9 DECEMBER FRIDAY SERIES 7 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 in Tampere on November 27, (1865–1957): SONGS. with Santtu-Matias Rouvali conduct- ing, and on the same day in 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. Other recent oper- Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio atic projects include Sallinen’s Kullervo Symphony Orchestra since August at the 2014 Savonlinna Opera Festival 2013, Hannu Lintu previously held and Tannhäuser with Tampere Opera the positions of Artistic Director and in 2012. Lintu has also worked with Chief Conductor of the Tampere Estonian National Opera, recording Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Tauno Pylkkänen’s Mare and her son. Guest Conductor with the RTÉ National Hannu Lintu has made several re- Symphony Orchestra and Artistic cordings for Ondine, Naxos, Avie and Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Hyperion. In summer 2015 he recorded and Turku Philharmonic orchestras. Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Highlights of Lintu’s 2015/16 sea- Concertos with Fumiaki Miura and the son include appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Orchestre for Avex, while other recent recordings de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre feature works by Ligeti, including the national de Lille, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Violin Concerto with Benjamin Schmid, and the Iceland Symphony, Baltimore and Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony Symphony, Moscow State Symphony with Angela Hewitt and Valerie and Seoul Philharmonic orches- Hartmann-Claverie – both for Ondine tras. He conducts the Finnish Radio with the Finnish Radio Symphony Symphony Orchestra on tour in Japan Orchestra. Lintu has received sever- in autumn 2015 – as part of his com- al accolades for his recordings, in- plete cycle of Sibelius’ symphonies cluding a 2011 Grammy nomination with the New Japan Philharmonic – for Best Opera CD plus Gramophone and on tour in Vienna, Salzburg and Award nominations for his recordings Innsbruck in January 2016 with violinist of Enescu’s Symphony No.2 with the Leila Josefowicz. Recent engagements Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and have included the Philharmonia, BBC the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Scottish Symphony, Royal Stockholm Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich Philharmonic, Cleveland and St Louis and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Symphony orchestras; the Houston Orchestra. Symphony, MDR Sinfonieorchester Hannu Lintu studied cello and piano Leipzig and the Orchestre nation- at the Sibelius Academy, where he later al de Lyon; and debuts with the WDR studied conducting with Jorma Panula. Sinfonieorchester Köln, the Hallé, and He participated in masterclasses with the Detroit Symphony and Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia orchestras. Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and took In May 2016 Lintu returns to Finnish first prize at the Nordic Conducting National Opera to conduct Wagner’s Competition in Bergen in 1994. Tristan und Isolde, having previously

5 ANNE SOFIE VON Album. She had an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Gramophone OTTER for many years and during that time released a large number of award-win- Highly-acclaimed for her distinguished ning discs. Many of her opera pro- stage and recording career, mezzo-so- ductions, such as Der Rosenkavalier, prano Anne Sofie von Otter has ex- Pelléas et Mélisande and Iphigenia in celled in such operas as Strauss’s Der Aulis have also been released as DVD. Rosenkavalier (Octavian), Mozart’s Idomeneo and The Marriage of Figaro. She also makes frequent solo appear- ances with orchestras, among them the New York and Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Recent engagements have included Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Covent Garden, the part of Clytemnestra in the Dutch National Opera production of Iphigenia in Aulis, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu at the New York Metropolitan and Waltraute at the Vienna State Opera. This season, Anne Sofie von Otter makes her debut as Jenny in the Dreigroschenoper at the Theater an der Wien and sings in the premiere of the opera The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès at the Salzburg Festival. She can, for example, also be heard as the soloist with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. In September 2017 she is to sing the leading role in the new opera Autumn Sonata by Sebastian Fagerlund, the libretto of which is based on the film of the same name by Ingmar Bergman. Douce France, Anne Sofie von Otter’s most recent CD, this year won the Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal

6 THE FINNISH The FRSO has recorded works by Ligeti, Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, RADIO SYMPHONY Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen ORCHESTRA and others, and the debut disc of the op- era Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra have reaped some prestigious distinc- (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish tions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission Award, the Académie Charles Cros is to produce and promote Finnish musi- Award and a MIDEM Classical Award. cal culture and its Chief Conductor as of The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg autumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. The Violin Concertos was Gramophone mag- FRSO has two Honorary Conductors: azine’s Editor’s Choice in February 2014. Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts The Radio Orchestra of ten players of the world. One of the many high- founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- lights of the 2015/2016 season will be chestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu tours to Japan and Austria with conduc- Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor tor Hannu Lintu. by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, The home channel of the FRSO is Yle Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and certs, usually live, both in Finland and Sakari Oramo. abroad. Its concerts can also be heard In addition to the great Classical- and watched with excellent live stream Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- quality on the FRSO website (www.yle.fi/ temporary music is a major item in the rso), and the majority of them are tele- repertoire of the FRSO, which each year vised live on the Yle Teema channel. premieres a number of Yle commissions. Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- cord all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive. During the 2015/2016 sea- son it will premiere six Finnish works commissioned by Yle. The programme will also include Piano Concertos by Beethoven and Prokofiev, Symphonies by Schumann and Brahms, and Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. Among its guest artists will be pianists Murray Perahia, Nelson Freire and András Schiff, conductors David Zinman, Tugan Sokhiev and Manfred Honeck, soprano Karita Mattila and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter.

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