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Home , Conrad Tao, Jorma Panula

22.1. at 20:00 Music Centre We welcome Conrad Tao

Hannu Lintu conductor Conrad Tao piano Lotta Emanuelsson presenter

Igor Stravinsky: in D 1. Vivace 2. Arioso (Andantino) 1 3. Rondo (Allegro)

Ludwig van Beethoven: No. 4 in G, Op. 58 1. Allegro moderato 2. Andante con moto 3. Rondo (Vivace)

György Ligeti: Concert românesc 1. Andantino 2. Allegro vivace 3. Adagio ma non troppo 4. Molto vivace

Conrad Tao – “shaping the future of classical music”

“Excess. I find it to be for me like the four, and performed Mozart’s A-major pia- most vividly human aspect of musical no concerto at the age of eight. He was performance,” says pianist Conrad Tao (b. nine when the family moved to New York, 1994). And “excess” really is a good word where he nowadays lives. Beginning his to describe his superb technique, his pro- piano studies in Chicago, he continued at found interpretations and his emphasis on the , New York, and atten- the human aspect in general. ded Yale for composition. Tao has a wide repertoire ranging from Tao has had a manager ever since Bach to the music of today. He has also he was twelve. As a youngster, he also won recognition as a composer, and one learnt the violin, and several times in who, he says, views his keyboard perfor- 2008/2009 played both the E-minor vio- mances through the eyes of a composer. lin concerto and the first piano concerto His many talents and his ability to cross by Mendelssohn at one and the same con- traditional borders have indeed made him cert, but he soon gave up the violin. a notable influencer and a model for ot- Despite having all the hallmarks of a hers. Music is, for him, not something iso- wunderkind, Tao has gone on to beco- 2 lated from the rest of the world, and his me a sovereign mature master. But one choice of repertoire may sometimes sug- of the good things about his early fame gest deliberate statements. is, he says, that he did not need to travel The New York Magazine once described the gruelling composition circuit in order him as “the kind of musician who is sha- to get established. ping the future of classical music”. Now 26 years old, Tao has won many of music’s most prestigious prizes and From wunderkind to mature artist awards. Improvisation is another major element of his work as an artist. Just re- The son of Chinese parents, Conrad cently, he has also appeared on stage as a Tao had not even reached his second bir- pianist in the experimental chamber ope- thday when he began picking out famili- ra the loser (2016) by – further ar nursery-rhyme tunes on the keyboard. proof of his constant desire to branch out He first appeared in public when he was into new fields. Igor Stravinsky: Concerto in D Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) first made a performance techniques with soloist pas- name for himself as a musical innovator in sages. Scored for a chamber ensemble, the ballets of his “Russian period”, but he it belongs in the same category as two then turned his gaze back to the past. For other works of his Neoclassical period: more than three decades beginning with Dumbarton Oaks (1938), and the Ebony his ballet Pulcinella (1920), his music would Concerto (1945) seasoned with elements be predominantly Neoclassical. of jazz. He finished the Concerto in D in August The Concerto in D is in three movements 1946. He had moved to the United States performed without a break, each built in 1939, and the concerto for Swiss Paul round an interval of a minor second. The Sacher and the Basel Chamber Orchestra first movement contrasts determined, ac- directed by him was his first European tive episodes with slower ones that savour commission for ten years. the moment. The shortish middle move- The Concerto in D is a light work in the ment sings, and melodic lines soar above manner of a divertimento, combining a a perpetual beat in the finale. refined string texture using a variety of : Piano Concerto No. 4 in G 3

