27 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 11 Helsinki Music Centre at 19
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27 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 11 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 Hannu Lintu, conductor Mikhail Petrenko, bass The Polytech Choir, coach. Saara Aittakumpu Richard Strauss: Metamorphoses, 26 min Study for 23 Solo Strings INTERVAL 20 min Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar” 60 min I Babi Yar II Humour III In the Store IV Fears V Career Interval at about 19.35. The concert ends at about 21.10. Broadcast live on Yle Teema, Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso. 1 RICHARD STRAUSS string orchestra is significant: he han- dles his ensemble in imaginative ways, (1864–1949): both as a motley band of semi-soloists METAMORPHOSES, and as a united orchestral entity. The STUDY FOR 23 SOLO music itself winds and unwinds itself STRINGS in careful, well-motivated gestures. The themes, which soon begin to sound fa- miliar, interweave to create a fine net- Richard Strauss composed Meta work in which everything affects every- morphoses, Study for 23 Solo Strings thing else. while the Second World War was still I would like to mention one detail raging in Europe, completing it in that has to do with German tradition: March 1945. Its somewhat cryptic sub- Strauss said that towards the end of title In memoriam has led to various in- Metamorphoses, he borrowed the fu- terpretations of its meaning and “mes- neral march from Beethoven’s Eroica sage”. For whom is it “in memoriam”? Symphony in the bass. He claimed he Strauss’s most acerbic opponents went had not noticed the thematic similar- so far as to suggest he was lamenting ity between this and his own material the imminent Nazi downfall or even until he reached this point, but I reck- Hitler’s foreseeable suicide. A more on he was kidding himself, because the likely interpretation is that Strauss was funeral-march theme (which differs bewailing the destruction of German slightly from the original and which culture, and especially opera, and the also resembles what later came to be numerous bombed-out opera houses known as “the Albinoni Adagio”) had with which he had been personally in- in fact been present all the time. It volved for 80 years. It was a state of af- hardly seems possible that he was not fairs that made his heart bleed, he said. previously aware of something the or- The title Metamorphoses alludes to dinary punter spots immediately. But the view expressed by Goethe that this is immaterial. All that matters is the fundamental reason for all wars that Strauss incorporated Beethoven’s is the human tendency to metamor- deeply tragic funeral march in this phose at the slightest provocation: to magnificent, humanistic work bearing forget humanity and to sink to the lev- the powerful message: “Never again.” el of the lowliest beast. It is a theme later taken up by William Golding, for example, in his novel Lord of the Flies. Metamorphoses is extremely multi-di- mensional and controlled music for string orchestra, a superb manifesta- tion of Strauss’s supreme command of polyphony. The fact that he scored his work for 23 solo strings and not a 2 DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH nally published in the Literaturnaya Gazeta. The poem that most bugged (1906–1975): the political elite was the first, Babi SYMPHONY NO. 13 Yar. This poem tells of the discovery “BABI YAR” of a mass grave of Jews massacred by the Nazis and hints that such graves were not unknown in the Soviet Union. Anti-Semitism plays a leading part in Although the Literary Gazette had far Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. more influence on Soviet art than the 13 and was a major obstacle to get- ins-and-outs of musical life, the poem’s ting the symphony performed. Its pre- “questionable” content did not catch miere was hindered in every possible anyone’s attention until Shostakovich way, but when it did get a hearing (al- took up the theme. This speaks of the most by chance, so Shostakovich said) uneasiness felt by the Soviet leaders in Moscow, the occasion automatically in view of Shostakovich’s international turned into a memorable demonstra- reputation. tion against intolerance and persecu- The poem Babi Yar is stunningly tion. The difficulty was that although transformed into music in the sym- Khrushchev now ruled the Soviet phony’s first movement. The other four Union (we are talking about 1962) and movements likewise draw on a biting the Stalinist regime had long been con- text examining the moral state of the demned, no one had any intention of nation. But they did not cause quite deleting Anti-Semitism from Soviet so- such a big political outcry. As in the ciety. The political regime was doing its following Symphony No. 14, the spirit best to clip the wings of art opposing of this monumental work is dark and Anti-Semitism before it ever got off the gloomy. This is, admittedly a familiar ground. The Thirteenth Symphony col- trait in Shostakovich’s music in general, lided