Nordic highlights no 4 2017

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Paavo Heininen at 80 Ingvar Lidholm in memoriam

Staern’s The Princess’ Tale

Hakola, Lindberg, Tuomela: 3 x 60 Kimmo Hakola, Magnus Lindberg and Tapio Tuomela will each be 60 next year: Lindberg on 27 June, and one month later Hakola, who is planning a double concerto for Lauri Sallinen (clarinet) and Henrik Sandås (bandoneon). Tuomela’s birthday is on 11 October, and a date in October has been proposed for a concert of his works. He is also writing a choral work for Musicatreize and the Helsinki Chamber Choir as part of the Tenso Network project.

New transcriptions for wind band

December 17th will see the Austrian premiere of Rolf Martinsson’s song cycle Garden of Devotion at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Soprano Lisa Larsson is the soloist with the Vienna Chamber Rolf Orchestra under the Martinsson direction of Stefan Vladar. The new concert opener Shimmering Islands will be premiered in Norway by the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra on 18 January next year, and Ole Edvard Antonsen will be the soloist in the Polish premiere of the trumpet concerto Bridge with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice on 1 February.

The Nordic countries share a strong wind band tradition – including band transcriptions of symphonic works. Fennica Gehrman has published three new transcriptions for full-sized wind band including Einar Englund’s The Great Wall of China – a landmark in Finnish theatre music. Uuno Klami’s Sea Pictures is faithful to the original orchestral work, bringing the essence of his colourful style onto the band platform. Also included is Jean Sibelius’s Overture in F minor transcribed for band by Robert Ambrose.

Photo: Mats Bäcker

Martinsson premieres

NORDIC

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at www.gehrmans.se/highlights Cover photos: Paavo Heininen (Saara Vuorjoki/Music Finland), Håkan Hardenberger and Pernilla August in Stern’s The Princess’ Tale (Ralph Bretzer) 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 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

Tubin’s ballet on DVD Estonian Record Productions has released a DVD of Marina Kessler’s staging of Eduard Tubin’s ballet Kratt (The Goblin). Eduard Tubin and his librettist and wife Erika worked on the ballet for more than 20 years. During a performance at the Estonia Theatre in March 1944, Tallinn was bombed and costumed dancers ran for shelter when the theatre took a direct hit.

Fifteen years later Tubin reconstructed the ballet from the remaining instrumental parts. What began as a folkloristic rendering of old rural myths has been transformed by Kessler into a visually stunning timeless play on themes of greed and love. Even the history of the ballet flashes by when the Devil pushes the air raid alert. The DVD can be ordered from ylle.veerg@opera.ee and will soon be available from international distributors.

Two new solo concertos by Fredrik Högberg will be premiered in the spring of 2018. Absent Illusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses is a multimedia concerto for violin/viola and orchestra with cinematic features, written for Isabelle van Keulen.

She will give the premiere on 16 March with the Düsseldorf Symphony orchestra/Alexandre Bloch. The concerto is jointly commissioned with the symphony orchestras in Odense, Norrköping and Malmö. Swedish Radio P2 has, together with the Gothenburg Symphony and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, commissioned a Bassoon Concerto for Sebastian Stevensson, winner of the Swedish Soloist Prize 2016. The work will receive its premiere on 9 May in Gothenburg under the baton of TungChieh Chuang.

Schnelzer works on tour Evelyn Glennie and O/Modernt String Quartet are touring with Albert Schnelzer´s new version of Apollonian Dances, for percussion and string quartet. Performances will take place in Klaipeda and Vilnius, Lithuania in December, at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam in February and at Kings Place, London in March. A Freak in Burbank is to be performed by the Monte Carlo Philharmonic in December, and in April of next year the piece will go on tour with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard to Brugge, Belgium and Rosenheim, Germany.

Evelyn Glennie

Photo: Marco Feklistoff

Högberg’s new solo concertos

Photo: Jim Callaghan

Photo: Jean-Michel Gueugnot

Photo: Kaapo Hakola

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki

NEWS

Wennäkoski at the Turku Cello Competition

PREMIERES

A work for the Turku Cello Competition beginning on 16 February has been commissioned from Lotta Wennäkoski. Called Foliage, it exists in versions for cello and piano and for orchestra and will be the compulsory work for the six competition finalists.

The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä will accompany the cellists in the finals on 22–23 February.

December 2017 – March 2018

Photo: Henna Salmela

Kalevi Aho has been asked to write his 17th symphony for 2019 as a joint commission by several orchestras.

The world premiere is scheduled for spring 2019 by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. The work will be long – 63 minutes – but the movements can also be performed as independent symphonic poems. Aho will be 70 years old on 9 March 2019. Gramophone magazine raved in 2013 that Aho has a strong claim to the title of greatest living symphonist.

