19.5. at 20:00 Helsinki Music Centre

Hannu Lintu conductor Narek Hakhnazaryan cello Lotta Emanuelsson presenter

Robert Schumann: 1 Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129 1. Nicht zu schnell 2. Langsam 3. Sehr lebhaft

Arnold Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht op. 4 Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) found At first, Schumann did well in his new composing either very easy or extremely job. This was reflected on the composition difficult. The reason for this is often said front. By the end of 1850, he had already to be his ultra-romantic mindset and men- produced two large-scale works: the Cello tal instability, but his artistic image in fact Concerto in A Minor and his third sym- acted as a screen for his incipient men- phony, the Rhenish. tal problems, his manic-depressive bipolar- In his best Romantic works, his piano ity. The creative façade for this were his and cello concertos, Schumann focused two literary characters: the temperamen- more on poetic ideas than on instrumen- tal, extrovert Florestan and the dreamy, tal brilliance. He had developed a strong retiring Eusebius. His compositions often affection for the cello back in the 1840s, came in frenzied, heated spurts, but these when he began taking cello lessons and were offset by longer periods of passive composed a number of chamber works depression. In the late 1840s, he began to for it. find Leipzig oppressive and in 1850 took The chamber-music intimacy grows to 2 the job of Music Director in Düsseldorf. orchestral proportions in the cello concer- In a letter to his predecessor, the con- to. Its format is liberally conceived, with ductor Hiller, Schumann seems to have three more or less traditional movements a premonition that the story would not following one another without a break, have a happy ending. “I was looking up and no grandiose orchestral introduc- Düsseldorf in an old geography the other tion. The opening movement jumps al- day, and found, amongst the attractions, most straight in with the main theme on three convents and an asylum. I might the cello, continuing with melodies full of put up with the convents, but it made me feeling and the orchestra now and then uncomfortable to read of the other. I dis- chipping in with some spirited comments. covered that I had from my window a full The coda is a chance for the soloist to re- view of Sonnenstein [an asylum]. This out- ally show off and also serves as a bridge look came latterly to affect me seriously… to the slow movement, the concerto’s I have to be very much on guard against dreamy hub. The transition to the quick fi- any melancholic impressions of this sort. nale again takes the form of an ornate ca- As you know, we musicians live on sunny denza. The finale now has a concerto-like heights and are cut deeply by the trage- feel for drama, despite some occasional dies of reality, when these are presented moments of calm meditation. These lend to our naked eyes.” credibility to the radiant optimism of the final A-major key. Arnold Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4

To the present-day listener, the string sex- duty toward the demands of nature. A cli- tet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) mactic ascension, elaborating the motif, by Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951) is the expresses her self-accusation of her great veritable epitome of the stylistic and for- sin.” mal thinking of the Late Romantic peri- The thing that appealed above all to od, but when it was composed, it seemed Schönberg was the emotional conflict. to suddenly appear out of thin air. As Much of the poem, he said in the liner Schönberg himself wrote in 1949, Mahler notes of a recording by the Hollywood and Strauss had appeared on the musi- Quartet, deserves appreciation because of cal scene, and every musician was imme- its highly poetic presentation of emotions diately forced to take sides, for or against. provoked by the beauty of nature, and for Being then only 23 years of age in 1899, the distinguished moral attitude in deal- he was easily swept along and began com- ing with a staggeringly difficult prob- posing symphonic poems after their ex- lem. The emotional pressure of the mu- ample, culminating in Transfigured Night. sic seems to outweigh the story’s details. Verklärte Nacht is based on the poem Vienna was not amused. Its prestigious 3 Zwei Menschen by Richard Dehmel. Tonkünstlerverein refused to add it to its Schönberg told the story as follows: repertoire because, it said, “It sounded “Promenading in a park, on a clear, cold as if someone had smeared the score of moonlit night, a woman confesses a trag- Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde while the ink edy to the man with her in a dramatic out- was still wet.” Verklärte Nacht is nowadays burst. She had married a man she did not the work by Schönberg probably most fre- love. She was unhappy and lonely in this quently performed, especially in the ver- marriage, but forced herself to remain sion for string orchestra he made in 1917 faithful, and finally obeying the maternal and revised in 1943. instinct, she is now with child from a man Programme notes by Antti Häyrynen she does not love. She had even consid- ered herself praiseworthy for fulfilling her HANNU LINTU

