6 DECEMBER Helsinki Music Centre at 15.00 INDEPENDENCE DAY GALA CONCERT Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor Kari Kriikku, clarinet Magnus Lindberg: Clarinet Concerto 25 min INTERVAL 20 min Jean Sibelius: The Oceanides, Op. 73 10 min Leevi Madetoja: Symphony No. 3 in A Major, Op. 55 32 min I Andantino – Allegretto II Adagio III Allegro non troppo IV Pesante, tempo moderato – Allegretto Interval at about 15.35. The concert ends at about 17.00. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1, Yle Teema (latter half) and the Internet (yle.fi/klassinen). 1 MAGNUS LINDBERG stantly evolving yet always recognisa- ble, also spring straight from the tim- (b. 1958): bre and harmony. The music is, however, CLARINET CONCERTO propelled along not by themes but by eight core characters presented at the The Clarinet Concerto by Magnus beginning and reminiscent of those in a Lindberg well merits its place on the play, behaving differently as the drama gala programme for our Independence proceeds. Day concert. An Yle commission, it was The concerto is in five parts per- premiered by the FRSO at the orches- formed without a break. Beginning with tra’s 75th anniversary concert on 14 pastoral clarinet calls, its aim is dynamic September 2002 and in ten years has evolution, perpetual movement in the become a veritable contemporary clas- course of which the intensity steadily sic. It is probably second only to the rises. The slower second and third parts Sibelius Violin Concerto as the Finnish are also marked by an active ripple ef- instrumental concerto most often per- fect that provokes both musical drama formed. and collisions of soft and spiky timbres. The fourth part culminates in a clar- FRSO General Manager Tuula Sarotie inet cadenza, after which the final straight begins with force and fervour. The metamorphosis of material and characters moulds the music into a liv- Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto (2002) was ing stream that climaxes on intoxicating partly inspired by Debussy’s Clarinet heights. As the music finally subsides, Rhapsody: the diaphanous mood of the characters all find themselves on a the Concerto’s opening corresponds new plane. to the Rhapsody’s dreamy languor (Réveusement lent). The other deci- sive stimulus was Kari Kriikku. It would in fact be difficult to imagine many of JEAN SIBELIUS Lindberg’s works without the virtuoso (1865–1957): playing of this Finnish clarinettist. In summer 2002, Lindberg set off in THE OCEANIDES, OP. 73 his boat to seek Kriikku’s opinion on sec- tions of his concerto. Together they de- As the First World War loomed on the veloped a solo instrument that speaks horizon, Jean Sibelius began to feel a a composer-player language of its own. need to look abroad, and the works of The sea, the summer and Debussy seem Debussy, in particular, seemed to elicit to be sewn into the mood of the piece. a response. In spring 1914 he crystallised The solo clarinet is woven into all sorts the finale of a three-movement orches- of orchestral textures in the concerto, tral suite commissioned by the Norfolk from refined and intimate to massive Music Festival in the USA as an inde- and mellow. The melodic motifs, con- pendent tone poem. 2 Work progressed at a brisk pace, LEEVI MADETOJA and the poem was premiered in the USA under the title Rondo der Wellen. (1887–1947): In early summer, the maestro crossed SYMPHONY NO. 3 the Atlantic on the S/S Kaiser Wilhelm IN A MAJOR, OP. 55 to attend the performance. A few months later, the real Kaiser Wilhelm II sent Germany to war and cut short The seeds of the third symphony were Sibelius’s promising aspirations to in- sown in France, and Madetoja finished it ternational renown. The tone poem was for a concert of his music in April 1926. then renamed Aallottaret, in English The Its French roots are audible in the struc- Oceanides. tural confines, the translucent orches- In classical antiquity, the flat earth tration and the smooth transfers from was believed to be surrounded by an one mood to another. It nevertheless ocean, Oceanus. This was also the name has features that make it recognisably of its divine personification. Oceanus Finnish, and the finale may be seen as a the deity had some 4,000 daughters, reaction to the sentimental outpouring Oceanides, who do not appear to have of the National Romantics. had any literary adventures. Sibelius The opening Andantino has a slightly was presumably looking for a univer- mischievous tone. In the main section, sal subject that was not related to the the various themes are cleverly bound Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, but together, but making a finer impression that linked his work with the element is the shadow of danger and grief that of water. flickers between the playful motifs. The The rondo form is manifest in The slow movement evolves from a land- Oceanides as alternating groups of me- scape