Tonscherben 15 Min I–IX Alban Berg: Violin

7.4. FRIDAY SERIES 12 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00

Heinz Holliger, conductor Isabelle Faust, violin

Heinz Holliger: Tonscherben 15 min I–IX

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto 22 min I Andante II Allegretto III Liberamente IV Poco a poco sempre più V Allegro VI Pesante, ma quasi a tempo VII Adagio VIII Coda

INTERVAL 20 min

Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 2 38 min I Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo II Scherzo (Allegro vivace) III Adagio espressivo IV Allegro molto vivace

1 The LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER MUSIC will begin in the main Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls.

Late-night chamber music: Jukka Harju, horn Jouko Harjanne, trumpet Tomas Gricius, trumpet Teppo Alestalo, trombone Anders Hauge, tuba Kazutaka Morita, percussion instruments

Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzona per Sonare no. 4 2 min

J. S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, Contrapunctus I 4 min

Tylman Susato (sov. John Iveson): Renaissance dances 12 min "Five Dances from The Danserye" 1. La Mourisque 2. Bransle Quatre Bransles 3. Ronde 4. Ronde – Mon Amy 5. Basse Danse Bergeret

Interval at about 19:55. The concert ends at about 21:05, the late-night chamber music at about 21:40. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso.

2 HEINZ HOLLIGER evocative of Webern, but Holliger works on a different premise. According to (b. 1939): him, he was composing not Webern-like TONSCHERBEN aphorisms but fragments that could have become bigger forms. As an exam- Many of Holliger’s works have a strong ple he gives the first movement, which literary link. One example is Tonscherben begins in the manner of a large-scale (Sound Fragments, 1985). In 1983, form but then falls apart in a flash, like Holliger spent some time in Israel, ash. In the last movement, the music where he gave a performance of the breaks down into disjointed whispers; third oboe concerto by Bruno Maderna. the only real funebre gesture is the dot- While there, he got to know the Israeli ted funeral-march rhythm in the first poet David Rokeah, who was very tak- bar. en with the concerto’s novel sound and was inspired by it to write two cycles of poetry. ALBAN BERG Holliger planned to dedicate (1885–1935): VIOLIN Tonscherben to Rokeah, but events took a tragic turn when he heard immediate- CONCERTO ly after completing his work that Rokeah had unexpectedly died on May 29, 1985, The shadow of a double tragedy hangs the very day he (Holliger) had written over the birth of Berg’s violin concer- the last part of the work, marked fune- to. On receiving a commission from bre. He therefore worded the dedication Krasner in February 1935, Berg began “in memoriam David Rokeah”. sketching in some material. The first The title Tonscherben refers both to tragedy struck at the end of April, when the fragmentary expression of the in- Manon Gropius, daughter of his close dividual movements and to the frag- family friend Alma Mahler and archi- mentary form of the work as a whole. tect Walter Gropius, died of polio at the Lasting about a quarter of an hour in age of 18. Berg decided to dedicate his performance, it consists of nine short concerto “to the memory of an angel” movements the order of which is left (“dem Andenken eines Engels”). While mainly for the conductor to decide. composing the concerto in summer The first is always I and the last IX. 1935, he was stung by an insect that Otherwise, the order is quite free, within gradually led to a carbuncle, blood poi- the constraints imposed by Holliger. He soning and his death on the morning also issued recommendations, accord- of Christmas Eve 1935. The premiere of ing to which II, IV or VI would suit best the concerto in Barcelona in April 1936 after I, and VIII, VI or II before IX. became a commemoration event. Tonscherben explores many new in- Though very much in the nature of strumental and modern composition a memorial work, the concerto also techniques, such as varying degrees of has what Berg intended to be a se- aleatory. The compact writing may be cret programme hidden in the music.

3 According to this, the two quotations in Leipzig the following month. Though from a Carinthian (Austrian) folk song known as Symphony No. 2, it was actu- reflect a youthful love and his illicit af- ally preceded by two numbered sym- fair with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, wife phonies, the Spring and the one in D mi- of a wealthy industrialist, beginning in nor subsequently known as no. 4. the 1920s. Berg had already made hid- The first movement of the C-major den allusions to this affair once before, symphony begins with a noble introduc- in the Lyric Suite for string quartet of tion consisting of a calm contrapuntal 1925–1926. flow round a signal-like brass motif. This The Berg violin concerto is in two motif turns out to be a sort of motto for movements, each with two main sec- the whole work, reappearing at the end tions. The first is for the most part ten- of the second movement and the fina- der in mood and may be imagined as le. The second half of the introduction painting a portrait of the young Manon. is more mobile and leads into the quick The second main section is light main section full of what Schumann and dance-like, interwoven with the called “spiritual rebellion”. Carinthian folk song. The Scherzo deviates from the gener- The second movement begins with ic tradition, being in simple time and the a heart-rending outburst, like a cut to second of the fourth movements rather grim reality; the colours and twists are than the usual third. It is a Schumann- now sharper, the lines of counterpoint like variation on a spirited Mendelssohn more incisive. In character, the first sec- Scherzo, with two contrasting Trio section is “frei wie ein Kadenz” (free, like tions providing a bit of a breather amid a cadenza). The music gradually builds a whizzing whirl of semiquavers. The up to a big climax before subsiding into slow movement, dominated by the mel- the slow second section at the heart of ody introduced right at the outset, is which is an old chorale melody, with var- some of the most profoundly-felt music iations. Towards the end, the Carinthian Schumann ever composed. folk song comes back again, and the The symphony’s heroic struggle is coda fades into silence. magnificently replenished in the fina- le, forging overpoweringly and trium- phantly ahead. Occupying an important ROBERT SCHUMANN role in the latter part of the movement (1810–1856): is a theme from Beethoven’s song cy- cle An die fernte Geliebte; Schumann had SYMPHONY NO. 2 used this once before, in his Fantasie in C for piano. Immersing motifs like this Robert Schumann sketched his second in their works was part of the secret lan- symphony in little more than a fort- guage employed by Schumann and his night but did not complete the full or- pianist wife Clara. chestral score until October 1846. His close friend and trusted conductor Felix Programme notes by Kimmo Korhonen Mendelssohn conducted the premiere translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo

4 HEINZ HOLLIGER Kafka Fragments with soprano Anna Prohaska and the Schubert Octet on period instruments. This season she be- Heinz Holliger is triple renowned: as a gins as an Artistic Partner of the Mahler superb oboist, composer and conductor. Chamber Orchestra. He studied the oboe in Bern and Paris In the course of her career, Isabelle and in the early 1960s signed on as a Faust has performed and recorded with composition student of Pierre Boulez. many celebrated conductors, among Holliger the conductor has worked them John Gardiner, Daniel Harding with many great orchestras the and Bernard Haitink. She worked in world over. These have included the close collaboration with the late Claudio Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Abbado, and her CD of the Berg vio- London Philharmonia, the Amsterdam lin concerto with the Orchestra Mozart Concertgebouw Orchestra, the won Gramophone, Diapason d’Or and Cleveland Symphony and the Chamber Echo Classical awards. Orchestra of Europe. In addition to concertos, Isabelle Faust Discs featuring Heinz Holliger as obo- has recorded chamber music by Brahms, ist, composer and conductor have been Schumann and others with Alexander released on the Teldec, Philips and ECM Melnikov. This season she will release labels. The disc he made with soprano recordings of Mozart’s violin concertos Juliane Banse won Midem Classical and and, with Kristian Bezuidenhout, Bach Echo Classical awards in 2006. harpsichord sonatas.

ISABELLE FAUST THE FINNISH Isabelle Faust has made a name for her- RADIO SYMPHONY self as an artist of great vision, be the ORCHESTRA repertoire Baroque or contemporary. She got launched on an international The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra career while still a teenager, with victo- (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish ry in both the Leopold Mozart and the Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mis- Paganini competitions. sion is to produce and promote Finnish Faust’s repertoire ranges from Bach musical culture and its Chief Conductor to the great Romantic concertos and as of autumn 2013 has been Hannu works by composers of today: Ligeti, Lintu. The FRSO has two Honorary Lachenmann and Widmann. Plans for Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and the near future include the premieres Sakari Oramo. of several concertos, by Marco Stoppa, The Radio Orchestra of ten players Oscar Strasnoy, Ondřej Adamek and founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- others. She has performed Kurtág’s chestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu

5 Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor Emma award in the Classical Album cat- by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, egory. Music by Sibelius, Prokofiev and Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Fagerlund will be among the repertoire Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and recorded during the 2016/2017 season. Sakari Oramo. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts In addition to the great Classical- of the world. During the 2016/2017 Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- season its schedule will include a tour temporary music is a major item in the in Finland, taking in concerts conduct- repertoire of the FRSO, which each year ed by Hannu Lintu in Suomussalmi, premieres a number of Yle commis- Kajaani, Mikkeli and Kuopio. sions. Another of the orchestra’s tasks is The home channel of the FRSO is Yle to record all Finnish orchestral music for Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- the Yle archive. certs, usually live, both in Finland and uring the 2016/2017 season the FRSO abroad. Its concerts can also be heard will premiere five Finnish works com- and watched with excellent live stream missioned by Yle and feature such pi- quality on the FRSO website (www.yle.fi/ oneers of Finnish Modernism as Väinö rso), and the majority of them are tele- Raitio and Uuno Klami. The programme vised live on the Yle Teema channel. will also include orchestral works by Stravinsky, symphonies by Mahler and Bruckner, Haydn’s The Seasons oratorio and concertos by contemporary composers. Among its guest artists will be soprano Karita Mattila and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Teodor Currentzis and Gustavo Gimeno, and pianist Daniil Trifonov. The FRSO has recorded works by Mahler, Ligeti, Sibelius, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some pres- tigious distinctions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Award, the Académie Charles Cros Award and a MIDEM Classical Award. The disc of Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen and Pohjola’s Daughter was Gramophone magazine’s Critic’s Choice in December 2015 and brought the FRSO and Hannu Lintu a Finnish