Photo: Romain Etienne

Aho’s 17th symphony

MIKKO HEINIÖ Amen for male choir Laulu-Miehet/Matti Hyökki, 3.12. Helsinki, Finland

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI Uniin asti (Until the Dreams) for male choir and orchestra Finnish RSO, Polytech Choir/Hannu Lintu 6.12. Helsinki, Finland Foliage for cello and orchestra Turku PO/Klaus Mäkelä, sol. finalists of the Turku Cello Competition 22.-23.2. Turku, Finland

TAPIO TUOMELA JONAS VALFRIDSSON Svanhamnen for bassoon and strings Musica Vitae, sol. Sebastian Stevensson, bassoon 11.1. Växjö, Sweden

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are observing the 50th anniversary of Allan Pettersson’s legendary Symphony No. 7 with two performances on 1 and 2 December in Stockholm. On 10 June next year Pettersson’s Seventh will be performed for the first time in Musikverein Vienna during the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra’s tour together with Christian Lindberg.

Alba Records has released a disc of music by Matthew Whittall featuring Northlands for horn and strings, ad puram annihilationem meam for choir and narrator, and for The return of light choir and orchestra. The orchestras are the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Helsinki Chamber Choir sings the choral parts.

The disc has already had an enthusiastic reception. Canadian-born Matthew Whittall is a an exciting composer name in Finland. His recent piano concerto Nameless Seas was premiered in Ottawa on 5 October, with Angela Hewitt as the soloist. Risto-Matti Marin was the soloist in the Finnish premiere in November (see: Reviews).

Voice of the hidden waterfall Harri Mäki, clarinet, Irina Zahharenkova, piano 20.12. Helsinki, Finland

Crossroads Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk, 6.12. Lahti, Finland

50th anniversary of Pettersson’s 7th

Profile of Matthew Whittall

MATTHEW WHITTALL Lauantaisauna for mixed choir Sibelius Academy Choir/Jani Sivén 2.12. Helsinki, Finland

ROLF MARTINSSON Shimmering Islands for orchestra Kristiansand SO/Eivind Aadland 18.1. Kristiansand, Norway

TUOMAS TURRIAGO Per Aspera Pekko Pulakka, violin, Elina Sipilä, cello, Jarmo Hyväkkö, clarinet, Tuomas Turriago, piano, 28.1. Tampere, Finland

Lotta Wennäkoski, Rumon Gamba and Petri Kumela at the premiere of Wennäkoski’s Guitar Concerto (See: Reviews)

OLLI KORTEKANGAS Veljeni vartija (My Brother’s Keeper) Tampere Opera, Tampere PO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, sol. Tuuli Takala, Ville Rusanen, Tuomas Katajala, Virpi Räisänen etc., 16.2. Tampere, Finland

Finland 100 jubilee Finland’s first century as an independent republic has been celebrated this year in numerous musical events and is gathering strength as 2017 draws to a close. Scheduled for Independence Day, December 6, are a record number of concerts, a lot of Finnish music, premieres of commissions and other highlights. Among them will be Uniin asti (Until the Dreams), a work by Lotta Wennäkoski for orchestra and male choir and Crossroads for orchestra by Tapio Tuomela (see: Premieres).

MATS LARSSON GOTHE In modo lidico (Ein Heiliger Dankgesang) for string quartet Uppsala Chamber Soloists, 25.2. Uppsala, Sweden

FREDRIK HÖGBERG Absent Illusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses for violin/viola and orchestra Düsseldorf SO/Alexandre Bloch, sol. Isabel van Keulen 16.3. Düsseldorf, Germany

Photos: Karin Törnblom

Rehnqvist and Staern awarded The Swedish Music Publishers’ Honorary Award 2017 has been awarded to Karin Rehnqvist for her significant achievements in Swedish and international musical life. In the jury’s poetical citation she is described as ”the one who connects us with our heritage, our folk music and its singular voices, who fearlessly designs the music of the future with backwards figures, and attires it in just as much blinding light as smarting darkness”.

Also Benjamin Staern was awarded by the Swedish MPA for his Air-Spiral-Light, a concerto for guitar, seven instruments and electronics, in which he “mixes airy and quick sections and with his full-bodied art of orchestration paints in numerous colours”. Norrbotten NEO, guitar soloist Jacob Kellermann and conductor Christian Karlsen will bring the work on tour of Sweden and to the NJORD Biennale in Copenhagen in January.

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

Photo: Sten Bellander

Ingvar Lidholm in memoriam Ingvar Lidholm passed away on 17 October, at the age of 96. He started out as a Nordic romanticist and evolved into a noble-minded expressionist, with deep roots in the tradition. idholm was born in 1921 in the town Unique feeling for the human of Nässjö in southern Sweden, and he voice

The Monday group During the Second World War he studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. This was where he met Karl-Birger Blomdahl, who was of vital importance for him as a friend and colleague.

Lidholm studied polyphony and composition individually with Hilding Rosenberg, who also instilled in him a sense of artistic ethics. From the circle of students around Rosenberg a gathering was formed, the so-called Monday Group, which in many ways came to contribute to the modernisation of Swedish musical life for the following half-century.

Thanks in part to the Monday Group the doors to Europe were flung open, National Romanticism was on the wane and young Swedes ventured out into the world to meet the new currents of the time. Lidholm was, together with the conductor Herbert Blomstedt, the first Swedish composer in Darmstadt; he travelled to Italy with Blomdahl and studied the twelvetone technique with Matyas Seiber in London.

Elements from decades of stylistic development – from Hindemith to Ligeti and Lutoslawski – permeated and coloured Lidholm’s music.

Ingvar Lidholm played the viola in the Royal Opera Orchestra and in Lilla Kammarorkestern, an innovative ensemble of the 1940s. He was in Örebro as principal conductor of the town’s orchestra 1947-56; after that he became head of chamber music at the Swedish Radio. In 1965 he succeeded Karl-Birger Blomdahl as Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music and developed, together with musicologist Bo Wallner, the composition seminar, that attracted guest teachers such as Ligeti and Lutoslawski.

Among Lidholm’s students you will find Folke Rabe, Sven-David Sandström, Daniel Börtz, Miklos Maros and Anders Eliasson. In 1975 he returned to the Swedish Radio, this time as planning director.

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

Lidholm’s operatic works A Dream Play and the TV opera The Dutchman were devoted to August Strindberg, whose texts were also set to music in songs and choral works. A Dream Play was staged in Stockholm in 1992 and later in opera houses abroad, including Santa Fe, Bern and Weimar. The drama for male choir The Persians and the dramatic scene Nausicaa Alone were born from Lidholm’s continual proximity to the ancient world. Lidholm’s spiritual kinship with the nineteenth-century Romantic poet Carl Jonas Love Almqvist gave birth to the hyperromantic cantata The Poet´s Night, which is a seminal work in the Swedish musical literature of the 1950s. In the orchestral song …stund, när ditt inre from 1998, he and the poet Eric Johan Stagnelius seek answers to the most important questions in the expanse of space.

Lidholm had a unique, sensual feeling for the human voice. He interacted for sixty years with the legendary choir conductor Eric Ericson. They met as young men in Stockholm in 1943, when the Chamber Choir was founded. In 1947 the 26-year-old Lidholm confronted the Chamber Choir with the greatest challenge a Swedish choir had hitherto encountered: his first choral work Laudi . Latin texts from the Bible were formulated in a musical language that brought together Palestrina and Stravinsky of the Symphony of Psalms. In the series of Lidholm’s large-scale choral works – from Laudi to Canto LXXXI, …a riveder le stele , Libera me and Greek Grave Relief – seminal ideas are articulated that hark back to earlier ages of our cultural heritage.

Orchestral classics In the same way, Ingvar Lidholm’s orchestral works form the backbone of Swedish music, from the 23-year-old’s highly acclaimed debut to the masterwork Toccata e Canto (1945) pieces Ritornell, Motus-Colores, Poesis, Greetings and the ballet from an Old World, Kontakion Rites, which renewed the music’s structural technique, timbre, form and capacity of expression.

He was especially pleased with Herbert Blomstedt’s interpretations of his orchestral works. * And finally: Ingvar Lidholm stood for an artistic ethics that emphasised the process, the unique in each composition, and the exclusivity of music.

Exclusivity here means quality and the unsuitability to be used for anything other than pleasure, enhanced insight and spiritual edification.

Photo Ulf Grahn

developed his astounding talent for music in Södertälje, where his father worked on the railway. Like many colleagues of his generation – including Sven-Erik Bäck, Sven-Eric Johanson, Eric Ericson, Claude Loyola Allgén and Åke Hermanson – Ingvar Lidholm grew up in a religious environment, which naturally involved music as well as existential questions.

György Ligeti and Lidholm Photo: Arne Hyckenberg

L

Herbert Blomstedt and Lidholm

Nothing in Ingvar Lidholm´s music is industrial, nothing lent itself to be mass-produced in series.

Everything is handmade, everything is new.

Göran Bergendal * Herbert Blomstedt premiered Lidholm’s modernistic classic Poesis with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 1964. During the past five years he has conducted it again with great success with orchestras such as San Fransisco SO, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Bayerischer Rundfunk SO, Bamberg SO, MDR Leipzig SO, Staatskapelle Dresden, Oslo PO and Swedish RSO.

Photo: Saara Vuorjoki/Music Finland

Seven questions for Paavo Heininen Paavo Heininen, who will be 80 on 13 January 2018, here answers questions about his composing process, work as a symphonist and teacher of the new composer generation.

Y

our work as a symphonist has been an important part of your life as a composer. Could you say a bit about this?

The symphonies have of course been an important domain in my career; I might even say the main one. But not in terms of quantity. For me, the symphony has not been a sort of personal credo; it is not a signal like a priest’s dog collar or a patriotic coat-of-arms in the way it may sometimes have been for some composers. But it is something that interests me. Composing for the stage has vitally influenced the way I think about the symphony. The traditional generic view of the symphony as something sprouting from a single seed – as represented by my first four symphonies – has been replaced by, should I say, a Mahlerian approach: I have every conceivable idea and all the resources of an orchestra at my disposal.

My ‘symphonies’, in the sense of a credo or a foray into new territory, have actually been my Adagio and DIA, that is to say orchestral works that were generically classified as ‘concerto for orchestra’. The opera Silkkirumpu (The Damask Drum), subtitled ‘Concerto for singers, players, words and images’ in fact has the same function, on an even greater scale and with weightier meaning. The most important work in my catalogue in recent decades would in this sense be the oratorio Te Deum Creaturae, the first half of which was performed five years ago .

