chorus, organ and chamber orchestra: 0000-0000-12-str Text: Mass (Lat)

Magnificat (2005) Dur: 20’

Kyllönen’s Mass is, despite its modernism, highly melodic, and precisely because of its beauty and melody easily accessible to the public at large. The organ’s role is to be part of the orchestra, as if to replace the missing wind instruments. The Mass has a clear dramatic charge from the very beginning. It also has zest, a dance-like quality and echoes of Latin-American rhythms.

Katija Dragojevic and Elin Rombo

Pungent for saxophone Tuomela’s idiom is at times pungent, at times even very lyrically beautiful. Saxophone virtuoso Joonatan Rautoila was able to demonstrate his skills in a variety of ways in dialogue with the orchestra’s different instruments. Karjalainen 13.4.

Tapio Tuomela: Swap, Concerto for Saxophone and Sinfonietta World premiere: Joensuu CO/Sasha Mäkilä, sol. Joonatan Rautoila 13.4.2013 Joensuu, Finland Photo: Heikki Tuuli

Seven Songs for Planet Earth (2011) Dur: 40’

SATB soli, mixed chorus and chamber orchestra: 2fl-3trpt-timp-org/hpd-str Text: Magnificat (Lat)

Sandström’s jubilant Magnificat corresponds to Bach’s original in many ways in respect to the outer form and instrumentation. The work opens in genuine baroque manner with timpani and trumpets and a rhythmical and joyful choral texture. The tone language is diatonic or triadic almost throughout. But also influences from early church music, Gregorian chant and imitative counterpoint can be found.

LARSERIK LARSSON Förklädd gud/A God Disguised (1940) Dur: 30’ reciter, soprano, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra, original version: 2222-2210-10-hpstr, reduced version: 1111-2100-10-pf-str, symphonic wind band: 1141-2331-12-double bass Text: Hjalmar Gullberg (Sw/Eng/Ger)

A lyrical suite in which recitation alternates with musical episodes.

The text is based on the Greek myth about Apollo, who visits the earth disguised as a shepherd playing the flute. The basic mood of the work is bright, optimistic and almost pastoral, and the romantic tone language is simple and straightforward. A God Disguised has become a staple of Swedish choral repertoire.

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JEAN SIBELIUS Oma Maa (My Own Land) (1918) Dur: 11’ mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-4230-11-str Text: Kallio (Fin/Swe)

Maan virsi (Hymn to the Earth) (1920) Dur: 10’ mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-4230-11-str Text: Eino Leino (Fin/Swe/Eng/Ger)

These cantata gems have been overshadowed by the maestro’s other works. Despite their patriotic tone they serve as exciting portals to his symphonic world. Oma maa is a sort of hymn to the nightless northern night and towards the end achieves almost sacral rapture – a piece that has been hailed by several Sibelius scholars. Maan virsi is a deep-hued, lyrical song in praise of nature, with charming orchestral sections.

Joonatan Rautoila

Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Erica Othman

Stefan Solyom in Gothenburg (from video clip)

Freak out!

The instrumentation underlined and elucidated the content of the music, often with a sense of humour.

In addition, there was an easily accessible rhythmic structure that held out its hand to the listener.

Göteborgsposten 23.2.

Syncopations come reeling like skeletons in a steady wind; absurd whirlwinds spring up from bands of fog; frightening rumblings turn unexpectedly into the purest major…Indeed, who doesn’t want to freak out in Burbank? Gävle Dagblad 29.4.

Albert Schnelzer: A Freak in Burbank Gothenburg SO/Stefan Solyom, 21.2.2013 Gothenburg, Sweden Gävle SO/Jaime Martin, 26.4.2013 Gävle, Sweden

Hynninen brims with vigour and passion in Kimmo Hakola’s monologue opera Akseli…Hakola continues his recent melodic line in this opera.

The music has its origins in National Romanticism but Hakola is also skilled at modern distancing.

The melodic ecstasy is often dreamily melancholy… Helsingin Sanomat 2.3.

The blaring French horns and rumbling trombones were placed on the platform, likewise the celesta, the jazzy trumpets above them…The effect of this sound in space was magnificent. Helsingin Sanomat 26.4.

Jyrki Linjama: Vanitas World premiere: Finnish RSO & Dominante, Murtosointu choirs/Arvo Volmer, 24.4. 2013 Helsinki, Finland

Kaleidoscope – a metaphor that aptly applies to the constantly changing characters in Hakola’s music. At best, it provided beautiful vocal melodies gratifying for the soloist and mighty, throbbing instrumental writing… Hufvudstadbladet 5.3.

Inspiring Dream Play in Weimar This evening’s opening piece Volo for string orchestra was characterised by rhythmical figures in a lively dance, excellently captured in flight over both strings and life’s rushing treadmill. Dagens Nyheter 17.2.

Jörgen Dafgård: Volo Swedish Radio SO/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, 15.2.2013 Stockholm, Sweden

Nature’s mystique presents itself immediately in Dafgård’s music. But also the pumping rhythms. The clarinet concerto opens with a heavily loaded artillery salvo from the brass… then the piece glides into a fog of strings and a dreamlike state that is lifted by the third movement’s triplet figures and tempo changes… Dagens Nyheter 6.5.

Jörgen Dafgård: Clarinet Concerto World premiere: Swedish Radio SO/Christian Eggen, 4.5.2013 Stockholm, Sweden

Poesis in San Francisco Poesis emerged as a vibrant and often gripping display of orchestral virtuosity...The piece offers both vigor and surprise, and the orchestra delivered it beautifully. San Francisco Chronicle 13.4.

Ingvar Lidholm: Poesis US premiere: San Francisco SO/Herbert Blomstedt, 11.4.2013 San Francisco, USA

Veli-Matti Puumala

Intimate expression

Kimmo Hakola: Akseli, monologue opera World premiere: Avanti!/Ville Matvejeff, sol. Jorma Hynninen, 28.2.2013 Helsinki, Finland

Dafgård – Composer of Spring

Mikko Heiniö: Sonata da chiesa Finnish RSO/Arvo Volmer, 24.4.2013 Helsinki, Finland

Lidholm’s sensual, undogmatic and continually surprising musical language creates a kaleidoscope of impressions of human life…The big a cappella choral movements are spectacular…

Gesellschaft Freunde der Künste 30.4.

The dialectic is captured brilliantly in Ingvar Lidholm´s music…He plays with stylistic devices such as plainchant, waltzes and polkas, which he mixes together in his exquisite modern tone language.

Thüringische Landeszeitung 22.4.

The big choir both acts and sings splendidly…In Lidholm’s music the world may collapse, sometimes with a scornful laugh, sometimes with sensitivity and sorrow, but it can also occur with lightning and thunder. And Staatskapelle Weimar, with conductor Stefan Solyom, performs with all the colours and nuances.

Die Deutsche Bühne 21.4.

Director Christian Sedelmayer has got magic hands when it comes to staging the tragic. Another brilliant success… Thüringer Allgemeine 22.4.

Ingvar Lidholm: A Dream Play Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar/Stefan Solyom, 20.4.2013 Weimar, Germany

The premiere afforded something quite special and distinctive. Tear is characterised by intimate expression that speaks to the listener. The bittersweet mood culminates in a sound all of its own at around the middle: modal jazz mixed with sighing and scratching.

Hufvudstadsbladet 4.3.

Veli-Matti Puumala: Tear World premiere: Tapiola Sinfonietta/Hannu Lintu, 1.3.2013 Espoo, Finland

Aho’s enchanting Gejia The super-evocative percussion parts indicated at the very outset that something very special was happening. Aho had sought his melodic building blocks among the traditions of the Gejia, a minority people in Southern China, and used them in a most sophisticated way so that the whole almost, but not quite gave an “authentic” impression. Hufvudstadsbladet 14.4.

Kalevi Aho: Gejia Finnish premiere: Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk, 11.4.2013 Lahti, Finland

Attractive oboe-CD Of the many concertos that Aho has written, the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra is one of the most attractive and innovative…The oboe concerto in particular is a lovely piece which grows in stature with each hearing. theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.co.uk Kalevi Aho: Works for the Oboe (Oboe Concerto, Solo IX, Sonata for Oboe and Piano) CD: Lahti SO/Martyn Brabbins, sol. Piet Van Bockstal, Yutaka Oya, piano (BIS-SCD 1876)

HIGHLIGHTS

2/2013

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki

New Hakola opera

Magnificent Heiniö sound in space

Linjama’s Vanitas for choir is a powerful sermon…

Debussy inspired the diaphanous nature scenes and heavenly visions. Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem hovers in the background. Linjama handles his big mixed choir with assurance and variety.

Helsingin Sanomat 26.4.

Photo: Matthias Horn

Jorma Hynninen

Powerful Vanitas premiere

N E W P U B L I C AT I O N S CHAMBER & INSTRUMENTAL DANIEL BÖRTZ Träsnitt/Woodcut

Daniel Börtz

for solo percussion

§ Ĵ Woodcut

GE 10599

for solo percussion

CHORAL & VOCAL

ORCHESTRAL

ULRIKA EMANUELSSON

PAAVO HEININEN

Väktarsång från Lund (Nightwatcher’s Song)

Autrefois - Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

for female choir a cappella Text: Traditional nightwatcher’s calls (Swe)

FG 55011-131-8 (piano reduction)

GE 12239

FREDRIK HÖGBERG

SVEN HAGVIL

Silent Purpose Concerto for clarinet, string orchestra and audioo track

JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD Mahler Revisited

for flute, violin, cello and piano i

Jörgen Dafgård

GE 12322 (score and parts) Mahler Revisited

NILS LINDBERG Vaggvisa/Lullaby

for mixed choir a cappella Text: William Shakespeare (Eng)