Hannu Lintu has been Chief Conductor Symphony Orchestras and the Hungarian of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra National Philharmonic, and concerts with since autumn 2013. He takes over as Chief the Boston and St. Louis Symphonies, the Conductor of the Finnish National Opera New Japan Philharmonic, the Singapore and Ballet in January 2022. Symphony and the NDR Elbphilharmonie. During the 2020/2021 season, Maestro Hannu Lintu first studied the cello and Lintu will, pandemic permitting, make his piano at the Sibelius Academy, and lat- debut with the New York Philharmonic er orchestral conducting in the class of and Tokyo NHK Symphony Orchestra and Jorma Panula. He participated in master- make return appearances with the London classes with Myung-Whun Chung at the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Radio Philharmonic, and the Symphony Italy, and took first prize at the Nordic Orchestras of Baltimore, Detroit and Conducting Competition in Bergen in Chicago. Recent highlights have includ- 1994. He has recorded on the Ondine, BIS, ed debuts with the Montreal and Chicago Hyperion and other labels.

NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN 4 “Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in Theme has been with me almost since I , Armenia, into a family of musi- started learning the cello. I was around six cians: his father is a violinist, his mother or seven when my father came home with a pianist. He was six when he began play- a videotape of Yo-Yo Ma playing the pie- ing the cello and at 11 moved to , ce with the Leningrad Philharmonic un- where he studied at the Conservatory with der Yuri Temirkanov. Even though I was Alexei Seleznyov. He later moved on to the so young, I could sense his freedom of New England Conservatory of Music in expression, creativity and the way he res- Boston, where his teacher was Lawrence ponded to Temirkanov; it was shocking Lesser and he received an Artist Diploma and impressive in equal measure and I in 2011. The late knew then that playing the cello in this was also one of his mentors. He has been expressive way was how I wanted to spend the soloist with many of the finest orches- the rest of my life.” tras and performed chamber music across The shock waves of hearing Yo-Yo Europe, the United States and Asia, elic- Man play the Rococo Variations would in iting such comments as “dazzlingly bril- time lead to a dazzling career for Narek liant” (The Strad) and “nothing short of Hakhnazaryan (b. 1988). Now one of the magnificent” The( San Francisco Chronicle). most highly-acclaimed cellists of his gen- In addition to the staple concertos, eration, he has reached where he is today Hakhnazaryan has performed both con- via competition victories headed by the temporary works and ones less often famous Tchaikovsky in 2011. heard, by such composers as Auerbach, Panufnik and Sharafyan. Chamber mu- you read it. It’s like Shakespeare: there’s sic likewise plays a major part in his life, millions of actors doing different things and his discography includes works by with his original works.” Mendelssohn, Schumann, Beethoven, Though Covid-19 has made life difficult Britten, Shostakovich, Brahms and for Hakhnazaryan, things could, he said, Dvořák. be even worse if it were not for streamed Hakhnazaryan treats the music he per- concerts. “If there is a choice between a forms with respect while still allowing live concert and a performance before a himself a personal perspective: “I try to camera, of course, I will choose the real be honest with the composer’s music. I performance, the communication with don’t really show-off or do anything for the audience, the real energy, but in these the audience. The scores don’t need any conditions the online concert is the only changing because they are genius already. means to share your music with them and The musician is just the narrator, and the give music-lovers good moments.” script is already written. It’s all about how The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 5 The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra The FRSO has recorded works (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish by Mahler, Bartók, Sibelius, Hakola, Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, is to produce and promote Finnish musical Kokkonen and others. It has twice won culture and its Chief Conductor as of au- a Gramophone Award: for its disc of tumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 The Radio Orchestra of ten players and of Bartók Violin Concertos in 2018. founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- Other distinctions have included BBC chestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, and MIDEM Classical awards. Its disc of Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, tone poems and songs by Sibelius won Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka an International Classical Music Award Saraste and Sakari Oramo, and taking (ICMA) in 2018, and it has been the re- over from Hannu Lintu in 2021 will be cipient of a Finnish EMMA award in 2016 Nicholas Collon. and 2019. In addition to the great Classical- The FRSO concerts are broadcast live Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- on the Yle Areena and Radio 1 channels temporary music is a major item in the and are recorded and shown later on Yle repertoire of the FRSO, which each year Teema and TV 1. premieres a number of Yle commissions. Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- cord all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive.