25.10. at 19:00 Helsinki Music Centre RSO-FESTIVAl MAGNUS LINDBERG KRAFT Hannu Lintu conductor Magnus Lindberg, piano, Tuomas Lehto, cello, Giuseppe Gentile, clarinet, Kazutaka Morita, timpani, Naoki Yasuda, percussion, Juhani Liimatainen, electronics 1 Magnus Lindberg: Kraft 27 min I II INTERVAL 25 min Magnus Lindberg: Aura 40 min I II III IV The LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER-MUSIC will follow in the Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls. LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER MUSIC: Laura Vikman, violin Jouko Laivuori, piano J.S. Bach (arr. Schumann): Partita No. 2 in D Minor BWV 1004 30 min I Allemande II Courante III Sarabande IV Gigue V Ciaccona Interval at about 19:40. The concert will end at about 20:50, the late-night chamber music 2 at about 21:30. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and Yle Areena. The concert will be shown in two parts on Yle TV 1 on 7.12. and 14.12. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR MOBILE PHONE IS SWITCHED OFF! Photographing, video and sound recording are prohibited during the concert. Magnus Lindberg: freshness. The ensemble’s role was mo- tivated not only by proletarian sounds Kraft mobbing the orchestra but also by the so- cial understanding, the controlled anar- In retrospect, Kraft (meaning “Power”) was chistic comrade-in-arms spirit of the sim- the culmination of Magnus Lindberg’s out- ilar-minded musicians. This guarantees put to date and proof that he had lived up that Kraft will not become a mere monu- to the promise of his early years. It seemed ment in stone, for bubbling through it will to symbolise his whole hectic, determined also be art born of the moment. drive, establishing itself as the flagship of the 1980s trend in Finnish music simply bursting with new colours and ideas. Magnus Lindberg: Composed in Paris, Berlin and Helsinki Aura between 1983 and 1985, Kraft had been commissioned by the Helsinki Festival. The Having shot into orbit with Kraft, Magnus request had been for a piano concerto, and Lindberg (b. 1958) began condensing and this was met by the Toimii ensemble play- enriching his expression using a computer ing percussions made by the artists from program developed at IRCAM in Paris. He materials collected in a scrapyard. Lindberg then applied the new technology in the recruited a sound team such as had never orchestral trilogy Kinetics (1989), Marea 3 been known before and spent half the two- (1990) and Joy (1990). Aura, commis- year composition period creating the nec- sioned in 1994 by Suntory International essary software. He also needed live elec- of Japan, was a synthesis of the different tronics to organise the work as a whole. approaches. Kraft was awarded a prize by the Unesco Lasting about 40 minutes, Aura is Rostrum of Composers in 1986 and re- Lindberg’s biggest work; hence, he paid ceived the Nordic Council Music Prize in special attention to its architecture. In 1987. The premiere was a shattering, leg- weighing up the balance between form endary occasion and the growing time gap and material he arrived at a four-move- has enhanced its mystic nature. The thun- ment format maybe evocative of a sym- dering, hammering coda may be interpret- phony. While composing Aura, he heard ed as a violent revolt against the views on that Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994) had music and other things prevailing at the died. “I wanted to contribute somehow to time. his memory and felt that the least I could Like Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Kraft do was to dedicate Aura to the memory marks the end of an era, way of thinking of this great composer,” he said. “His idea and methods, leaving nothing more to be of a two-part form with a presentation of said. Its synthesis of primitive strength, a material and its qualities without any distinctiveness and original timbres would directional tendencies in the first move- send Finnish classical music in a new di- ment, continued by a second movement rection. where the material grows to an entity, is The Toimii sections woven into the or- a genuine and clear approach to form to- chestral texture give Kraft an aleatoric day.” The four movements in Aura are played Late-night without interruptions and there are no symmetrical repeats. Each movement is chamber music: shorter than the one before. The open- ing one is thus the longest and, according to Lindberg, could in itself be an autono- J.S. Bach mous piece. (arr. Schumann): The second movement starts with an archaic chorale-like passage for brass Partita No. 2 in D that gradually transforms into quite harsh Minor BWV 1004 chord formations. The third movement is characterised by quick tempos and com- peting, scherzo-like motifs. The last move- The sonatas and partitas for solo violin by ment finally gives direction to this end- J.S. Bach (1685–1750) were not published less motion, and the music evolves from until 1802 and would not become widely quite minimalistic background patterns to known for another few decades. The ho- a toccata-like texture. These culminations nour for making them known goes to the build up to a hectic passage, a polyrhyth- great violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, who mic march which acts like a strong mag- was also a friend of Robert Schumann. 