12.12. at 19:00 Helsinki Music Centre

Hannu Lintu conductor Gerald Finley

Peter Lieberson: Songs of love and sorrow 30 min 1. Sonnet XLVI (“Des las estrellas que admiré,...”) 2. Sonnet XII (“Plena mujer, manzana carnal, luna caliente...”) 3. Sonnet LII (“Cantas y a sol y a cielo con tu canto...”) 1 4. Sonnet LXIX (“Tal vez no ser es ser sin que tú seas...”) 5. Sonnet LXXXII (“Amor mío, al cerrar esta puerta nocturna...”)

INTERVAL 20 min

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor 63 min 1. Feierlich, misterioso 2. Scherzo. Bewegt, lebhaft 3. Adagio. Langsam, feierlich

Interval at about 19:40. The concert will end at about 21:15. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR MOBILE PHONE IS SWITCHED OFF! 2 Photographing, video and sound recording are prohibited during the concert. PETER LIEBERSON: stars I admired) prepares the ground for feelings of sorrow and loss. Plena mu- SONGS OF LOVE jer (Full woman, carnal apple, hot moon) AND SORROW is a song of praise to woman and erot- ic love. Cantas (You sing, and by sun and Peter Lieberson (1946–2011) was the son sky with your song) is the cycle’s hub, of musical parents: his mother was bal- the orchestra framing the poet’s admira- lerina-choreographer Vera Zorina and his tion of the voice and the sea. Tal vez no father Goddard Lieberson, President of ser (Maybe nothingness is to be without Columbia Records. But despite his solid your presence) delves deeper into a dark- education in music, he did not become a er fear of emptiness, while Amor mío (My full-time composer until 1994. love) rises from this like a lullaby farewell In 2005, Lieberson composed five reflecting Lieberson’s Buddhist conviction Neruda songs for his mezzo-soprano wife and the idea of the continuity of all things. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson that were pre- The word Adios (Farewell) is repeated four miered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic times at the end, thus calling to mind Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Mahler’s Abschied in Das Lied von der Erde. Salonen. The following year, his wife died of breast cancer. In 2010, he wrote a new cycle, Songs of Love and Sorrow, in her 3 memory, again to words by Pablo Neruda. These were premiered by Gerald Finley and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “I suppose that my life story of the past three years is not dissimilar to many oth- ers,” he wrote on completing the work. “The basic truths of love and sorrow are, I think, experiences that all of us understand very well. To have one without the other is not likely, but certainly it is our capacity to love that makes this human life so poignant.” Lieberson shared the concept of love held by the Chilean poet. “As Pablo Neruda writes and as I personally discovered to be the truth about love: ‘Just as it never had a birth, it has no death; it is like a long river, only changing lands, and changing lips’.” The source of inspiration for Neruda’s Love Sonnets (Cien sonetos de amor, 1959) was his third wife, Matilde Urrutia. The five songs span sentiments from longing to erotic. The introduction to Des las estrellas que admiré (Of all the ANTON BRUCKNER: tion thunders away in D minor. The coun- try dance-like rhythms in the trio section SYMPHONY NO. 9 give way to a heated gallop in the strings IN D MINOR beneath a jittery flute. The finale begins with a string theme. Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) began work- Bruckner described his slow movement ing on his ninth symphony in 1887 but was as his “farewell to life”. This is reflected interrupted several times by his editing of in a widening harmonic base, the division earlier works and periods of ill health. By of the orchestra into high and low, and the time he died in 1896, he had complet- developments that stop short as if they ed only three movements and sketches have lost their way. The march to the last for the finale, of which several reconstruc- judgment nevertheless continues. In mo- tions have since been made. The sympho- ments of tranquillity, the music tries to ny was published at the beginning of the grasp at beautiful themes as if at a lifebelt, 20th century in a version watered down but time and again hits a crisis. The final by the conductor Ferdinand Löwe, and blow comes on an excruciating chord that not until 1932 did Bruckner’s original be- leaves the music downcast and trembling. come the one generally performed. The coda radiates sunshine, as if recall- In his symphonies, Bruckner expanded ing the Adagio of the eighth symphony and 4 the classical concepts of time and space. the opening call of the seventh – life in the The themes change and disperse, to crys- past. A vision of an unknown future looms tallise at the important moments as sim- as the horns merge with the horizon. ple signals. The tonality drowns in chro- Programme notes by Antti Häyrynen matics that are almost modernist in the translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo slow movement of no. 9. The monumental symphony begins in the key of D minor, emerging out of a mys- terious primeval