28.5. at 20:00 Helsinki Music Centre Hannu Lintu Helena Juntunen Lotta Emanuelsson
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28.5. at 20:00 Helsinki Music Centre Hannu Lintu conductor Helena JuntuNen soprano Lotta Emanuelsson presenter Maurice Ravel: Tombeau de Couperin 1. Prélude. Vif 2. Forlane. Allegretto 3. Menuet. Allegro moderato 1 4. Rigaudon. Assez vif Samuel Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Op. 24 Sebastian Hilli: Miracle, fp (an Yle commission) Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 1. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio 2. Larghetto 3. Scherzo: Allegro 4. Allegro molto TIME TO SAY ‘THANK YOU’ The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra was Hannu who introduced the FRSO has always been fortunate in its appoint- Festival and who developed various major ment of outstanding conductors to mas- co-projects with Yle Drama, most recent- termind its development. The term of ly Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust. Hannu Lintu, from 2013 to 2021, has been The work done by Hannu at the helm of a wonderful stage in this journey and will the FRSO has strengthened the position go down in history as a major success in of new music in Finland. I recall numerous many ways. evenings when our international guest The Chief Conductor and the General artists have been amazed to see that Manager work closely together, so a brief Hannu’s dynamic performances of mod- look over the past is, I feel, in order. ern music, from cult works such as the Hannu “thinks big”. His artistic vision is Lutosławski symphonies or the Soldaten marked by a feel for drama and boldness. symphony by B.A. Zimmermann and, He is quick to spot “big pictures”, is able to above all new Finnish music were immedi- make decisions and is not afraid to speak ate hits with the audience in a packed hall. out. He has a lightning sense of humour I am not surprised that he is the conduc- and lives in the moment. Whether it be an tor to whom many contemporary com- 2 interview, a planning or a discussion ses- posers turn first of all. sion, he comes fully prepared and knows The time has come to say “Thank you, his business inside out. Hannu”. I warmly congratulate the Finnish The sold-out halls, numerous interna- National Opera and Ballet on appointing tional disc awards and the orchestra’s him its new Chief Conductor and wish him presence on the Yle channels are con- some illustrious years with his great pas- crete examples of the success reaped by sion, opera. Luckily, his new post means the FRSO with Hannu as its figurehead. It a journey of only a kilometre northwards has been rewarding to receive enthusias- up Töölö Bay. tic messages such as “We leap to our feet At the beginning of May, the Finnish at home and applaud” from across the Broadcasting Company (Yle) and the country after Yle’s live concert broadcasts. FRSO surprised Hannu with a little mu- Highlights of these years that spring to sical gift, Encore by Magnus Lindberg. Its mind are the Mahler cycle in 2018/2019 message is: we want more; this is not the and the many large-scale choral works end! such as Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. It Tuula Sarotie, General Manager MAURICE RAVEL: LE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) composed his both versions are nowadays performed. piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin be- In its stylisation of long-ago musi- tween 1914 and 1917, in the shadow of the cal forms and textures, Le Tombeau de First World War. He dedicated each move- Couperin was one of the first works to be ment to a friend who had died in combat, composed in the new Neoclassicism vein. but it is also a mark of respect for French It is bright, plastic music and gives no hint music of the 18th century. of any fearful wartime emotions. If any- The original suite is in six movements, thing, Ravel seems to have sought relief after the Baroque model. It begins with from the horrors of war. a Prelude, followed by a Fugue and three The suite begins with a lively, richly-or- dance movements, and ends with a spir- chestrated Prelude. The Forlane that fol- ited Toccata. When Ravel arranged the lows is based on a Renaissance North suite for small orchestra in 1919, he omit- Italian dance. The third movement is ted the Fugue and Toccata and changed a wistful Minuet, and the spirited final the order of the last two movements. Rigadoon is offset by a melancholy mid- They do not sound like arrangements of dle section. music originally intended for piano, and 3 SAMUEL BARBER: KNOXVILLE, SUMMER OF 1915 In the middle of the Modernist centu- Knoxville, Summer of 1915 begins in lan- ry, Samuel Barber (1910–1981) remained