Orpheus with his lute Blandad kör/ Mixed choir a cappella

ALLAN PETTERSSON

Allan Pettersson

Concerto for String Orchestra No. 2

GE 12248

CONCERTO No. 2

GE 11981 (score)

Nils Lindberg

for String Orchestra (1956)

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

for violin and piano GE 12244

GE 11204 (score), GE 11205 (solo part)

Orpheus with his Lute

BO HANSSON Polska With All My Love

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

Then I Heard the Singing

for violin and piano

Polska with All My Love

for violin and piano

GE 10929 (score), GE 10930 (solo part)

GE 12124

GE 12245

Five Fantasy Pieces

HANNU POHJANNORO

HANNU POHJANNOROO

GE 12118 (score) Tre folkliga valser för stråkorkester

for voice and piano

for guitar

LILLEBROR SÖDERLUNDH

FG 55011-144-8 (high version), 55011-145-5 (low version)

FG 55011-138-7

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

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

Tre folkliga valser/Three Popular Waltzes NMS 4962 (score)

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA

Dance I

MIRJAM TALLY

Ave Maria, gratia plena

for percussion quintet

for percussion solo

for mixed choir a cappella Text: Latin First edition of Rautavaara’s popular male choir work in a version for SATB choir.

GE 12267

FG 55011-147-9

GE 12266

The Last Fight

Four Pieces for String Trio

for symphony orchestra GE 12234 (score)

ALBERT SCHNELZER Con Forza

for brass quintet GE 12319 (score and parts)

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

Density for symphony orchestra

Jonas Valfridsson

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

JONAS VALFRIDSSON

The Only Thing That You Keep Changing Is Your Name K

The Only Thing that You Keep Changing is Your Name

KARIN REHNQVIST Four Pieces for String Trio

Mirjam Tally

Density

Sven-David Sandström

GE 12192 (score and parts)

Lille Bror Söderlundh

for chamber ensemble

Valkoinen huone, Three Songs to Texts by Johanna Venho

towards the orbit of the moon / kuun kiertoa kohti

Score

A Desolate Wind - A Flighty Moment Concerto for clarinet and orchestra

for mixed choir a cappella Text: St. Bridget of Sweden (Eng)

D (or instrument in B and piano)

GE 12260 (score)

Teile dich Nacht

for mixed choir a cappella Text: Nelly Sachs (Ger)

Teile dich Nacht Mixed choir

GE 11834

JAN SANDSTRÖM

Vuojnha Biegga Andens vind/Wind of the Spirit

Vuojnha biegga (Wind of the he Spirit)

for male choir a cappella Text: Johan Märak (Samic) GE 10277

NEW CDs

Manskör/Male choir a cappella

ANDERS ELIASSON Ein schneller Blick…ein kurzes Aufscheinen, Poem for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Symphony No. 3 for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra ‘Sinfonia Concertante’

JOHAN BODIN ERIKSSON

Arcos Orchestra/John-Edward Kelly, Finnish Radio SO/Leif Segerstam, John-Edward Kelly, alto saxophone, Bob Versteegh, piano

Pandora’s Box

NEOS 11301

Three pieces for flexible percussion ensemble that can be played on practically any percussion instrument: drums, oil drums, steel tubes, cans – shortly, on anything on which you could beat a rhythm – by almost any number of players: 4, 8, 12 etc. Each part can thus advantageously be played by several percussionists.

KIMMO HAKOLA Guitar Concerto

Oulu SO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, sol. Timo Korhonen Ondine ODE 1219-2

PAAVO HEININEN Autrefois (Flute Concerto)

Saimaa Sinfonietta/Tibor Bogányi, sol. Mikael Helasvuo

1. Steel , GE 12301, 2. In Chains, GE 12302, 3. Twine, GE 12303

Alba ABCD 350

For further information about our works or representatives worldwide check our web sites or contact us at:

Gehrmans Musikförlag AB

Fennica Gehrman Oy Ab

Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden Tel. +46 8 610 06 00 • Fax +46 8 610 06 27 www.gehrmans.se • info@gehrmans.se Hire: hire@gehrmans.se Web shop: www.gehrmans.se Sales: sales@gehrmans.se

PO Box 158, FI-00121 Helsinki, Finland Tel. +358 10 3871 220 • Fax +358 10 3871 221 www.fennicagehrman.fi • info@fennicagehrman.fi Hire: hire@fennicagehrman.fi Web shop: www.fennicagehrman.fi Sales: kvtilaus@kirjavalitys.fi (dealers)

MIHKEL KEREM Symphony No. 3, Lamento, Sextet for Strings

Estonian National SO, Tallinn ChO, Tallinn Ensemble/Mikk Murdvee Toccata Classics TOCC0173

AARRE MERIKANTO Ekho, Symphony No. 2

Turku PO/Petri Sakari, sol. Anu Komsi, soprano Alba ABCD 351

for orchestra

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