The fourth is regarded by many as the section. Piano and orchestra are as one, finest and best-loved piano concerto yet the piano is still the undisputed soloist. by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). In the slow movement, defiant state- Breaking with the early 19th century ments by the strings meet with pacifying practice, it begins with a gentle, balan- replies from the piano, like characters in a ced five-bar statement on the piano. The musical mini-drama. Some claim to hear orchestra then replies, with equal restraint Orpheus (the piano) taming the Furies and in a key (B major) far removed from (the strings) with his playing. The conflict the home G major. Before Beethoven, only gradually abates, leading straight into the Mozart had let the piano have its say in finale. the opening bars of a piano concerto (the As in the first movement, the music of E-flat major K 271). This opening avoids all the third is for a long time quiet before outward show and remains calm and col- bursting out in a full forte. The piano part lected for over 20 bars. All in all, the first is most dazzling in this movement, with movement is lyrical and poetic, acquiring added brilliance from the trumpets and a touch of drama only in the development timpani. György Ligeti: Concert românesc In December 1956, György Ligeti (1923– his own in a style that imitated that of the 2006) said goodbye to his homeland village folk players. Even before his formal in the aftermath of Hungary’s abortive musical education, he had studied the folk uprising and sought refuge in the West. music of his native Transylvania. One fre- Up to then, he had been obliged to at- quent feature of the folk music was, he tune his compositions to Hungary’s offi- said, its use of dissonant harmonies that cial demands, but he was now free to wri- broke with tradition. It was a feature he te just as he wished. The premieres of his likewise applied in his Concert românesc. Apparitions and Atmosphères for orchestra The Romanian Concerto is in four move- in the early 1960s were a sensation and ments. It begins with a slow, lyrical-pas- established him as one of the leading figu- toral one and follows this with a quick, res on the modern music scene. rhythmically weighty one. The imitation Though Ligeti is best known for the of natural horns in the slow third move- works he wrote after leaving Hungary, ment is evocative of shepherds’ horns sig- his earlier ones also merit a hearing. The nalling to one another in the Carpathian Concert românesc (Romanian Concerto, Mountains. The striking, increasingly ener- 1951) was something of a border case: ha- getic Molto vivace finale bears echoes ving initially rejected it, he gave his per- of Bartók, whom Ligeti greatly admired 4 mission for it to be performed after revi- throughout his career. sing it in the mid-1990s. Programme notes by Kimmo Korhonen Like the older Hungarian masters translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo Bartók and Kodály, Ligeti applied ele- ments of folk music in his Concert româ- nesc, supplementing them with music of Hannu Lintu has been Chief Conductor Symphony Orchestras and the Hungarian of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra National Philharmonic, and concerts with since autumn 2013. He takes over as Chief the Boston and St. Louis Symphonies, the Conductor of the Finnish National Opera New Japan Philharmonic, the Singapore and Ballet in January 2022. Symphony and the NDR Elbphilharmonie. During the 2020/2021 season, Maestro Hannu Lintu first studied the cello and Lintu will, pandemic permitting, make his piano at the , and la- debut with the ter orchestral conducting in the class of and Tokyo NHK Symphony Orchestra and Jorma Panula. He participated in mas- make return appearances with the London terclasses with Myung-Whun Chung at Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands the L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Radio Philharmonic, and the Symphony Siena, Italy, and took first prize at the Orchestras of Baltimore, Detroit and Nordic Conducting Competition in Bergen Chicago. Recent highlights have included in 1994. He has recorded on the Ondine, debuts with the and Chicago BIS, Hyperion and other labels. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 5 The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra The FRSO has recorded works (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish by Mahler, Bartók, Sibelius, Hakola, Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, is to produce and promote Finnish musical Kokkonen and others. It has twice won culture and its Chief Conductor as of au- a Gramophone Award: for its disc of tumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 The Radio Orchestra of ten players and of Bartók Violin in 2018. founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- Other distinctions have included BBC chestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, and MIDEM Classical awards. Its disc of Nils-Eric Fougstedt, , tone poems and songs by Sibelius won Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka an International Classical Music Award Saraste and , and taking (ICMA) in 2018, and it has been the re- over from Hannu Lintu in 2021 will be cipient of a Finnish EMMA award in 2016 Nicholas Collon. and 2019. In addition to the great Classical- The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- the world. During the 2020/2021 season temporary music is a major item in the its schedule will include a tour to Spain un- repertoire of the FRSO, which each year der Hannu Lintu. premieres a number of Yle commissions. The FRSO concerts are broadcast live Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- on the Yle Areena and Radio 1 channels cord all Finnish orchestral music for the and are recorded and shown later on Yle Yle archive. Teema and TV 1.