markings. But for some reason it just didn’t work for me. I somehow feel that the ori- UUNO KLAMI: ginal tempos are all too slow for the rhythm of life today. My own tempos are, generally speaking, relatively fast, but in Klami’s case The View from the Podium possibly even a bit faster than normal. His The centenary of the birth of the Finnish Uuno Klami has many different musical styles and . works just seem to work better that way. been conspicuously celebrated this year. In September a two-day But although he did, as we know, like to shop HS: The most frequently heard work by symposium was held in his honour in , music by him has around, he seldom overstepped the mark. I Klami, the Kalevala Suite, has been given think it was Toivo Kärki who once said that some 20 performances in the past five been performed at numerous concerts, and his life story has been the secret of a good tango lies in its sounding told both in the press and in the new book (in Finnish) “Uuno Klami, years. The Sea Pictures and The Cobblers on sufficiently familiar. The same could be said the Heath Overture are also among his his life and works” by Kalevi Aho and Marjo Valkonen. Concert audi- for the music of Uuno Klami. most popular works, both getting nearly ences have in fact been regularly spoilt with Klami’s music, which has HS: This year you have conducted Klami’s ten performances between 1996 and 2000. long been standard repertoire of the Finnish orchestras. But what do oratorio Psalmus in two different perfor- You yourself have conducted the King Lear the performers themselves have to say about Uuno Klami? Wherein mances. According to the Sibelius scholar Overture and the original version of the lies the secret of his perpetual popularity, and what technical chal- Erkki Salmenhaara, Psalmus is one of the violin concerto, and you’ve recorded both lenges and interpretations does his music offer? To find out the rare Finnish works on a par with those of symphonies with the Tampere Philharmon- ic Orchestra. Do you have any particular answers to these questions, we interviewed Tuomas Ollila, who has . Would you personally brack- et Klami with Sibelius or any other com- favourites? this year conducted music by Klami at three concerts and on disc poser? with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. TO: The Kalevala Suite is my out-and-out TO: Not really. I look upon Psalmus as a Fin- favourite. It just seems to work of its own nish masterpiece, but it carries virtually no Si- accord, both the orchestration and the tem- Henna Salmela: Klami is, after Sibelius and Tuomas Ollila: In his music Klami suc- belius associations for me. Musically it’s ex- pos. The King Lear Overture is a powerful Rautavaara, one of the most frequent names ceeded in boring deep into the very bedrock tremely original. The unusually powerful text piece but you have to work hard to make it on the Finnish concert programme. What of the Finnish soul, and this undoubtedly also contributes a lot to the overall impact, sound right. It’s got all the ingredients of the do you consider to be the secret of his explains his popularity with domestic audi- because it strongly moulds the musical idiom. Kalevala Suite in miniature, as it were. And undying popularity? ences. He also has points in common with Tr ue, it is possible to pick out quotations from there’s nothing to beat the Klami works on Puccini and there are echoes of Sibelius’s national themes. They’ve got humour and fourth symphony, but there’s nothing unusual folk music in a heady combination, as in the about that. Cobblers Overture, which virtually has the last word on the use of humour in this HS: Psalmus was originally considered an Klami genre. extremely difficult work, especially for the choir. After its premiere in 1937 it was not HS: How have your orchestras and performed again for another 23 years. Has audiences reacted to Klami’s music? time ironed out some of the difficulties, or TO: To begin with the players may be very how hard is it, would you say, from the critical if the notes don’t immediately fall orchestra’s, the choir’s and the conductor’s into place. You often have to work hard at point of view? Klami’s music. But the audience reactions TO: Looking at it today, I wouldn’t say that have been distinctly positive, often better the choral part is in any way a stumbling than I expected. On our tours of the pro- block. The singers do, of course, have their vinces, for example, the audience regularly work cut out, and there are some very tricky gets genuinely carried away. The music of passages, especially for the male chorus. As far Uuno Klami seems to have something quite as the orchestra’s concerned, it’s not a par- special about it that appeals to the Finnish ticularly difficult work, though Klami has a ear and just suits our national character. very gritty way of writing music. He is widely acclaimed as a good orchestrator, but it’s not Henna Salmela so easy to make his music sound properly – you really have to work at it. Klami experi- mented widely with his orchestration; in that Tuomas Ollila (b. 1965), sense he liked taking risks. is conductor of the Sinfonietta. In 2000 he has HS: Your readings of Psalmus have differed made guest appearances considerably from that on the Finlandia re- with the Melbourne, cording made in 1988 with Ulf Söderblom Sydney, Dutch Radio, conducting. What liberties have you taken, BBC Wales, Scottish especially with the tempos? Symphony and other TO: I used to try to conduct Klami’s works as orchestras.

they were written, as if I were documenting Tuuli Heikki Photo: them and observing the original metronome