Uuden Ajan Ensemble and conductor Tapio von Böhm dedicated a festival to Cecilia Damström’s music on 8-9 March at Helsinki’s House of Nobility. e rst day showcased her piano quintets Minna, Aino, and Helene, portraying three historical women’s fates. e second day featured her orchestral works, including Tundo!, Lucrum, Nixus, ICE, Wasteland, and the song cycle Dagbok (Diary) with soprano Hedvig Paulig e opera Ovlá, to a libretto by the Sami playwright Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen, will have its premiere at the Oulu City eatre in January 2026. Damström is writing the music in close collaboration with Sami musicians. eir yoiks will be an integral part of the musical composition, honouring their origins and uniting their voices in a joint expression. e opera is a collaboration between the Oulu Sinfonia, the Sami National eatre Beaivvás and Oulu2026 (European Culture Capital 2026).
Esa Pietilä focus concert
Music by Esa Pietilä for a variety of ensembles can be heard at a concert in Helsinki on 30 March. e programme will include two premieres, some solo improvisations, and earlier works such as the Flute Sonata No. 2 and Blazing Flames for saxophone and string quartet. Taking the stage in addition to Pietilä himself will be the Skatta String Quartet, Sami Junnonen, Tuomas Turriago and the Trio Sonic Decode.
Ilkka Kuusisto in memoriam
Ilkka Kuusisto died on 20 February at the age of 91. He was an active gure in Finnish musical life, always with an engaging twinkle of humour in his eye. A man of many talents, he enjoyed a long and celebrated career as a composer, conductor and arts administrator. He started as a church organist and worked as choirmaster, teacher, publishing director of Edition Fazer and director of the Finnish National Opera. Despite his various roles, he took time for composing and was astonishingly productive, with works ranging from lm to vocal music. Kuusisto is especially known for his much-loved, popular operas such as the Moomin Opera.
New composer – Eskil Kauppi
Gehrmans publishes two orchestral works by the young, up-and-coming composer Eskil Kauppi (b. 2001). Miracle Coast (2023), is inspired by the beautiful seaside nature of the Swedish west coast, and in the new work Vingslag (Wingbeat), an orchestral suite in four movements, Kauppi has studied the movements of eagles, snapping turtles and sparrowhawks, trying to capture the birds’ beating wings. e Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra will premiere it on 8 May. Kauppi has studied composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and will complete his studies at the Malmö Academy of Music this May with a graduation concert featuring his chamber and choral works.
Editors: Henna Salmela, Kristina Fryklöf
Translations: Susan Sinisalo, Robert Carroll, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
Cover photo: Anni Haapaniemi as the soloist in Matthew Whittall’s Oboe Concerto (Victor Nygård)
Design: Tenhelp Oy
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ISSN 2000-2750 (Online)
New Wennäkoski and Aho commissions e Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra have commissioned a Recorder Concerto from Lotta Wennäkoski. e soloist, Lucie Horsch, has already performed other works by Wennäkoski and will have the exciting job of singing as well as playing. e concerto will be premiered in Amsterdam in October 2025.
Kalevi Aho has been asked to write a new work for piano. It is a commission by Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantorow, with assistance from the Gilmore International Piano Festival. e world premiere is in January 2026 at Lucerne Symphony’s piano festival in Switzerland.
Photo: Ville Juurikkala
Cecilia Damström
Photo: Music Finland
Eskil Kauppi
Lotta Wennäkoski
Kalevi Aho
Photo: Romain Etienne
Photo: Maarit
Kytöharju
Johan Ullén in London and Toronto
e BBC Concert Orchestra premieres Johan Ullén’s One Last Tango (Apocalypse), a commission from BBC Radio 3. It’s a dazzling new piece that imagines a whole sensuos world dancing on the edge of the abyss. Anna-Maria Helsing leads the world premiere on 12 June in London. Following last year’s success, the contemporary dance company BC Ballet (Vancouver) brings Pieces of Tomorrow , choreographed by Medhi Walerski and set to Johan Ulléns In nite Bach, on tour to Bluma Appel eatre in Toronto on 29-30 March. It’s a powerful exploration of legacy. rough themes of destruction, creation, and renewal, the dancers embody the cyclical nature of art and life. “Ullen’s recomposed Bach sonatas deepens this exploration with a profound layer – the recycling of musical material echoing our approach, enriching our work with a sense of continuity and growth. Loss, transformation, and rebirth”, says Walerski.