4 net in picking up all kinds of material pre- To Schumann, Bach was a teacher and sented earlier in the work. source of inspiration – his “daily bread” Aura was the start of an unstoppable from which he would gain lifelong sus- process that drew together almost all the tenance. He called Das Wohltemperierte solutions and characteristics typical of Klavier “the book of books”, and it was Lindberg’s music while closely integrating Schumann who founded the Bach- them to monumental proportions. Gesellschaft in Leipzig and, with his friend Felix Mendelssohn, strove to revive that Antti Häyrynen master’s music. Three years before his death, Schumann experienced a further very intense Bach period, and around New Year 1853 penned piano accompaniments to all the solo vio- lin suites and partitas and solo cello suites. In his works for the solo violin, Bach had, with only four strings, created a min- iature polyphonic world in which noth- ing was either superfluous or missing. Schumann did not interfere with Bach’s original texts; he simply brought his own instrument, the piano, along to accompa- ny and humbly engage in conversation at his teacher’s side. Bach possibly wrote the Partita in D Minor in 1720, after the sudden death of Tuomas Lehto his first wife, Maria Barbara. It is a high- ly-charged, extremely personal work rich- Tuomas Lehto has been a soloist and ly embroidered with hidden chorale refer- chamber musician the world over and at ences. many festivals. He is principal cellist in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen member of the New Helsinki Quartet and Programme notes translated (abridged) by Total Cello Ensemble, Artistic Director of Susan Sinisalo the KuruFest festival, and teacher of the cello and chamber music at the Sibelius Hannu Lintu Academy. Tuomas Lehto was only three when he took his first cello lessons, and Hannu Lintu took over as the eighth Chief he later studied at the Sibelius Academy Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony and in Stockholm. He has recorded for the Orchestra in August 2013, after years of Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) and highly-acclaimed collaboration with the can be heard on many discs, both as so- orchestra. During the 2019/2020 season loist and in chamber repertoire. The cel- he will conduct the FRSO in 14 concerts lo concerto by Ville Matvejeff is just one at the Helsinki Music Centre and take it on of the many works premiered by him. In tours to Central Europe and Japan. 2006, he was a laureate in the national 5 In addition to his post with the FRSO, Turku Cello Competition in Finland. Hannu Lintu will this season be making guest appearances with the symphony orchestras in Montreal, Detroit, Chicago, Giuseppe Gentile Boston, with the Orchestre de Paris and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Giuseppe Gentile obtained a clarinet diplo- Orchestra. Last season included de- ma from the Latina Conservatory when buts with the Boston Symphony and the he was 16 and continued his studies at Hungarian National Philharmonic, guest the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. appearances with the Baltimore, St. Louis Winner of the first prize (cat. bass clarinet) and Cincinnati Symphonies, the New Japan at the International Clarinet Competition Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony “Città di Carlino”, he was awarded the sec- and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. ond prize at the International Clarinet Hannu Lintu studied the cello and pi- Competition “Rino Viani”. He has played ano at the Sibelius Academy in his native with several orchestras around Europe, Finland and later orchestral conducting such as the BBC Symphony, Welsh Opera in the class of Jorma Panula. He attend- and Ulster Orchestra, the Orchestra ed masterclasses with Myung-Whun dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Chung at L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana Tapiola Sinfonietta. Since January 2015 he in Siena and was the winner of the Nordic has occupied the position of bass clarinet Conducting Prize in Bergen in 1994. He and clarinet in the Finnish Radio Symphony has recorded on the Ondine, BIS, Hyperion Orchestra. Besides music, he is very pas- and other labels. sionate about football and photography. Kazutaka Morita Juhani Liimatainen Kazutaka Morita was born in Kochi, Japan Juhani Liimatainen worked at the Finnish and started playing percussion at the age Broadcasting Company (Yle) Experimental of 16.