It has from time immemorial been the custom to denounce over-ambitious concertos as ‘symphonies’. In this sense, my long 4th piano concerto is clearly in the manner of a symphony.

But all the more so is the organ concerto Aiolos – a nine-movement, 90-minute offshoot of the Bruckner-Mahler tradition.

How do you set about composing a new work?

The first moments are of primary importance in seeking ideas for a composition. The very first moment is the most important, even daunting, and it’s good to get past it without realising. The vital vision of the work’s identity is also born at this stage, and that includes both the material character and the structure. But something

exists even before the initial moment. There are options and ideas you then become aware of.

Are there any methods in the composition process that repeat themselves?

My composition process is pretty constant. Michael Tippett aptly said that you have to begin composing from two directions, the whole and the details. This creates a sort of operating space, multidimensional variable, or vector, as some would say, in which new ideas, and the order in which you do things no longer matters. You always know the place for and function of new ideas. You then begin writing the score when you have a clear plan. So the order in which you compose it is often not chronological.

You’ve had a long career as Professor of Composition at the Sibelius Academy. Is it possible to teach composition?

Yes, to a person who’s immersed up to their neck, nostrils and ears in the material, experiences and problems of composition. You do need existential commitment. There’s no point teaching composition to someone who hasn’t got it. You can only say: get yourself some records and listen.

There are lots of aspects of composition that you can and need to be able to verbalise. They’re the ones that require conscious action. The purpose of composition teaching is, to my mind, to train youngsters to converse with themselves about their work in a way and in terms that are right and do not permit quasi-reflection. Ones that create not snares but enlightenment.

I’ve enjoyed teaching composition. What could be more fun than debating the thoughts surrounding it – and with talented youngsters?

Of course it means I have to probe more and a tad deeper when I’m discussing with students.

In a way, I’ve attended composition lessons for longer than many others!

Your flute concerto Autrefois is very different from your other works. How did it come about?

There have been times in my career when I’ve worked with musical material that is not my own. This was the case when I was asked to reconstruct certain items in our national musical heritage that had got destroyed, such as works

by Aarre Merikanto. In the case of Leevi Madetoja and Selim Palmgren it was a question of works that never existed, but should have. The modesty of Finnish chamber music in Madetoja’s time would not have invited or summoned him to activate his obvious and immense aptitude for writing for string quartet. And Palmgren never found the leisure to fashion larger entities out of his infinite treasure of short piano inspirations.

The idea for Autrefois arose during discussions with Timo Hongisto and Mikael Helasvuo. One evening, after a concert, it occurred to them that the Finnish repertoire lacked a flute concerto from the first half of the 20th century. Autrefois was born of the essence of Madetoja, but his world has been allowed to expand a bit over the stylistic horizon of his day. It is, however, somehow clear that the concerto is not just mine. It’s a hybrid in which Madetoja serves as an approximate model.

You’ve been working tremendously hard in recent years. Can you tell us more about these new pieces?

I have, among other things, written duos for every orchestral instrument and piano. This seemed a natural way to do things, having many works of a similar kind on the go at the same time or in quick succession. I then began doing string quartets and composed six one after the other. I’ve also written a lot of piano pieces, many of which have not been premiered yet.

What would be your advice to a young Paavo Heininen today?

My advice to a young person is usually embodied in the old saying that nothing in human life should be alien to a composer, who should be interested in absolutely everything. But if I were conversing with my former self – as Borges conversed with Borges on a bench by the Charles River – then I might perhaps quote Buckminster Fuller. I would tell him to respect his future self, the extent and importance of his future, by addressing himself to its making – study –, by ensuring that it is thorough and comprehensive and by looking beyond his youthful impatience and ongoing pressures.

Pasi Lyytikäinen

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

OLLI KORTEKANGAS De virtute in virtutem – Songs of a Pilgrim (2011) Dur: 25’ soprano, contralto, tenor, bass and 12 period instruments Text: Lat

This work is a sort of journey through time, new music that pays homage to the masters of eras past in the manner of Gregorian chant. Its main source is the Finnish Hymn Book of 1701 with its lofty melodies. It begins and ends in unison and in between expands into rich textures.

The work ends in meditative mood with rippling strings and a sense of time-space created by antique cymbals (crotales).

NILS LINDBERG A Christmas Cantata (2002) Dur: 50’ soprano, baritone, mixed chorus and big band: 1000-1440-11-0-pf-4saxdrums-db Text: Bible’s Christmas Gospel (Eng)

A Christmas Cantata is based on traditional English Christmas carols joined together by newly written music to texts taken from the Bible´s Christmas Gospel. It comprises a delightful mix of Christmas melodies, Swedish folk music, classical and jazz. The work has been performed with great success throughout Europe and in the USA.

JYRKI LINJAMA Suomalainen Stabat Mater/ Finnish Stabat Mater (2012) Dur: 25’ soprano, alto, kantele and string orchestra (or string quartet) Text: trad. liturgical, transl. August Ahlqvist (Fin)

Sacred works for chorus/soloists and orchestra/ensemble

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM Requiem (2011) Dur: 60’ 2 sopranos, baritone, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra: 3333-4222-22-0-org-str Text: Requiem Mass (Lat)

mixed choir and orchestra: 2222/4210/11/ str. Text: Bible (Fin)

A commission from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), Vanitas is powerful music, a reminder from the Preacher that all is vanity and that all must perish. A brief introduction leads to a jubilant exaltation of youth that gives way to the elegiac nature of old age and death. The orchestral part is rich in harmonies and timbres, whereas the choral writing tends towards pragmatism and simplicity.