Collaboration with Robert Ruohola
Fennica Gehrman has signed a publishing agreement with Robert Ruohola (b. 1995) – a proli c, prize-winning young composer writing in a delightfully original, vibrant style. His catalogue includes works for various line-ups from children’s choir to symphony orchestra that have been performed at a number of festivals at home in Finland and abroad.
Fennica Gehrman has published his Consonance and the Cosmos (Konsonanssi ja avaruus) , Peijaiset and Dream of a Beautiful Mermaid, all for orchestra, and Gates of Light (Valon portit) for ensemble. Ruohola’s Klami Remixed was one of the recommended works in the 2024 International Uuno Klami Composition Competition.
Peer Gynt opera to be staged in Germany
Jüri Reinvere’s opera Peer Gynt will be premiered in its original German version at the Bremerhaven City eatre. ere will be ve performances starting on 3 May. Marc Niemann conducts the opera, and the dramaturgy is by Markus Tatzig. Reinvere wrote his own libretto based on Henrik Ibsen’s play, and the opera is the composer’s exciting interpretation of this famous national epic. e world premiere in Norwegian translation took place in 2014 in Oslo. It was a commission by the Norwegian National Opera sparked o by the success of Reinvere’s rst opera, Purge (Puhdistus), to the libretto by So Oksanen.
New works by Rehnqvist and Lindström
Karin Rehnqvist’s Take the Milky Way for mixed choir and baroque orchestra will be premiered on 26 April under the direction of Nils Schweckendiek – marking the Helsinki Chamber Choir’s 20th anniversary at the Helsinki Music Centre. Kerstin Perski has written a text that once again takes us out into a vast, unknown space with its stars, planets and black holes. e Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will give the premiere of Emmy Lindström’s concerto for orchestra Rösaring on 9 May. Named after an area rich with Viking Age remnants, the piece musically depicts a burial ceremony for a female shaman and the young girl destined to succeed her, guiding her people into the future.
Aulis Sallinen & The Horseman Aulis Sallinen’s (b. 1935) e Horseman (Ratsumies) is to be staged at the Finnish National Opera on 9–28 May, 50 years after its world premiere. Composed to a libretto by Paavo Haavikko, it was Sallinen’s rst opera. It won the Savonlinna Opera Festival competition and marked the beginning of the Finnish “opera boom” that precipitated a wave of Finnish operas. e Helsinki production takes the audience on a journey lled with symbolism and historical allegories, presenting a dystopian future where love is challenged in the shadow of oppression.
Gehrmans at ACDA Dallas
Gehrmans participated in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Conference in Dallas 18-22 March. Swedish choral music was presented, focusing especially on female composers. In a reading session people could listen, sing and learn the basics of Swedish diction. In connection with the conference Gehrmans also launched its rst collection of digital sheet music, some 150 selected choral works for all voicings and all levels of di culty. More works will be added continuously.
Photo: Tuomas Tenkanen
Photo: Filip Erlind
Photo: Emelie Kroon
Johan Ullén
Robert Ruohola
Emmy Lindström
Karin Rehnqvist
Jüri Reinvere
Photo: Elly Clarke
Seven questions for Veli-Matti Puumala
Veli-Matti Puumala, who will be 60 on 18 July, here answers questions about his composing process, work as a teacher of the new composer generation and the guiding stars in his life.
1. How do you set about composing a new work – and are there any “standard methods” in your composition process?
e rst decisions are always in uenced by how long the work is going to be, what the ensemble is and also for whom I am writing. If it is an extensive work, I always draft a plan for the form and the timeline: what happens when. At the same time, I am well aware that this plan will most likely change once I come to grips with the actual material. But I cannot get started without this roadmap. For some of my works, I have drawn up a very precise template for rhythm and metre before I even began to sketch out other elements. For some others, their shape was governed by a harmony outline.
of a student’s personality, musical worldview and strengths becomes more accurate and sometimes changes quite significantly. Initially, I may have an idea about which skills the student needs to acquire, but these needs are highly individual and inextricably linked to the musical expression towards which the student is striving. As a teacher, my job is to sense this direction. On the one hand, I encourage the student to reinforce their individual idiom. On the other hand, it is equally important to ensure that the student does not get in the way of their own development, by helping them to see directions where they could already have potential to go.
