10 January FRIDAY SERIES 8 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00

Hannu Lintu, conductor Alice Sara Ott,

Magnus Lindberg: Era (fp in Finland) 18 min

Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 18 min I Molto allegro con fuoco II Andante III Presto – Molto allegro e vivace

INTERVAL 20 min

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104 30 min I Allegro molto moderato II Allegretto moderato III Poco vivace IV Allegro molto

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105 (in 1 movement) 21 min Adagio – Un pochettino meno adagio – Vivacissimo – Adagio – Allegro molto moderato – Allegro moderato – Vivace – Presto – Adagio – Largamente molto – Affettuoso

Interval at about 19.45. The concert ends at about 21.05. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and the Internet (yle.fi/klassinen).

1 The LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER MUSIC will begin in the main Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls.

Magnus Lindberg, piano

Magnus Lindberg: Jubilees 15 min

2 Magnus Lindberg build-up which should be suited to the Concertgebouw and its cathedral-like (b. 1958): Era resonance, creating a strong dramatic impression overall.” Magnus Lindberg composed Era, The Dutch and British reviews likened now to be heard for the first time in Lindberg’s treatment to that of Richard Finland, as a commission to celebra- Strauss and Scriabin, and if we think of te the 125th anniversary of the Royal the tension between these two very Concertgebouw . The world different composers, we may catch a premiere was conducted last January by hint of the depth of Lindberg’s expres- David Robertson. Also on the program- sion in Era. And like Berg, Schönberg, me for that night’s concert were three Stravinsky and Sibelius, these two were works all a century old: Berg’s Altenberg truly in their prime exactly a hundred Lieder, Zemlinsky’s Maeterlinck Songs years ago, in the enchanting early days and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. of modern music. Lindberg says of the work’s cha- racteristically pithy title: “Though my creative personality and early works Felix Mendelssohn were formed from the music of (1809–1847): Piano Zimmermann and Xenakis, and a cer- tain anarchy related to rock music of Concerto No. 1 that period, I eventually realised that in G Minor everything goes back to the founda- tions of Schönberg and Stravinsky – Felix Mendelssohn composed three how could music ever have taken anot- piano concertos, the first when he was her road? I see my music now as a only 12. That in G minor dates from synthesis of these elements, combined 1831, by which time he had become a with what I learned from Grisey and the keyboard virtuoso of 22 greatly in need spectralists, and I detect from to of a solo number of his own composi- my latest pieces the same underlying tion to play on his concert tours. In a tastes and sense of drama. letter home he wrote that he was wor- “In Era I have built the piece from a king feverishly on a new piece, and he powerful underpinning in the bass re- appears to have done so at an excep- gister.--- I was thinking particularly of tional pace. He composed most of it in Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony and the Italy, together with the first version of way the music evolves from the bass his Italian Symphony. line, rising from low to high register. The quick outer movements are in --- There is a single tempo throughout many senses a veritable showcase of but, as with other pieces like Al largo, a early Romantic keyboard virtuosity. relatively fast tempo in the foreground The solo part – brilliant yet infinitely is related to a much slower underlying fluent – sits unusually well under the pace. This allows a strong monolithic hands of a dexterous pianist, yet at the

3 same time it tends to draw on the de- vices developed by Mozart, Beethoven, Jean Sibelius Weber and Hummel rather than laun- (1865–1957): ching anything new. The young compo- Symphony No. 6 ser seems to have observed the models of his predecessors while remaining in thrall to his own nimble fingers. His publisher was all for trashing Mendelssohn wastes no time at all Sibelius’s proposal to compose a se- in this concerto. It is a recognised fact cond “lyrical” Violin Concerto, and that his tempos are always faster than what is more in the same key, D minor. average, and in this concerto, too, the Discouraged by this reaction, Sibelius listener is left breathless by the opening abandoned his plan and instead used attack. For the first-movement Allegro some of the material for what later be- of concertos of that era is usually more came his Sixth Symphony (1923). moderate. Mendelssohn leaps into The concerto element is not the only the fray without any cautious intro- odd thing in the symphony’s genesis. duction. This is in line with the form The position of the Sixth in the set of the whole concerto, which has less of Sibelius symphonies is interesting of Mozart and Beethoven and more of to say the least: spiritually, it is most the “Konzertstück” favoured by Weber clearly akin to the Seventh (they even and Spohr. As a result, the whole con- have consecutive numbers), but as Erik certo takes only about 18 minutes to Tawaststjerna pointed out, the Sixth is, perform. A restrained fanfare genetically, related far more closely to leads without more ado from the fairly the Fifth – which is radically different slight first movement to a slow, idyllic in character! Andante in E flat major that could at The quality most often noted in the first almost be by Chopin but later evo- symphony is its modality, referring kes associations with Mendelssohn’s to the dominance of modes (archaic own Songs Without Words. A fanfare ways of ordering the notes in a scale) also heralds in the rollicking finale in G in the tonal structure. Sibelius claimed major. The tempo is even more furious that modes came to him more natu- than at the start of the concerto, and rally than they did to most of his con- not even the brief flashback to the se- temporaries because his roots lay in rene second theme of the first move- the Eastern component of Finnish folk ment is sufficient to check the unbrid- music. The melodies of poetry such as led flow. that in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, are widely modal, and the Dorian mode, especially, is claimed to be particularly “Finnish”. It was also Sibelius’s favourite mode, colouring the works of his nationalist period just as much as such later ones as the Violin Concerto (the beginning) and the