gloom in the same way as Beethoven’s ninth symphony. The French horns, calling to each other in a shimmer- ing outer space, build the first theme up to a climax. The singing second theme is first entrusted to the strings and joined by a quiet third theme in an oboe solo. The thematic development surges along, climbing again and again to a peak that always affords a new vista. The de- velopment leads to a coda that, at the end of the movement, immerses the mu- sic in blaring brass. The Scherzo begins with an oboe and three clarinets floating dissonantly over a pizzicato accompaniment. The main sec- HANNU LINTU GERALD FINLEY has been Chief Conductor of the Finnish Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley is Radio Symphony Orchestra since August a leading singer and dramatic interpret- 2013. This season, he conducts 14 concerts er of his generation – of , orches- at the Helsinki Music Centre and takes the tral repertoire and Lieder – and can regu- orchestra on tour to Central Europe and larly be heard at the world’s major opera Japan. He will also be making guest ap- venues (the New York Metropolitan, pearances with orchestras including the Covent Garden, the , , Detroit, Chicago and Boston Glyndebourne, the ). He Symphonies, the Orchestre de Paris and first made a name for himself as a Lied the Netherlands Radio Symphony. Last singer but has since expanded his reper- season saw his debut with the Boston toire to include the staple works of the Symphony and the Hungarian National Romantic period (Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Philharmonic and visits to the Baltimore, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, etc.) and St. Louis and Cincinnati Symphonies, the music of the 20th century (Debussy, New Japan Philharmonic, the Singapore Janáček, Bartók, Britten). Symphony and the Hamburg Radio Mr Finley frequently performs con- Symphony Orchestra. temporary music as well, singing such Hannu Lintu first studied the cello and roles as Jaufré Rudel in Saariaho’s 5 piano at the Sibelius Academy, and lat- L’amour de loin, Harry Heegan in Turnage’s er orchestral conducting in the class of The Silver Tassie and the title role in Jorma Panula. He participated in master- Reimann’s . Many contemporary com- classes with Myung-Whun Chung at the posers have written works specifically for L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, him. He has released many award-win- Italy, and took first prize at the Nordic ning recordings on CD and DVD with ma- Conducting Competition in Bergen jor labels, his Lied discs with his regular in 1994. He has recorded on the Ondine, pianist . BIS, Hyperion and other labels. The Finnish and Sakari Oramo, and a host of young Finnish artists will make their debut as Radio Symphony FRSO soloists. Orchestra The FRSO has recorded works by Mahler, Bartók, Sibelius, Hakola, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Kokkonen and others. It has twice won Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission a Gramophone Award: for its disc of is to produce and promote Finnish musi- Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 cal culture and its Chief Conductor as of and of Bartók Violin Concertos in 2018. autumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. Other distinctions have included BBC The Radio Orchestra of ten players Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- and MIDEM Classical awards. Its disc of chestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief tone poems and songs by Sibelius won Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, an International Classical Music Award Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, (ICMA) in 2018, and it has been the re- Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka cipient of a Finnish EMMA award in 2016 Saraste and Sakari Oramo, and taking and 2019. over from Hannu Lintu in 2021 will be The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of 6 Nicholas Collon. the world. During the 2019/2020 season In addition to the great Classical- its schedule will include tours to Central Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- Europe and Japan under Hannu Lintu. temporary music is a major item in the The FRSO concerts are broadcast live on repertoire of the FRSO, which each year the Yle Areena and Radio 1 channels and premieres a number of Yle commissions. are recorded and shown later on Yle Teema Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- and TV1. cord all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive. During the 2019/2020 sea- son, the FRSO will premiere four works commissioned by Yle. Also on the pro- gramme are a large-scale collaboration between Yle and the Helsinki Festival: Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust. The symphonies and concertos of Dmitri Shostakovich will occupy special status during the season, while the RSO Festival now to be held for the second time will feature new and large-scale works by Magnus Lindberg. Among the visiting conductors will be Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Jukka-Pekka Saraste