For a minor work, I may start with a textural detail and see where it takes me in relation to the big picture. e overall shape of the work will then come into being as the piece emerges. If I am writing for an orchestra or other large ensemble, I generally draw up a preliminary plan of how to use the ensemble and how to assign roles to the various instrument groups as the piece progresses.
e actual composition process does not properly get under way until I discover musical material that is suitably engaging for all the senses. One has to be patient and allow time to listen to material that has not yet attached itself to a time and a place. Harmony is important for me. It is di cult to imagine writing music without it. I can spend any amount of time searching for harmony and related sounds, but at some point I have to start actually composing the music. It is not until one begins to nd a context for details that one begins to understand what the significance, scope and role of those details could be in the nished work. is is among the most enjoyable phases of the composition process: when one begins to understand what kind of a work might be emerging from the material at hand.
2. You’ve had a long career as Professor of Composition at the Sibelius Academy. What is your approach in teaching composition?
Teaching is always interaction, with impulses going both ways. My priority is always to meet the person, to learn about their personality and how they think. e substantive stu comes after that. Over weeks and months, my conception
Teaching involves a lot of verbalising. Generally, the best kind of interaction is where contact is intense and we are excited by the same things, and the student seems to have a signi cant insight about what they are doing. is is very rewarding for me; I learn about music and about the student. However, an immediate insight is not essential. Sometimes the ‘lightbulb moment’ can come weeks or months later.
3. Which of your works have a particular meaning for you?
ere have been important works or performances in every decade.
1980s: e performance of my early work Symbo at the UNM festival in 1986. It was my rst performance abroad, and it was juxtaposed with works by Nordic colleagues at a similar stage of development as myself.
1990s: My rst composition concert at the Helsinki Biennale in 1993 and the world premiere of Tutta Via for chamber orchestra. But more particularly I would name my First String Quartet and its half-premiere by the Danske Kvartet in Denmark and full premiere by the New Helsinki Quartet at Kuhmo one week later. Both of these works – particularly the Quartet – were performed multiple times at home and abroad. e Quartet shaped for me what I am like as a composer. It also opened doors.
2000s: e piano concerto Seeds of Time, commissioned by Susanna Mälkki and Hannu Lintu. Both conducted the piece abroad, even in Paris. is was a work where I managed again to
expand and deepen my musical idiom. However, perhaps the most emotionally signi cant phase in my composing career was the opera Anna Liisa, premiered at the Helsinki Festival in 2008. e rehearsals and performances in particular drove home to me how meaningful it is to have a large group of people doing their best and exceeding themselves in pursuit of a common goal. I realised how hugely I enjoyed interacting with other people.
2010s: e orchestral works Rope and Tear were signi cant, because in them I updated my orchestral sound.
2020s: To date, my most signi cant work of the 2020s is the violin concerto Tree of Memories, written for Carolin Widmann. It was wonderful to collaborate with such a diverse talent and great human being as she is. is is the third concerto proper that I have written. I like the concerto format. It provides many opportunities for building orchestral textures and dramaturgical situations.
4. What would you like to focus on in the future: vocal music, opera, concertos or others – and what are your next plans?
ere are solo works and a chamber opera in my near future, along with some orchestral music.
Photo: Maja Palser
I am writing a solo accordion work for Janne Valkeajoki and expanding my set of piano etudes. e chamber opera is a project with Johanna Venho. My Second String Quartet, premiered the year before last by the Kamus Quartet, led me to think about further quartets. I already have sketches for a third and a fourth one. I would also like to revisit the ensemble format, if such a project were to come along, and explore electroacoustic music.
5. What would be your advice to a young Puumala today?
As a young composer, we each search for our own voice and our place in the world. It is important to feel free to do whatever feels important and to write music that one can own. But it is not enough. Music is made for sharing with other people. Because we composers exist in close interaction with musicians, I would encourage my younger self to pay close attention to which things musicians nd di cult in my music and to think long and hard about what conclusions I should draw from that. Is the image I am shaping of myself correct? Is it consistent with my experiences? Where is the line between, on the one hand, integrity and precision of self-expression and, on the other hand, the notion of music as communication, where a score is simply a starting point for interpretation?
I would also tell my younger self to spend time abroad, whether studying or otherwise.
6. Could you tell us something about you that we don’t yet know – your interests or other important pastimes?
It is very important for me to put on my cap and overalls and get my hands dirty. is means things like sawing, splitting and piling logs at the summer cottage or doing some other DIY work. I also love tending owers and growing saplings. I enjoy long walks, runs and bike rides that quicken the pulse and provide necessary rest for the brain by creating a private space. Yoga does the same.
7. What are the guiding stars in your life?
I recently became a father again and am more convinced than ever that we are here for other people. Family and loved ones are the most important things. And human relationships more broadly. is includes the relationships formed with students and colleagues in teaching. is is an important priority to understand in an occupation that requires a lot of alone time and personal space for artistic creative work to be possible. Time set aside for writing music has no meaning without all of the above.
