9 DECEMBER FRIDAY SERIES 7 Helsinki Music Centre at 19
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9 DECEMBER FRIDAY SERIES 7 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 Hannu Lintu, conductor Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano Sebastian Fagerlund: Stonework 15 min Jean Sibelius: Songs. Orchestrations 18 min by Aulis Sallinen (Yle commission) Jägargossen, Op. 13:7 Hennes budskap, Op. 90:2 De bägge rosorna, Op. 88:2 Sippan, Op. 88:4 Men min fågel märks dock icke Op. 36:2 Kyssens hopp, Op. 13:2 Under strandens granar, Op. 13:1 INTERVAL 20 min Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 43 42 min I Allegretto II Tempo andante, ma rubato – Andante sostenuto – Allegro – Andante sostenuto III Vivacissimo – Lento e suave – Largamente (attacca) IV Allegro moderato Interval at about 19.55. The concert ends at about 21.15. Broadcast live on Radio 1. 1 SEBASTIAN Stonework it is also part of the present day and distant worlds. Stone is often FAGERLUND (1972–): thought of as a dead substance, but STONEWORK in the music of Fagerlund it lives and pulses and generates seamless conti- Sebastian Fagerlund has rapidly be- nuity. come a front-line contemporary Fagerlund alternates, overlaps and Finnish composer of international re- mixes his motifs into a convoluted nown. He studied with Erkki Jokinen at shape that finally builds up to a wild, the Sibelius Academy, receiving his di- fortissimo climax. In the last bars the ploma in composition in 2004. music dissolves into a void, as if to Stonework (2015) was commissioned remind us that geological history is jointly by the Bergen and Tampere much, much longer than the story of Philharmonic Orchestras to mark the mankind. 250th anniversary of the Norwegian orchestra and it was premiered in Antti Häyrynen Bergen with Edward Gardner conduct- ing on November 26. It was first heard JEAN SIBELIUS in Finland in Tampere on November 27, (1865–1957): SONGS. with Santtu-Matias Rouvali conduct- ing, and on the same day in Sweden ORCHESTRATIONS BY during the Bergen Philharmonic’s tour AULIS SALLINEN to Gothenburg. Stonework is above all a feast for The poetry of Johan Ludvig Runeberg a large virtuoso orchestra. Its title (1804–1877) meant much to Jean has made its mark on the music. But Sibelius. For it shows the Finns in a ro- while works referring to stone usual- mantic, primordial light, in a state of ly concentrate on pounding percus- innocence in which man exists in har- sions and monolithic orchestral slabs, mony with nature and its rhythms and Fagerlund does not so much measure understands its language. the strength of his stone, its weight Sibelius himself orchestrated many and permanence. Rather, his orchestra of his songs and approved of the or- sows the seeds of a myriad hues and chestral transcriptions and key chang- features evocative silence just as much es made by others. Written into the as to thunder. piano parts of many of the songs are The opening, with robust yet war- orchestral effects, such as the arpeggi- bling wind figures serves as a reminder os that begin Jägargossen (The Young that stone is actually quite a malleable Huntsman); these Aulis Sallinen has material. Its irregular rhythms suggest assigned to wind instruments. Rugged the dynamic role of stone in cultur- textures accompany the huntsman as al and military history. The Stone Age he sets his sights on black grouse, wil- was a period in ancient history, but in low grouse and hazel grouse and re- 2 grets his failure to catch something tion (Andantino, ad libitum). The harp even more precious – a sweetheart of punctuates the song as would a teller his own. of tales, and the yearning for long, light The message borne by the North summer days causes the orchestra to Wind in Hennes budskap (Her Message) burst into flower. But the second verse is icy, as flute, clarinet and strings trace reverts to pessimism and loneliness. frosty flowers round the voice. The Kyssens hopp (The Kiss’s Hope, melody seems almost to stagger to its Runeberg) represents the romantic culmination (Ve mig, edsförgätna), to an dreams of the young Sibelius, painting awareness of old age, of broken prom- a picture in pastel shades of a kiss the ises and lost love. singer does not wish to risne away with The Op. 88 “Flower Songs” were com- wild strawberries or spring water. The posed in 1917 for the dwindling vo- harp, solo and divided strings capture cal resources of Ida Ekman, an untir- the erotic vibes of the piece. ing champion of Sibelius’s music. The Runeberg’s Under strandens granar poems by Franz Michael Franzén and (Under the Fir Trees) is like an epic bal- Runeberg use flowers as metaphors lad, a folktale in which a water sprite for the early Romantic awareness of entices a boy and then his