4 Fourth Symphony (the cello solo). That at its premiere and a few subsequent it would occupy a sovereign position performances. The idea of calling his in his Sixth Symphony went without work a Symphony had evidently pas- saying, and although Sibelius had fully sed through his mind some time be- adopted his pan-European, non-natio- fore, but discouraged by the prevailing nalist style by the time he wrote this critical climate, he was not yet quite Symphony, it is still described as his bold enough to put it into practice. For “most Finnish” one. some, the Zeitgeist brought confiden- “The shadows grow longer” is a ph- ce, for others the fear that the very con- rase often quoted in connection with cept “symphony” was an anachronism. Sibelius Six. While I well understand This threat must have greatly unsettled this expression, I would like to stress Sibelius, a composer whose reputation that this most sensitive, explicit and rested so strongly on the genre. enigmatic of the Sibelius Symphonies The premiere in Stockholm on March is not all shadow, for it also projects a 24, 1924 was conducted by Sibelius landscape bathed in sunlight. himself. His misbehaviour at the con- cert in Gothenburg the previous year, high on champagne, had so trauma- tised his wife, Aino, that she no longer Jean Sibelius: accompanied him on his concert tours. (1865–1957): Her refusal sobered him to such an ex- tent that he gradually gave up conduc- Symphony No. 7 ting, first at home in Finland and later elsewhere. The fact that the tremor in If the Sixth was a Symphony with a his hand was getting increasingly wor- Finnish take on the modal soundsca- se did not, of course, help matters. He pe of the Renaissance and a Classicist finished the Symphony only a couple ideal, the Seventh adopts an ancient of weeks before the first performance, Hellenic perspective. The reason for and since he was the only person with this interpretation was supplied by a copy of the score and refused to tra- Sibelius himself in describing the sun- vel by plane, little time was left for re- ny central Allegro as a “Hellenic rondo”. hearsal and the performance must in In structure, the Symphony is equal- many respects have left something to ly unique, being cast in a single move- be desired. Even so, it was a great suc- ment. Sibelius is known to have long cess, and despite its avant-garde struc- been entertaining dreams of a one- tural features, the Seventh has never movement Symphony. He nearly made been shunned in the way the Fourth them come true in his Fifth, but lucki- has. This, surely, just goes to prove that ly he soon made the right decision so long as a piece of music is easy on to set aside his plan for a one-move- the ear, the audience will usually accept ment “symphonic fantasia” for the time any anomalies without more ado. being. Fantasia sinfonica was indeed the title of the Seventh Symphony Jouni Kaipainen (abridged)

5 An interview with child-like, romantic world is mirrored against Finnish music of the present Hannu Lintu day. The lack of depth should not be Hannu Lintu, what is it about the music taken as a problem, because that’s of Magnus Lindberg that appeals to you? how music was at that time. The gre- at emotions of the full Romantic era It’s the musicianly approach: the com- were only just coming in, even though bination of pragmatism and vision Beethoven had already touched the that is so rewarding for the performer. border. Composers like Mendelssohn Magnus’s music also has features with and Weber did not see the upheavals which I personally, as a musician, feel taking place in Europe or the revised a keen affinity: great, dramatic masses concept of culture as a particularly gre- and colourful, varied surface structu- at artistic challenge. They kept cheer- res. You have to build both a good, firm fully chirping along amid the ruins of base and a lively surface. the old Rococo Europe. like playing Lindberg and For us Finns, this style is possibly the the FRSO knows his music like the back most alien part of the German repertoi- of its own hand. The right way to ap- re. To our minds, German music must proach a work always becomes clear at always be profound, serious and noisy. the first rehearsal, and nothing needs Of course we happily thump out our explaining. Everything just evolves as Beethoven, and then Brahms, but the- you play. se Mendelssohns, Webers and Spohrs too often go unplayed. It’s good to hear Mendelssohn’s G minor Concerto in the same concert. Because You are conducting both the Sixth and am I right in thinking that Mendelssohn the Seventh Sibelius Symphonies at this still has a reputation for being something concert. Why two Sibelius works, and how of a superficial composer? do they stand in relation to each other?