Henna Salmela
REPERTOIRE TIPS
LINDA ALEXANDERSSON
Three Songs from the Dominican Breviary (2009) Dur: 7’ 40’’
SATB and 4 soloists from the choir
Text: from the Dominican Breviary (Lat)
A tribute to Arvo Pärt in serene harmonies, innovatively structured to invoke an austere cathedral atmosphere.
A bright and visionary composition with a large range and dynamic rhythmical fluctuations, where the singers are invited to be inspired by Nature – in the spirit of Shelley.
LASSE ENERSEN
Agua nocturna (2004) Dur: 6’30’’
SSAATTBB, solo cello
Text: Octavio Paz (Spa)
A prize-winning setting of a dramatic poem by Octavio Paz. With hints of Renaissance polyphony, the work has some neo-spiritualist qualities, with the cello part adding to the mysterious ambience.
ALEX FREEMAN
Calle sin nombre (2019) Dur: 7’10’’
Text: Alex Freeman (Spa)
The texts are drawn from desperate quotations by asylum seekers who are the victims of family-separation policies. The beautiful, sonorous music subtly follows the moods of the words.
Cathedral of Spring (2019) Dur: 17’30’’ mixed choir (div.)
Text: e.e. cummings, Robert Frost (Eng)
This four-part choral cycle opens with the frenetic and joyous poetry of e.e. cummings and continues with musical visions of spring and the dainty flutter of butterflies. The final movement is a kind of hymn ending in harmonies that are manna to the ears.
Selected works for mixed choir
PER GUNNAR PETERSSON
Spring has now unwrapped the flowers (2023) Dur: 13’
double choir SATB (or CtCtTB) + SATB div.
Text: Piae cantiones (Lat)
A broadly flowing, dynamically changing praise of spring. Commissioned by the King’s Singers and Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir.
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
Orpheus singt (2016) Dur: 7’
Text: Rainer Maria Rilke (Ger)
This three-movement choral work is one of the last to be composed by Rautavaara, but is based on the song cycle 5 Sonette an Orpheus of 1955. The powerful charge, carefully-conceived form and meticulously-modernistic harmonies represent Rautavaara at his most masterly.
NANA FORTE
The Bells (2023) Dur: 5’
SMzATBarB
Text: Edgar Allan Poe (Eng)
A fast-paced and expressive setting of Poe’s jingling, tinkling, clanging, clashing, roaring, shrieking, rhyming and chiming Bells.
ŽIBUOKLĖ MARTINAITYTĖ
Aletheia (2022) Dur: 15’
16-part mixed choir
Text: phonetical
A work sparked off by the attack on Ukraine, reaching out to direct wordless expression of the horrors of the war. It has been hailed as music that goes beyond words: heartfelt, powerful and poignant. There are also aspects of folk music and ritual.
Ululations (2023) Dur: 14’30’’
16-part mixed choir
Text: phonetical
A ritualistic, magic-invoking piece expressing mourning: the sorrow of those whose loved-ones are at war, fighting and dying. The intensity of the music builds up to a beautiful, sustained sequence of radiance. “Masterly in its simultaneous strangeness and immediacy,” according to one review.
ALBERT SCHNELZER
Angels (2024) Dur: 16’
SATB div. and cello ad lib.
Text: W. Blake, L. Hunt, P. L. Dunbar, E. Dickinson, A. B. Paterson (Eng)
A choral suite where the five poem’s different moods inspire colorful orchestration, playfulness, moments of austere beauty and rhythmic drive.
BENJAMIN STAERN
In Paradisum – Song to the People of Ukraine (2022) Dur: 6’
SMzATBarB
Text: Antiphon from Requiem (Lat)
In this beautiful, lyrical work Staern has refined his vocal writing by using a wellknown cantus firmus based on the ancient In Paradisum as a foundation for the voices. While composing this work the war in Ukraine broke out.
ANNSOFI SÖDERQVIST
Crossroads (2022) Dur: 12’
SMzATBarB
Text: Malin Hülphers (Eng)
The text is based on the first article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and depicts the complexity in what is written and making them a reality. Söderqvist creates a rich and rhythmic tapestry that culminates in a tender, unison “We are humankind.”
MATTHEW WHITTALL
Songs of Travel (2021) Dur: 30’ mixed choir (div.)