ROLF MARTINSSON St. Luke Passion (2012) Dur: 90’ mezzo-soprano, baritone, reciter, mixed chorus and small ensemble: flute, oboe, cello, organ, double bass ad lib, drum ad lib Text: Gospel of St. Luke, Göran Greider (Sw/Ger)

Martinsson’s Passion is based on the stylistic idiom of the Baroque, but makes excursions into other styles via Romanticism to a more modern tone language with, e.g., spoken choruses.

The text is taken from the Gospel of St. Luke with commenting song texts by Göran Greider, who unites the religious mysticism with concrete everyday language. The present meets the past in both text and music. Now also available in a German translation.

OTTO OLSSON Requiem (1901-03) Dur: 58’ soprano, alto, tenor, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra: 3222-4230-10-1-str Text: Requiem Mass (Lat)

Otto Olsson was only 23 when he finished his magnificent Requiem. But the work fell into oblivion. The score was found only some years after the composer’s death and it was a great sensation at its premiere in Stockholm in 1976. Here we find the forceful and dramatic, the meditative and mystical, as well as strong, beautiful melodies.

HIGHLIGHTS

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Håkan Hardenberger and Pernilla August

When Sandström wrote his Latin Requiem he wanted to impart hope through what is beautiful in the music. And Sandström is a master when it comes to creating beauty with the human voice, as in the soprano soloists’ exquisite duets, e.g., in the Lux aeterna movement. Contrasting with this are the dark male voices, the deep gongs in the percussion and a powerful and frightening Dies irae. But it is beauty that predominates.

FREDRIK SIXTEN Requiem (2007) Dur: 55’ soprano, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra; 2hn-timp-str (64442) Text: Requiem Mass (Lat), Bengt Pohjanen (Sw), transl. John Hearne (Eng)

Sixten´s Requiem contains both chaos and anger, but also fervent melodies, evoking a glimmer of light and creating a feeling of atonement and consolation. The work is in some places achingly beautiful; romantic passages are succeeded by more modern sonorities and structures. It is music with depth and it is utterly moving. The text is a synthesis of the Requiem Mass and newly written poetry.

ROBERT SUND Mass (2007) Dur: 36’ soprano, baritone mixed chorus and orchestra: 2222-2210-12-0-str Text: from The Mass (Latin)

In Robert Sund’s Mass different musical styles meet; modern harmonies, lovely musical melodies and Latin American influences.

Linjama’s music leaves room for extremes, both sensitive and The music is at times quite entertaining, as in the Credo with rough. It uses the kantele as a symbol of timelessness and its samba rhythms, but there is also here an underlying gravity allows the pain of the text to come close. The music is often that at times takes over, as in the concluding Agnus Dei. divided between the soloists in the manner of hoquetus, EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA bringing the different timbres into an intimate dialogue.

Vanitas (2013) Dur: 30’

REVIEWS

Gud’s väg (God’s Way) (1964/arr. 2003-05) Dur: 7’ for voice and string orchestra Text: Bo Setterlind (Swe) 1. Guds väg, 2. Barnet, 3. Pingst, 4. Dröm i katedralen

Rautavaara arranged his song cycle for orchestra between 2003 and 2005. The four songs represent an unconventional approach to the Christian way of thinking. The first, God’s Way, is delicate and dreamy, while the second and fourth are faster and more defiant.

KARI TIKKA Viisi laulua Raamatun sanoihin/Five Songs to Texts from the Bible (1976/arr. 2003) Dur: 20’ voice and chamber/string orchestra Text: Bible (Fin)

Tikka is known particularly for his spiritual songs, such as these, which also exist in a version for voice and piano. The much loved Grace Song (Armolaulu) – originally from his opera Luther – has been widely performed in different versions. The songs are: 1. Armolaulu (1111/1000/10/hp/str). 2.

Rakkaus on! (str), 3. Johanneksen kirje (str), 4. Autuaita ovat (1111/1000/hp/str), 5. Laulun aika on tullut (hp/pf/str).

ERKKISVEN TÜÜR Inquiétude du fini (1992) Dur: 20’ mixed choir and chamber orchestra: 1011/0000/str.

Text: Tõnu Õnnepalu (Fr)

Different textures alternate in a fascinating way in this intensive work.

In the 1990s, Tüür sought to build bridges between serialism and minimalism, and his music reflects his skill at combining divergent elements in a single compact entity. The sombre, apocalyptic text – not sacral in a traditional sense – communicates the disquiet of the end but is at the same time a song of praise to beauty.

The Princess’ Tale The Princess’ Tale to a text by Mi Tyler, is a companion work that takes up where Stravinsky left off… Staern’s craft of composition is more skilful: his tone language has become more compact, his lyricism is more polished and the energy, the heavy accents, more exact… The narrative has a good flow, while the language is coarse and down-to-earth, and the end is relatively happy… this is a work that definitely deserves a life after its premiere. Skånska Dagbladet 24.9.