Mendelssohn’s not considered very pro- Sibelius created a new world in each found, that’s true. His reputation has of his Symphonies. Though he conti- not always benefited from the fact that nued logically developing his sympho- composing was easy for him even as a nic tools in all of them, they differ gre- child. He composed his Octet when he atly in character. Often, what interests was a teenager, and at about the time me more is the contrast between them of this Concerto he was in his twen- than their continuity. The Sibelius ties. The orchestration of this Piano Symphonies are not part of a sympho- Concerto and the first Symphonies is nic continuum in quite the same way indeed sometimes a little clumsy, as re- as those of Beethoven or Brahms. gards the use of woodwinds and tim- It’s nowadays the custom to play the- pani, but the melodic inspiration is se two Symphonies one after the other, unique, and in tonight’s concert this with no break or applause. But for me,

6 the worlds of the Sixth and Seventh Alice Sara Ott differ so greatly that I need a little mental pause between them. And the harp and bass need a chance Twenty-five year old German-Japanese to leave the platform. pianist Alice Sara Ott has, in less Then again, I often have the fee- than five years, established herself as ling that something is till wanting af- one of the most exciting musical ta- ter the Sixth Symphony. To me, there lents of today. Recent concerts have could be nothing more beautiful than seen her perform with the Munich to end with the Sixth, but it often lea- Philharmonic in Munich and the NHK ves me with the feeling that somehow Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, both something’s left hanging in the air. under Lorin Maazel, and on a very The Seventh has lots of profound, st- successful European tour with the rong shades, whereas the Sixth glides Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under along very lightly and ultimately vanis- Krzysztof Urbański. She has also been hes into thin air. So you have to choose heard in recital in London, Chicago, what state of mind you want your au- New York, Hamburg and Berlin. dience to go home in. Highlights of the 2013/14 sea- These Symphonies were going round son include appearances with in Sibelius’s head at more or less the the Philharmonia Orchestra and same time, but they differ greatly in Washington’s National Symphony character and form. The Sixth in prin- Orchestra, and tours with the FRSO, the ciple has a classical four-movement Oslo Philharmonic and the Orchestre structure, but its movements are more Philharmonique de Radio France. like character pieces than parts of a Recordings by Alice Sara Ott for coherent symphonic entity. Its world Deutsche Grammophon, including is very similar to the music of The music by Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky Tempest: it has a similar transparency. and Mussorgsky, have won numerous When I’m conducting the Sixth, I often awards and distinctions. have the feeling I’m conducting not a Symphony but a vast cavalcade of fleeting moments or dreams. Whereas the form of the Seventh is so crystal- lised that everyone can sense its sturdy structure.

Lotta Emanuelsson

7 THE FINNISH in which year the New York Times chose the other Lindberg disc as its Record of RADIO SYMPHONY the Year. ORCHESTRA The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. During the 2013/2014 sea- The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra son it will be visiting Central Europe un- (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish der the baton of Hannu Lintu. Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its missi- All the FRSO concerts both in Finland on is to produce and promote Finnish and abroad are broadcast, usually live, musical culture and its Chief Conductor on Yle Radio 1. They can also be heard as of autumn 2013 is Hannu Lintu. and watched with excellent stream qua- The Radio Orchestra of ten players lity on yle.fi/klassinen. founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- chestra strength in the 1960s. Its previo- us Chief Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. The FRSO has two Honorary Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. The latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year premieres a number of Yle commissions. Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle ar- chive. During the 2013/2014 season it will premiere six Finnish works commis- sioned by Yle. The FRSO has recorded works by Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some major distinc- tions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Académie Charles Cros Award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg violin concertos (Sony BMG) with Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist recei- ved the MIDEM Classical Award in 2008,

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