Text. R.L. Stevenson (Eng)
An ambitious five-part choral cycle. The middle three songs are brighter in tone. “In the highlands” features folk-like motives: bagpipe-like strains and herding calls. “The infinite shining heavens” is a rapt, glowing meditation. In “Evensong” the voices build up to a beautiful, melancholy finale of glowing soundscapes. love is a place (2015) Dur: 7’ mixed choir (div.)
Text. e.e. cummings (Eng)
This is a work about the process of love, from falling in love to the companionship of building a life, having children and letting go. The three songs employ the same soft harmonic palette; “somewhere i have never travelled” is a rhapsodic part song, “love is a place” is suspended in a blissful, near-timeless haze, and “i carry your heart” is a freewheeling polyphonic ballad.
Benjamin Staern – from Threat of War to Dancing Fairies
Benjamin Staern is one of Sweden’s most performed and distinctive composer personalities. We have heard his music in concert halls, on the opera stage and at festivals. Now, for the first time, his orchestral music is being presented on CD with the eagerly awaited album ‘Worried Souls’.
–
e album has been arranged in the form of a standard programme for a symphony orchestra, says Benjamin Staern. First an overture, then a concerto and lastly a symphony. You can also look at it as an Italian dinner: Antipasti, primo piatti and secondo piatti.
Featuring the Gävle Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emil Eliasson and Karin Dornbusch as clarinet soloist, the album presents orchestral works from 2000 to 2014. Staern wanted to go back to the very beginning with e reat of War , which was his debut. – I was 21 years old and a ected by several wars that were raging in the world just then, for example in Congo Kinshasa and the Balkans, and created a work based on strong contrasts. At that time I was deeply interested in Expressionism and Schoenberg’s atonal aesthetic, Benjamin recalls. I often hear that the piece sounds like music from a ‘ lm noir’, and that is probably quite correct, as I am something of a lm bu . e piece became part of the project “Composers of Tomorrow”, which was organised by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.
e second work on the record is the award-winning clarinet concerto Worried Souls (2011) . e title alludes to Staern’s thoughts on artists’ troubled souls in a dystopian society. – I had been to an exhibition about futurism and its evil mechanisms, and besides had Chaplin’s “Modern Times” fresh in my memory. So, I created a fantasy about the tensions that can arise in a harsh, industrial civilization, where individuality loses out.
As Benjamin started to write the concerto his father, conductor Gunnar Staern passed away. – To honour him I incorporated his initials into the music. For some reason he used the letters GES in his signature, which gives G, E, Eb. If you play around with these tones, it becomes a little bluesy, and the piece starts out in a searching, indecisive mood.
e album ends with Staern’s First Symphony, Polar Vortex , which had its premiere with Leif Segerstam in 2014. It is a dramatic and very expressive work.
– Indeed, it is a sonic journey around the world, music with inner images, focusing on climate change, weather and so-called polar vortices. e names of the three movements are quite telling for the theme: Frozen City, Northern Lights and Volcanic Eruption.
e album’s three works are connected by themes related to the composer’s concern about what is happening in the world, themes that feel as topical today as when the works were composed. ey also have the narrative technique in common.
– When I began composing them, I wrote a list of key words linked to sounds. In the case of the clarinet concerto, it was words like factory, worker, robots, machines and short circuits. Sounds that audiences can relate to. I then transformed the sounds musically and structured them. But I never point out to the listeners what they should listen for in my music. It’s more interesting when people come up to me afterwards and talk about what they heard. I enjoy that much more.
Benjamin Staern is a synesthete which in his case means that tones and sounds appear in speci c colours, something that in uences his composition process on an intuitive level.
– For every tone I see a colour, and if I hear more than one tone, I see a number of colours simultaneously. It’s like looking at a painting by Mondrian. It is also about form. In a curving legato I see something Kandinskyesque before me or works by Paul Klee. You can view it as a tool that helps me keep track on the form. e colours function as reference points in my memory. Pianissimo has soft nuances, while forte has bright and shiny colours, Benjamin explains.
During the period 2023-26 Staern is an artistic partner, together with conductor Jessica Cottis and others, with the Västerås Sinfonietta. His rst contact with the orchestra was the premiere of the chamber orchestra version of Sånger om bländvit kärlek composed for alto Anna Larsson. – e meeting came o very well, the musicians described it as a successful “blind date”,
and after that they asked me to work with them. Within the scope of the project, two existing and two new works are to be performed. ey will also record an album with my music.
e ute concerto Dancing Fairies written for the soloist Laura Michelin and premiered in October 2024, was the rst of the new works. It is a re ection over August Malmström’s wellknown painting, which hangs in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm.