Benjamin Staern: The Princess’ Tale World premiere: Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet, Baiba Skride, violin, Johnny Teyssier, clarinet, Sebastian Stevensson, bassoon, Colin Currie, percussion, Olle Elfström, trombone, Janne Johansson, double bass, Pernilla August and Rebecka Hemse, actors, 23.9.2017 Malmö Chamber Music Festival, Sweden

A guitar universe in fifteen minutes Petri Kumela the soloist strums, twangs and scrapes the strings while members of the orchestra rub their hands together, for example, and twang rulers. The work is not, however, lacking in lyrical melody. The various textures and instrumental parts neatly overlap, the communal beat being a fundamental element that guarantees both swing and fun for the players. It is fresh, easy-going and at the same time slightly melancholy, a little universe in fifteen minutes. Hufvudstadsbladet 14.11.

Lotta Wennäkoski: Susurrus (Guitar Concerto) World premiere: Kymi Sinfonietta/Rumon Gamba, Tapiola Sinfonietta/Taavi Oramo, sol. Petri Kumela, 11.10.&10.11.2017 Kotka/Espoo, Finland

Fresh, zippy Hakola The work is characterised by zippy twists…The solo parts are frenetically virtuosic almost throughout… Dramaturgically, many of the ideas worked well, especially the strong melodic motif at the end of the first movement, the bizarre waltz in the second movement and the determined ending to the whole work. The frail sounds gilding the beautiful third movement were produced by ordinary drinking glasses.

Hufvudstadsbladet 24.9.

Hakola: Double Concerto World premiere: Tapiola Sinfonietta/John Storgårds, sol. Minna Pensola, violin, Antti Tikkanen, viola, 22.9.2017 Espoo, Finland

Achingly beautiful CD portrait In his magnus opus Flaminis Aura the soloist circles around in both an inner and outer universe… and sings a duet with planet earth… The string quartet Il regno degli spiriti seems to be travelling through the same space, while the string trio Sollievo (dopo la tempesta) is more reminiscent of a state of grief in the process of healing… Serenata per Diotima lets the violin stand out in bold relief against a background of romantic fervour and closes the circle on this achingly beautiful portrait record. OPUS # 77 Sept 2017 Tommie Haglund: Flaminis Aura, Il regno degli spiriti, Sollievo (dopo la tempesta), Serenata per Diotima CD: Gothenburg SO/David Afkham, sol. Ernst Simon Glaser, cello, Malmö SO/Joachim Gustafsson, Trio ZPR (BIS-2025 ‘Flaminis Aura’)

Photo: Ralph Bretzer

RE P ER TO IR E TIPS

Kai Nieminen: Guitar Concerto ‘If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller...’

Jyväskylä Sinfonia/Ville Matvejeff, sol. John Mills, 4.10.2017 Jyväskylä, Finland

Great concerto for soprano sax Aho’s expression is becoming increasingly open, clear and concise… There are more soft, mysterious shades than for a long time, and Paulsson succeeds in charging them with all the necessary intensity.

Yle.fi 6.10.

Juhani Nuorvala: Variationes ex ‘Bene quondam’ World premiere: Ostrobothnian ChO/Sakari Oramo, 16.9.2017 Kokkola, Finland

Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

Kalevi Aho: Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra CD: Lapland ChO/John Storgårds, sol. Anders Paulsson (BIS SACD 2216)

Opulent spectacle in the Luther year The Opernbühne Württembergisches Allgäu celebrates with the premiere of a Luther opera… Vocally outstanding... Minor and major keys conjure up supernatural soundscapes that echo riotously round the nave. Schwäbische Zeitung 1.10.

Prayers and testimonies alternate in the work. A suggestive opening chorus with humming, dull tones leads to Elie Wiesel’s words: ”For the living and the dead we must bear witness”… The section from Bergen-Belsen creates an agitated climax… An extended coda follows with minimalist repetitions of the word ”witness”… A long, devout silence ensued after the final tones; then came a torrent of hearty applause from the audience.

Svenska Dagbladet 15.10.

Photo: Karl Thorson

Jacob Mühlrad: Kaddish World premiere: Swedish Radio Choir/Peter Dijkstra, sol. Eva Dahlgren, 14.10.2017 Stockholm, Sweden

Dazzling and exquisite Dazzling visions and sound revelations, with a touch of an exquisitely beautiful, but harsh, Nordic midwinter feeling… Something that stood out with especially memorable beauty in the music and the performance was the angels’ singing – the women’s choirs.

Piteå-Tidningen 15.10.

Sven-David Sandström: Under en kvinnas hjärta (Under a Woman’s Heart) World premiere: Piteå Chamber Opera, Norrbotten NEO/David Björkman, sol. Tove Dahlberg, Ulrika Tenstam, Stephanie Lippert, Hege Gustava Tjønn, 14.10.2017 Norrviken, Sweden

Heavenly Pettersson

Kari Tikka: Luther, opera in two acts Opernbühne Württembergisches Allgäu/Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller, sol.