guorous mood on a hot southern evening firmly rooted in his own brand of Neo- and acquires more profound overtones Romanticism. His lyrical language and with a growing bitter awareness of the nostalgia for a time in the past are most fleeting nature of life. The music subtly movingly expressed in Knoxville, Summer picks up nuances in the text as the melo- of 1915, Op. 24 (1947) for soprano and or- dies flow through the limpid soundscape. chestra. It is his best-loved vocal work and Recurring through the piece is a rock- an American classic of its kind. ing motif in 12/8 time, a sort of lullaby to For his text, Barber chose fragments a time in the past that is twice recalled. from a prose poem (1935) by James Agee Then a screeching streetcar shatters the (1909–1955) in which the speaker recalls peaceful evening and, with its iron moan, his childhood and relatives in Knoxville, is evocative of an irksome disturbance in Tennessee on a lazy summer evening in the modern world. The narrator later re- 1915. The poem evoked a strong personal calls his childhood family. “May God bless resonance in Barber and he dedicated his my people, my uncle, my aunt, my mother, work to the memory of his father. my good father, oh, remember them kind- him, but his memories are tinged with ly in their time of trouble; and in the hour sadness: no one will ever tell him who he of their taking away.” Sleep softly engulfs is. Kimmo Korhonen SEBASTIAN HILLI Sebastian Hilli (b. 1990) is one of the most Hilli is open to stimuli from other gen- original young Finnish composers and his res of music – Baroque, Romantic, jazz, career has been boosted by success in a house – smoothly incorporating them in variety of international competitions and his personal idiom. Above all, he is an in- reviews. At the beginning of 2021, he sign- strumental composer. His catalogue so far ed an agreement with the prestigious contains only one vocal work, the 45-min- publisher Schott. His music has a power- ute Affekt for large choir and orchestra. ful inner drama and is often inspired by Sebastian Hilli studied composition other arts or human experiences; it never- with Lauri Kilpiö and Veli-Matti Puumala theless heeds an inner musical logic all of at the Sibelius Academy, graduating with its own that may sometimes take some a Master’s in 2016. He spent the academ- 4 surprising turns. The listener may thus ic year 2013–2014 as a pupil of Michael encounter rhythmic euphoria and sharp Jarrell in Vienna. twists, or again surrealistic timbres and Kimmo Korhonen pensive brittleness. SEBASTIAN HILLI: MIRACLE The idea of Miracle came to me in 2019 the oppressive sense of things progress- – the concept of something unexpected ing inexorably towards the unknown. The and wonderful that could happen. I final- spurts of individual instruments and sec- ly started composing it in spring 2020, as tions reflect animals that, with their keen the pandemic hit the world. Two weeks senses, apprehend danger and flee. into writing, the tragedy came close, when Then comes ‘the shock’ – something I, too, lost a loved-one to the disease with- unexpected, traumatic and earth-shak- in the space of a week. I wrote Miracle ing that shatters your whole being to the with grief, longing, trauma yet a sense of point of numbness. Then, the mourning, great love and the power this gives, of life, the emptiness, the pain, the handling of strong presence and empowerment in my the shock and its repercussions. Sadness, breast. nostalgia and a longing for love. But love The piece begins with a ‘hunch’, a invites hope, and melancholy gradually sense that something is about to happen. turns into healing. Healing brings grati- Everything is fine, yet something ominous tude, joy, and a desire to move on in life seems to be trying to surface. The steady and to experience happiness. Eventually, tick on the strings represents waiting and comes euphoria. The feeling of something bigger, something marvellous, uncontrol- with you. The sturdy chords stand for lable and inexplicable. Joie de vivre, the power and powerlessness in the face of celebration of life, dance and ascent into something bigger. The brass chorale at the heights. the end represents a link with the past The piece ends in the finding of peace. and the memory of a love that will nev- Accepting that something has changed er fade. for ever, and the reverberation remains Sebastian Hilli LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN D Whereas the first symphony by Ludwig phony, the Eroica. The slow introduction van Beethoven (1770–1827) followed is more edgy than that of the first sym- much along the lines of the symphonies phony, and the quick main section is one of Haydn and Mozart, the second, Op.