– I have always dreamed of writing something relating to Nordic folklore, says Benjamin. In this concerto I imagined the utist as one of the fairies in the painting and the orchestra as her chorus, singing and dancing in the moonlight.
Compared to the clarinet concerto, Dancing Fairies is more lyrical and impressionistic in its style. e second piece for the Västerås Sinfonietta will be a double concerto, in concerto grosso style, for violinist Malin Broman and pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips.
Staern has just completed a piece for the male choir Orphei Drängar (OD), Du ska tacka dina gudar, to be premiered in April. At present he is working on an orchestral piece for the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra, that will be followed by his very rst string quartet for the Marmen Quartet. – In addition, I am composing a duo for trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger and the German hornist Stefan Dohr, scheduled to be performed in August. is was inspired by the cantankerous and heckling fellows on the balcony in e Muppet Show, Waldorf & Statler, and I intend it to be a humorous duel between the two musicians concludes Benjamin Staern with a smile.
Tor Billgren
See also: reviews
The album ‘Worried Souls’ was released in February on Swedish Society Discofil (SCD1190)
REVIEWS
Martinsson’s luxurious ride
When Hardenberger, dressed in a gold jacket, now stands playing Bridge with Martinsson’s colorful orchestral apparatus behind him, it strikes me how carefree this music is. It is a luxurious ride and an arena where Håkan Hardenberger can showcase himself in his beloved role as the wonderful Håkan. Bridge is a fun piece. Sydsvenska Dagbladet 17.1.
Rolf Martinsson: Bridge – Trumpet Concerto No. 1 Malmö SO/Fabien Gabel, sol. Håkan Hardenberger, tp, 16.1.2025 Malmö Sweden (Malmö SO 100th Anniversary)
Splendid orchestral writing
The characteristic which enables Aho’s music to stand out from the crowd is the remarkable consistency in its quality…. I really can’t recall hearing a single Aho work I didn’t like or admire in some way, or even one towards which I felt slightly indifferent… Repeated listens reveal a remarkably coherent, quintessentially Nordic work of elegance and detail [Guitar Concerto]. …The detail and good taste of Aho’s splendid orchestral writing truly comes to life in BIS’s surround iteration. MusicWeb International Oct 2024
Kalevi Aho: Guitar Concerto, Quintet for horn and string quartet, Contrapunctus XIV (Bach/compl. Aho)
CD: Lapland CO/John Storgårds, sol. Ismo Eskelinen, gtr, Ilkka Puputti, hn BIS-SACD 2666
Highly expressive Damström
Damström is a composer who takes a stand and does not shy away from even the most difficult and heavy subjects, which does not mean that her music is heavy or difficult… She integrates modernist and more tonally colored elements in a highly personal way within the framework of her sound frescoes, which are as vibrant as they are highly expressive… Damström composes music that is effectively illustrative, yet she never spells everything out for the listener. Hufvudstadsbladet 10.3.
Uuden Ajan Ensemble/Tapio von Boehm, sol. Hedvig Paulig, sop, 9.3.2025 Helsinki, Finland (Cecilia Damström Festival)
Challenging and refreshing
Listening to Staern’s creations is simultaneously challenging and refreshing. Benjamin Staern is MUSIC.
OPUS #129/2025
I am struck by the powerful expression. This is music that wants something from me – and it wants to shake me. Kulturdelen 21.2.
This is music that continually surprises us and still remains itself… Staern takes me to places that I would never be able to find on my own… I believe this second movement of the Clarinet Concerto is the best I have ever heard from Staern’s pen… and Dornbusch is superb in the leading role. Sydsvenska Dagbladet 21.2.
Benjamin Staern: Threat of War, Worried Souls, Polar Vortex – Symphony No. 1
CD: Gävle SO/Emil Eliasson, sol. Carin Dornbusch, cl Swedish Society SCD1190
Congenial Dancing Fairies
The suggestive music was entirely congenial with the artwork’s nocturnal image of fairies dancing in the moonlight. Mysterious sounds of nature in the misty introduction were succeeded by soughing winds and clear, ethereal moon song. Michelin played heavenly… Uppsala Nya Tidning 31.1.
Benjamin Staern: Älvalek (Dancing Fairies) – Flute Concerto
Uppsala CO/Jessica Cottis, sol. Laura Michelin, fl, 30.1.2025 Uppsala, Sweden
Lotta Wennäkoski and Lauri
Magical music by Lara Poe
Poe has infused her composition Kaamos with the wondrous light of the Lapland winter. It is a fascinating, delicate piece. She subtly ignites the orchestra’s instruments, the glissandos soften… The work culminates in a Northern Lights landscape and ends with sparkling frosty snow. The northern winter has been captured in music. Helsingin Sanomat 8.12.