Reuben Willcox, Sonja Bühling, Burkhard Solle, etc.

Mühlrad’s Kaddish

Photo: Anders Alm

The shifting rhythms delightfully carry the orchestra along. This work does not take itself too seriously, and the Chamber Orchestra played it with relaxed enjoyment… Nuorvala handles his material with real skill… archaic tones, an exquisitely toe-curling sound, unbelievably beautiful flageolet notes and gamelan allusions. I heard tango in the Blues and heavy rock in the closing Mash-up. Keskipohjanmaa 20.9.

Hugely enchanting Whittall …Performed by the redoubtable pianist Angela Hewitt, the piece was irresistible despite its abstract harmonic vocabulary and the absence of tunes or any conventional species of melody. Indeed, it shimmered, sparkled, and even glittered now and then. …It was impossible not to be impressed with the clarity Hewitt brought to the demanding score... The “sound effects” – waves, bird cries, and so on – were never overstated but woven into the fabric of the score. classicalvoiceamerica.org 11.10.

A distinctive voice that is strongly present at every moment. The overall impression is extremely evocative and – which is interesting – picturesque in the most engaging way.

Hufvudstadsbladet 12.11.

Matthew Whittall: Nameless Seas (Piano Concerto) World premiere: NAC Orchestra/Hannu Lintu, sol. Angela Hewitt, 5.10. 2017 Ottawa, Canada. Finnish premiere: Finnish RSO/Olari Elts, sol. Risto-Matti Marin, 10.11.2017 Helsinki, Finland

Whittall writes hugely enchanting music… The most impressive work of all is The return of light, in which he handles the choir and orchestra with sovereign skill. Northlands, for horn and strings, is the disc’s most readily accessible music and could, in its direct beauty, well serve as a first encounter with contemporary music.

Yle.fi 30.10.

Matthew Whittall: Northlands, ad puram annihilationem meam, The return of light CD: Finnish RSO, Helsinki Chamber Choir, Tapiola Sinfonietta/Nils Schweckendiek, sol. Tommi Hyytinen, horn (Alba ABCD 416)

Lindberg’s careful and gradual release of the work’s tension, marked by some of Pettersson’s most consolingly beautiful lyricism, was ultimately a (albeit extremely strained) prelude to the long-awaited appearance of the song in pure form. When the song finally arrived, free of conflict, the effect could only be described as heavenly.

Res Musica 26.9.

Allan Pettersson: Violin Concerto No. 2 Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg, sol. Ulf Wallin, 21.9.2017 Norrköping, Sweden

Eliasson – Symphony No. 3 The sonorities are forced upwards into the airy registers, ever higher, at the same time that the lyrical reveries get the motifs to shine from within… With the soprano sax the sound-picture becomes ethereal but also sharper…

Both the soloist and the orchestra play with striking precision and presence, and we are reminded of the personal tone in Eliasson’s music.

Göteborgsposten 9.11.

Anders Eliasson: Symphony No. 3 (version with soprano saxophone) World premiere: Gothenburg SO/ Johannes Gustavsson, sol. Anders Paulsson, sopr.sax., 8.11.2017 Gothenburg, Sweden

Photo: Adam Bassac

The music was reduced in places to a fragile chamber music texture supported by the strings over which a melancholy bassoon sucked the listener into static, beautiful moments. …The music of Nieminen has a narrative, human-friendly approach that always has some kind of warmheartedly mischievous potential. elementori.blogspot.fi Oct 2017

Orchestra relaxed and enjoyed Photo: Ere Lievonen

Heart-warming music

Anders Paulsson

HIGHLIGHTS

4/2017

N E W P U B L I C AT I O N S

NEW CDs KALEVI AHO

COLLECTIONS

VOCAL & CHORAL

Finnish Favorites for the Clarinet 1900-60 / Suomalainen klarinettikokoelma Ed. Mikko Raasakka for clarinet and piano A new, handsome album of Finnish clarinet pieces including new arrangements.

Där livet klingar ut (There where life resounds) for choir SATB, gran cassa and marimba Text: Dag Hammarskjöld (Sw, phonetics for non-Swedish performers)

FG 979-0-55011-362-6

GE 13237

ULRIKA EMANUELSSON

BO HANSSON

Piano Pieces by Uuno Klami / Uuno Klamin pianoteoksia Ed. Esa Ylönen This collection includes previously unpublished piano pieces by Klami as well as information and photos about his life and works. The music has been typeset using the new Dorico program.

Where everything is music for choir SSATBB and cello Text: Rumi/Transl. Coleman Barks (Eng) GE 13239

Dag Hammarskjöld SATB div gran cassa, marimba

Where everything is music For choir SSATBB and cello

Freezing Were the Restless Waters Ostrobothnian ChO/Juha Kangas Alba ABCD 414

ANDERS ELIASSON Versione, Disegno per pianoforte, Disegno No. 2, Disegno No. 3 (Carosello), Suolo, Disegno per clavicembalo Andreas Skouras, piano and harpsichord

FG 979-0-55011-364-0

Bellowspeak / Palkeen kieli A new suite for solo accordion designed for children and young musicians.