mother into nature. In De bägge rosorna (The Two the watery depths. Sibelius’s piano ac- Roses), to words by Franzén, the rose companiment, with its trills and trem- is the personification of beauty from olos, is like the miniature score of an whom even the sky borrows colours. orchestral work. Sallinen makes use of Sibelius’s melody is apprehensive- this, beginning with French horns that, ly melancholy and Sallinen’s choice of with the strings, tower like mighty fir strings to express it emphasises the trees by the lake. The song has some- transitory nature of beauty. thing of the horror romanticism and Sippan (The Primrose, Runeberg) mysticism (harp) of Schubert’s Erlkönig. shivers in the chilly early spring, but Carl Snoilsky was a Swedish noble- Sallinen also captures the song’s light- man, diplomat and director of the ly flirting tones. The beauty of the Royal Library. His poem Dold förening primrose fades, says the song, when (Hidden Connection) demonstrates plucked, but nothing can cool the ar- the underwater network of a water dour of the narrator. lily. It is a phenomenon also taken up Men min fågel märks dock icke (But by Kaija Saariaho in her string quar- my Bird is Nowhere to be Seen) once tet Nymphea, but Sibelius uses it to again describes the child of nature in create an amorous vignette. Sallinen’s love, watching out for signs of spring. orchestra ripples lightly and the sing- The swan, goldeneye, lark and curlew er shows how beauty is born of hidden have already arrived, but not my bird. motivic connections. The flocks of migrating birds inevita- bly keep the woodwinds busy as they Antti Häyrynen prepare the way with a short introduc- 3 JEAN SIBELIUS ing personal, and of bearing messages of accusation, judgement and mercy. (1865–1957): The timpani open the door to gloom, SYMPHONY NO. 2 and the cello and bass pizzicatos add to the feeling of unrest over which a Jean Sibelius completed his second choir of bassoons strikes up a bleak lit- symphony, Op. 43, in early 1902, in a any. frenzied burst of activity. He had de- Classical clarity is again a dominant cided that the premiere concert in feature of the Scherzo. The tempo March would be devoted exclusively marking is Vivacissimo – extremely fast to his works. At least the Impromptu – but Sibelius frowned at any signs of for female choir and orchestra and the poor articulation in the strings (in the Overture in A Minor did not steal the recap the trumpets and trombones). limelight and the occasion was the big- The spirited main section is contrast- gest public success of his career. ed, as might well be expected, in the The emphasis at the beginning Trio, with a back-to-nature-sounding of the symphony is on abstract mo- oboe tune that harks back to the pas- tif technique. The ear picks out a toral bliss of the opening movement. three-note core motif the handling of The Trio is repeated (cf. Beethoven), which seems to sound so natural. The but it no longer leads to a repeat of the first movement begins with a rhyth- main section and instead proceeds with mic string motif that, like many of a fine bridge passage straight into the Schubert’s works, rises above its task of finale. Sibelius does not yet here fuse accompanying to dominate the mood the different movements of the sym- and action. Dancing above it is the phony as he would later do in his third, bright main theme on the woodwinds, fifth and seventh symphonies, but the with comments from the French horns. blurring of the border does forge a spe- The first movement as a whole is one cial link between the Trio section of the of Sibelius’s most streamlined sonata Scherzo and the hymn in the finale. Allegros, its mechanisms open to many The magnificent build-up in the last interpretations. The exposition intro- movement is to some extent remi- duces further thematic motifs that niscent of the closing movements of are later combined and dramatized in Tchaikovsky’s fifth and Mahler’s third the development. Fiery unison strings, symphonies. A happy ending is ines- screeching trills, plunging scales and capable, but Sibelius ritualises it by first aggressive brass carry the music far piling up grinding minor-key ostinatos away from the initial pastoral mood be- in its path, until at last there is no stop- fore returning to it, slightly the worse ping the melody, highlighted with fan- for wear, at the end. fares in fighting spirit, from breaking Just how much of the original inspira- through. tion for the second movement remains in the final version is difficult to say. Antti Häyrynen The music gives the impression of be- Programme notes translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo 4 HANNU LINTU conducted them in Parsifal - direct- ed by Harry Kupfer, Carmen, and Aulis Sallinen’s King Lear.