Lara Poe: Kaamos
Finnish RSO/Nicholas Collon, 6.12.2024 Helsinki, Finland
Poe’s work was inspired by numerous bells – and individual bells can be heard in the orchestral writing… The overall effect is surprisingly Sibelian. Hufvudstadsbladet 13.2.
Lara Poe: Kun usva helisee (When the mists gently chime)
World premiere: Finnish RSO/Nathanael Iselin, 12.2.2025 Helsinki, Finland (Musica nova)
Crazily entertaining Ele
Lotta Wennäkoski is one of Finland’s successful composers. Her Ele for clarinet and strings is a crazily entertaining piece of music, packed with content and events…fun and exciting. Jönköpings Post 23.2.
Lotta Wennäkoski: Ele for clarinet and string orchestra
Swedish premiere: Musica Vitae/Johannes Gustavsson, sol. Lauri Sallinen, 23.2.2025 Jönköping, Sweden
Håkan Hardenberger
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Henna Salmela
Lara Poe
Sallinen
REVIEWS
Impressive, powerful images
The soloist dazzled with her technique and conveyed the composer’s intentions in masterly fashion. It was easy to detect the changes in nature in the eventful texture, where the strings’ flageolet notes painted the sun’s rays... I was greatly impressed by the composer’s ability to convey all these powerful images with his instrumentation. This work is sure to get many performances. Vasabladet 14.12.
Matthew Whittall: Oboe Concerto ‘In the New Light of Spring’ World premiere: Vaasa CO/Tomas Djupsjöbacka, sol. Anni Haapaniemi, 13.12.2024 Vaasa, Finland
Linjama’s Prélude oublié
Merging the spiritual with the secular, the bright, lightly dissonant opus begins with gently rolling figures in the right-hand and rising bell-like sounds in the left. Sustaining a soft, pulsating rhythm throughout, it smoothly blends in a quotation from the Et incarnatus est section of Bach’s B-minor Mass. In Pohjonen’s elegant hands, the mediative setting evoked a feeling of timelessness. Classicalsource.com 20.2.
Jyrki Linjama: Prélude oublié for piano World premiere: Juho Pohjonen, pf, 20.2.2025 New York, USA
Remarkable works
I was mesmerized by Ondine’s album of orchestral works by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, but then, that’s the whole point of her music: slowly unfolding, gradually transforming, reverberating through chosen union of instruments with a combination of colossal expanse and extreme restraint… Aletheia depicts the whole life lived in a rallying cry for humanity in the face of war... Remarkable works to which the Latvian Radio Choir and Sigvards Klava bring all their unmatched qualities. Gramophone January 2025
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė: Aletheia, Ululations, The Blue of Distance, Chant des Voyelles
CD: Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Klava
Ondine ODE 1447-2 (“Aletheia”)
Captivating Sundblad-Halme songs
The cycle is captivating, airy, impressionistic music about the figure Pan in ancient Greek mythology… Soprano Anu Komsi and the HPO’s solo flautist Niamh McKenna frolicked and played together with light, bright virtuosity. Helsingin Sanomat 11.12.
Heidi Sundblad-Halme: Songs from the song cycle Pan (Pan ja paimenet, Pan soittaa)
Helsinki PO/Kristian Sallinen, sol. Anu Komsi, 8.12.2024 Helsinki, Finland
PREMIERES
March–June 2025
MINNA LEINONEN
Kuinkas sitten kävikään (Guess what happens next?)