JACOB MÜHLRAD Kaddish for choir SSAATTBB and alto solo Lyrics based on quotes by Elie Wiesel, Michael Bliman and the Judaic Kaddish Prayer (English and Hebrew) GE 13199

FG 979-0-55011-317-6

CHAMBER & INSTRUMENTAL

Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra, Quintet for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn and Piano, Solo I for violin Lapland ChO/John Storgårds, sol. Anders Paulsson, Jaakko Kuusisto etc.

BIS SACD 2216

JOONAS KOKKONEN

HARRI SUILAMO

Rising Seas

NEOS 10831 ’Complete Works for Piano and Harpsichord’

Anders Paulsson

ANDERS PAULSSON

TOBIAS BROSTRÖM Distant Horizons for brass ensemble

Tobias Broström

GE 13125 (score), GE 13126 (parts) DISTANT HORIZONS

PAAVO KORPIJAAKKO

for brass ensemble

Four Mythic Animals / Neljä myyttistä eläintä for accordion solo

SCORE

FG 979-0-55011-365-7

Rising Seas for choir SATB, percussion and double bass (ad lib). Text: Gerry Grey (Eng) r This work is part of the project CORAL GUARDIANS in cooperation with the Philippine Reef & Rainforest Conservation.

SATB percussion and bass ad lib

GE 13238

JACOB MÜHLRAD

Alba ABCD 404

Drei Rilke Gesänge for choir SMZATBarB. Text: Rainer Maria Rilke (Ger) 1. Herbsttag, 2. Schluss-stück, 3. Und du warst schön

JOONAS KOKKONEN

Drei Rilke Gesänge

Requiem (version for organ and voices), complete works for organ Klemetti Institute Chamber Choir/Heikki Liimola, Jan Lehtola, organ

Mixed choir a cappella

SCORES KALEVI AHO

GE 13164 (score), GE 13163 (parts)

ERIK FORDELL I folkton, Folkvisa från Österbotten (Folk Song from Ostrobothnia) etc.

Ostrobothninian ChO/Juha Kangas

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

GE 13236

Silent Prayer for bassoon, violin, viola and cello

Toccata Classics TOCC0434

Sieidi - Concerto for solo percussion and orchestra

KAI NIEMINEN Jacob Mühlrad Silent Prayer for bassoon, violin, viola and violoncello

FG 979-0-55011-346-6

The Smile of the Flamboyant Wings for piano solo

Ulrika Emanuelsson

Neljä laulua Uuno Kailaan runoihin (Four Songs on Uuno Kailas’ poems) for voice and piano First publication. Text in Finnish.

FG 979-0-55011-367-1

Julvers (Notturno II) for violin and piano

Där livet klingar ut

FG 979-0-55011-315-2 (study score), 55011-366-4 (solo part)

SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM

DANIEL BERG GE 13233 (score), GE 13234 (solo part), GE 13235 (study score)

Te Deum Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble/ Erik Westberg, Helena Holmlund, organ

ALLAN PETTERSSON/INSTR. ANTAL DORATI

Studio Acusticum Records ‘Chorus Gloriosus’

Concertino for Marimba and Strings SCORE

FG 979-0-55011-345-9

Barfotasånger/Barfuss-Lieder nos. 4, 7 and 8 from 24 Barfotasånger, new version with texts in Swedish and German for baritone and orchestra Text: Allan Pettersson, German transl.

Sylvia Mård and Patrik Ringborg

BENJANIM STAERN Waves for piano solo GE 13253

TUOMAS TURRIAGO

Benjamin Staern

Sonata for Horn and Piano Waves

Foliage for cello and piano A commission by the Turku Cello Competition as the mandatory work for its 2018 contest.

FG 979-0-55011-363-3

MATTHEW WHITTALL The City in the Sea for alto flute, viola and harp

Daniel Berg

Ȭ ęȱ ã

for solo piano

Quest for wind orchestra GE 13206 (score) GE 13208 (study score)

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI Flounce for orchestra A BBC commission for the 2017 Proms.

Concertino for Marimba and Strings |

ANNSOFI SÖDERQVIST

FG 979-0-55011-347-3

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKI

GE 12948 (score)

MATTHEW WHITTALL

Quest est for wind orchestra estra

SCORE

Score

Northlands, ad puram annihilationem meam, The return of light Finnish RSO, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki Chamber Choir/Nils Schweckendiek, sol. Tommi Hyytinen, horn Alba ABCD 416 ’Northlands’

Aattoilta Helsinki Chamber Choir/Nils Schweckendiek BIS SACD 2323 ‘Riemuitkaamme - A Finnish Christmas’

FG 979-0-55011-371-8 (study score)

MATTHEW WHITTALL Nameless Seas – Piano Concerto FG 979-0-55011-372-5 (study score)

FG 979-0-55011-350-3

TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR WIND BAND NDD

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

Einar Englund: The Great Wall of China / Kiinan muuri tr. by Elias Seppälä FG 979-0-55011-340-4

Uuno Klami: Sea Pictures / Merisarja tr. by Pasi-Heikki Mikkola FG 979-0-55011-342-8

Jean Sibelius: Overture in F Minor tr. by Robert Ambrose FG 979-0-55011-369-5

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)