with both institutional obstacles providing little scope for warm humour and, according to Shostakovich, the to blossom. Rather, black, macabre hu- cowardly, abhorrent behaviour of cer- mour, sarcasm and sardonic sneering tain people. Organising a concert hall, were the core substance of and driv- a choir and orchestra was made virtu- ing force behind his music. The second ally impossible, and one bass after an- movement of Symphony No. 13 is, par- other was persuaded to decline the in- adoxically, called Humour, but although vitation to sing for fear it would hinder its basic purpose is to say that those in his career. The public did, in the end, power have never understood anything get to hear this almost overwhelming humorous, Shostakovich does say that monument and it has since become es- neither is it one of his own most char- tablished as one of the sturdiest pillars acteristic attributes. The symphony is in Shostakovich’s output. made to sound all the darker by having Set to music in the symphony are a bass soloist and a male choir consist- poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko origi- ing of only bass voices singing in uni- 3 son, and since the orchestral part, too, Orchestra and the BBC Scottish is painted in shades of black, the result Symphony, and this season he takes up is a bleak picture of a deadly-serious re-invitations to conduct the Stockholm subject. and Gothenburg Symphonies, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Programme notes by Jouni Kaipainen (DSO), the Toronto Symphony and oth- translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo er orchestras. Hannu Lintu studied the piano and cello first at the Turku Conservatory HANNU LINTU in his native Finland and later the Sibelius Academy, where he also at- Hannu Lintu took over as Chief tended the conducting class taught Conductor of the Finnish Radio by Jorma Panula, Atso Almila, Eri Klas Symphony Orchestra in August 2013. and Ilja Musin. He has further been tu- Formerly Artistic Director of the tored by, among others, Myung Whun Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Chung at the Music Academy Siena. In Chief Conductor of the Helsingborg 1994 he was the winner of the Nordic Symphony Orchestra, he has also Conducting Competition. been Principal Guest Conductor of the Discs by Hannu Lintu have been re- RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in leased on the Ondine, Alba, Naxos, Dublin. He works regularly with the Ricordi, Claves, Hyperion and Danacord Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and was labels. Many of the discs featuring him Artistic Director of its Summer Sounds as the conductor have won awards festival in 2005. both at home and abroad, and his pre- In addition to conducting the lead- miere recording of the opera The Mine ing Finnish orchestras, Maestro Lintu by Einojuhani Rautavaara was nomi- has made guest appearances with nated for a Grammy. the Radio Orchestras in Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Amsterdam and Madrid, with a number of orchestras in North and South America (such MIKHAIL PETRENKO as the Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Mikhail Petrenko is one of the world’s St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, and most sought-after basses. This sea- the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the son his fixtures include the title role in Hollywood Bowl), in Asia (Seoul, Tokyo, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle at the New Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong) and York Metropolitan and solo appear- Australia (the Sydney and Melbourne ances with the Bamberg Symphony Symphony Orchestras and others). Orchestra and the Swedish Radio During the 2012/2013 season he made Symphony Orchestra. his debut with such orchestras as the A former pupil in the class of London Philharmonic, the Minnesota Professor Minzhilkiev at the Rimsky- 4 Korsakov Conservatoire, St. Petersburg, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish the city where he was born, Mikhail Radio Symphony and foreign orches- Petrenko was awarded diplomas at the tras. At home in Finland its repertoire Rimsky-Korsakov, Elena Obraztsova includes works by Schubert, Strauss, and Maria Callas New Verdi Voices Stravinsky and Shostakovich in addi- competitions. He nowadays sings at tion to Kullervo. leading concert and opera houses The Artistic Director of the Polytech across the world, under such celebrat- Choir is Saara Aittakumpu. ed conductors as Valery Gergiev, Esa- Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Simon Rattle. In ad- dition to Bartók’s Bluebeard he has sung in Borodin’s Prince Igor at the THE FINNISH New York Metropolitan and Gounod’s RADIO SYMPHONY Faust at Netherlands Opera. Mikhail features on the recent re- ORCHESTRA cording of Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Berlin Symphony conducted The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra by Simon Rattle and released on the (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Warner Classics label.