into philosophical contemplation. lodic motifs. There are no clear themes. A folk tune in canon provides a throb- Instead, Sibelius casts little ornamental bing backcloth against which the mu- motifs, such as the woodwinds’ opening sic traces shifting states of mind. The warbling on the surface of the water. “question” posed three times by the The strings have the job of creating a trombones is possibly more of an ob- sense of depth and of rising and falling servation that our earthly pilgrimage waves. A wistful calling motif reminis- plods on however much we may strug- cent of Debussy’s La mer adds a longer gle against it. perspective and tension out of which, at The brass sforzatos at the beginning the end, grows what Olin Downes called of the Scherzo provide a solid basis for “a crashing wave”. In its closing chords the frolicking motifs. The shadow char- The Oceanides still seems to be gauging acteristic of Madetoja wavers in the the water’s mighty mass. third theme sung chromatically by the woodwinds. The finale begins with a solemn French horn motif the majestic bearing of which melts almost impishly into the 3 faster section that follows. The waltz Conductor of the Toronto Symphony written into the main section in 4/4 Orchestra from 1994 to 2001, and has time has not without reason been lik- been Artistic Director of the Scottish ened (by Erkki Salmenhaara) to a dance Chamber Orchestra. of falling leaves. A dramatic collision Guest engagements in re- would appear to be inevitable when the cent years have included appear- introductory theme returns at the end, ances with the London, Munich but the music finally yields to the waltz. and Rotterdam Philharmonics, the London Philharmonia, the Amsterdam Antti Häyrynen (abridged) Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the major North American orchestras. The current season will see him take the WDR Symphony JUKKA-PEKKA SARASTE to Paris, Vienna, Stuttgart and on a tour to the Baltic region, and in March 2014 he will bring the Oslo Philharmonic Jukka-Pekka Saraste has held the po- Orchestra to the Helsinki Music Centre sition of Chief Conductor of the WDR for a performance Mahler’s sixth sym- Symphony Orchestra, Cologne since phony. 2010. He was Music Director and Chief Maestro Saraste has received the Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Pro Finlandia Prize, the Sibelius Medal, Orchestra from 2006 to 2013, and at and the Finnish State Prize for Music. the end of his tenure there was made He was awarded an honorary doctor- Conductor Laureate, the very first such ate from York University in Toronto, and honour bestowed by that orchestra. He most recently, an honorary doctorate was the founder of the Finnish Chamber from the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. Orchestra, for which he is still Artistic Advisor, and is Artistic Director of the orchestra’s annual Tammisaari Festival. He has recently held the position of KARI KRIIKKU Artistic Advisor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Previous positions held by Jukka- A clarinettist with a distinguished ca- Pekka Saraste include the Chief reer as a soloist and chamber mu- Conductorship of the Finnish Radio sician, Kari Kriikku has collaborated Symphony Orchestra (1987–2001), af- closely with composers and premiered ter which he was made Conductor a number of works. In spring 2014 Laureate. His term as Chief Conductor he will premiere the concerto writ- of the FRSO took in several European ten for him by Unsuk Chin with the tours, two to the Far East and the or- Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra un- chestra’s US debut. He was Principal der the baton of Kent Nagano. He has Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony performed Kaija Saariaho’s D’om le vrai Orchestra from 2002 to 2005, Principal sens with the FRSO, the BBC Symphony, 4 the Swedish Radio Symphony, the chestra strength in the 1960s. Its previo- Porto National Orchestra, the French us Chief Conductors have been Toivo Radio Philharmonic, the Vienna Radio Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Symphony and other orchestras. Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Highly-acclaimed concertos have Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari been composed for Kari Kriikku by, Oramo. The FRSO has two Honorary among others, Magnus Lindberg, Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Kimmo Hakola and Jukka Tiensuu. Sakari Oramo. The recording of the Lindberg con- The latest contemporary music is certo (Ondine) was nominated for a a major item in the repertoire of the Gramophone Award in 2006 and that FRSO, which each year premieres a of the Saariaho work with the FRSO number of Yle commissions. Another and Sakari Oramo won the Jury’s Award of the orchestra’s tasks is to record all at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in Finnish orchestral music for the Yle ar- 2013.