A work inspired by the Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My Text and pictures: Tove Jansson (Fin)
Tampere Filharmonia/Kimmo Tullila, dramaturgy Meri-Maija Näykki. recit. Ella Mettänen 6.3. Tampere, Finland
LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI
Myös sydämeni
Susanne Kujala, organ 21.3. Helsinki, Finland
MARIE SAMUELSSON
Your Wild Shadow
Emmanuel Laville, ob 25.3. Stockholm, Sweden (Swedish Music Spring Festival)
MATS LARSSON GOTHE
Cello Concerto
Royal Stockholm PO/Tobias Ringborg, sol. Torleif Thedéen 10.4. Stockholm, Sweden
TAPIO TUOMELA
Pace (Peace) for mixed choir
Text: Joh. 14:27 (Ital)
Kaamos Chamber Choir/Visa Yrjölä 11.4. Helsinki, Finland
DANIEL NELSON
The Rave Chronicles – Electro-mechanical concerto for player piano and analogue orchestra
Norrlandsoperan SO/Patrik Ringborg, sol. Yamaha Disklavier 25.4. Umeå, Sweden
BENJAMIN STAERN
Hilma Scenes (orchestral version)
Helsingborg SO/Cathrine Winnes 26.4. Helsingborg, Sweden
KARIN REHNQVIST
Take the Milky Way
Helsinki Chamber Choir, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra/Niels Schweckendiek 26.4. Helsinki, Finland
ESKIL KAUPPI
Vingslag (Wingbeats)
Helsingborg SO 8.5. Helsingborg, Sweden
EMMY LINDSTRÖM
Rösaring – Concerto for Orchestra
Swedish Radio SO/Yi-Chen Lin 9.5. Stockholm, Sweden
Imaginative sound bath
The music immerses the listener in an imaginative sound bath, transports the senses into a long and very serious meditation over the three aspects of love. The sensual, in “Aphrodite – Fragments of Sappho”, where mezzo-soprano Ann-Kristin Jones sings long, expressive melismas while the orchestra surrounds her like a mussel shell, shimmering in every conceivable colour… In part two, Gustav Wetterbrandt’s clarinet moves rather on top of the orchestra, with quivering fragments and a palette of small, subtle microtones in the vast, transparent sea of sound. The intimacy reveals that the theme is the love for your children: “A new child of infinity”. Sydsvenska Dagbladet 14.2.
Marie Samuelsson: The Love Trilogy (complete) World premiere: Malmö SO/Geoffrey Paterson, sol. Gustav Wetterbrandt, cl, Ann-Kristin Jones, mz, 13.2.2025 Malmö, Sweden
AULIS SALLINEN
Shaka – Melodrama for reciter and ensemble cond. Jan Söderblom, recit. Matti Leino 5.6. Naantali, Finland (Naantali Music Festival)
KALEVI AHO
String Quartet No. 5
Kamus Quartet 12.6. Helsinki, Finland (Lauttasaari Music Festival)
JOHAN ULLÉN
One Last Tango (Apocalypse)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Anna-Maria Helsing 12.6. London, UK
Marie Samuelsson
Photo:
Anni Haapaniemi
Photo: Victor Nygård
NEW PUBLICATIONS
CHORAL & VOCAL
NANA FORTE
The Bells for mixed choir
Text: Edgar Allan Poe (Eng) GE 14696
ANNAKARIN KLOCKAR
Två sånger om kärlek for mixed choir
Text: Karin Boye (Swe) GE14830
ILKKA KUUSISTO
Käyn kohti kylää for voice and piano
Text: Ilkka Kuusisto (Fin)
FG 9790550119758
Merellinen sarja
Song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano
Text: Jouni Lompolo (Fin)
FG 9790550119734
Lotjan kannelta
Song cycle for male voice and piano
Text: Kalle Väänänen (Fin)
FG 9790550119741
DANIEL MÖLLER
Nothing Will Die for mixed choir
Text: Alfred Lord Tennyson (Eng)
GE 14699
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
Two Extracts from the Vigil / Kaksi laulua Vigiliasta for mixed choir
Text: transl. Matti Kilpiö, Andrew Bentley (Fin/Eng) FG 9790550119628 (revised edition)
STAFFAN STORM
Awake, O North Wind for mixed choir
Text: Song of songs (King James Bible) (Eng) GE 14843
CARL UNANDERSCHARIN
Salve flos et decor ecclesiae for double mixed choir and organ
Text: from Piae Cantiones (Lat)
GE 14829
KARIN SKOGBERG ANKARMO
Warm Up With Notes
Created for choral directors and singers with a new approach on how to incorporate sightreading into the warm-up sessions.
A work by Hilding Rosenberg, discovered after his death, which has now been published for the first time. GE 14504
PIRKKO SIMOJOKI, GÉZA SZILVAY
Colourstrings Viola ABC: Book D FG 9790550112551
LAMMI, ULLA RAISKIO ED.
Laula uusi laulu! (Sing a New Song!)
31 songs by 26 Finnish composers (e.g. Tapio Tuomela, Olli Kortekangas, Cecilia Damström, Kimmo Hakola, Lauri Mäntysaari, Lotta Wennäkoski and Heikki Sarmanto).
Texts in Finnish, Swedish or English. FG 9790550119017
For further information contact us at:
Gehrmans Musikförlag AB
Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 8 610 06 00
info@gehrmans.se
Web shop: www.gehrmans.se Hire: hire@gehrmans.se Sales: order@gehrmans.se
