21 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 11 Helsinki Music Centre at 19
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21 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 11 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 Oliver Knussen, conductor Leila Josefowicz, violin Kirill Gerstein, piano Hans Werner Henze: Barcarola 20 min INTERVAL 20 min Alban Berg: Chamber Concerto 39 min I Thema scherzoso con variazioni II Adagio III Rondo ritmico con introduzione Interval at about 19.30. The concert ends at about 20.45. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and the internet (yle.fi/klassinen). 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. Petri Aarnio & Jari Valo, violin Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma & Martta Tolonen, viola Tuomas Lehto & Mikko Ivars, cello Arnold Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) 28 min I Sehr langsam II Etwas bewegter III Schwer betont IV Sehr breit und langsam V Sehr ruhig 2 HANS WERNER ginning of the piece the Eton Boating Song from my opera We Come to the HENZE (1926–2012): River, can be heard briefly in the harps. BARCAROLA Later, after extended cantilenas, the real Barcarola is played by the solo vi- Hans Werner Henze was one of the ola, accompanied lightly by flutes and leading post-WWII composers in harps. In the score, the musical progress both his native Germany and Europe. is carried out like a journey: the musi- Barcarola was commissioned by the cal material is transformed, changed Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich and and developed in the same sense as is was first performed there with Gerd the mental process of metamorphosis. Albrecht conducting in April 1980. The Charon’s boat crosses the stream by work is a tribute and memorial to a night and the fragments of memory good friend of Henze’s, Paul Dessau appear to the traveller as colourful phe- (1894–1979). nomena which flare up on the horizon, In concert music, a ‘Barcarola’, vari- on the unfamiliar river bank. When the ously spelt, is a character piece born journey nears its end, the other bank of a Venetian gondola song. Some of comes into sight: in this moment the the best-known Barcarolles have been confounded traveller recognises a lit- composed by Chopin and, of course tle island on the horizon, which shines Offenbach, in his Tales of Hoffmann. brightly in the morning light; he rubs Both are in the 6/8 time associated his eyes in astonishment, blinks, and with the genre, yet they do not repre- then he knows: this is Ithaka.” sent the Barcarola at its most typical. For they are idyllic evocations of rip- pling waves and a blissful atmosphere, ALBAN BERG whereas the traditional mainstream barcarolles are painted in darker, often (1885–1935): CHAMBER gloomy hues. This graver custom de- CONCERTO rives from the sombre look of the city of canals, especially the black gondolas Berg composed his Chamber Concerto that readily call to mind images of fu- as a 50th birthday present for his nerals and death. teacher, Arnold Schönberg, but did not Such is also the case with Henze’s complete it until a few months after Barcarola. True, it does rock gently the actual day. He explained how, in along from time to time, but it is all his Concerto, he had woven into it his the more concerned with death. It ties birthday greetings and the long-stand- up with Greek mythology in two ways. ing friendship between Schönberg, For as Henze wrote: “The trumpet- and himself, and another of Schönberg’s trombone-calls in this boat song were star pupils: Anton Webern. The work played by the ferryman Charon upon begins with three motifs in the nature crossing the River Styx. Near the be- of mottos, the notes derived straight 3 from the “musical initials” of the three Berg further used time signatures of composers ADSCHBEG (Schönberg), three types (6): the first movement is AEBE (Webern) and ABABEG (Berg). in triple time and the second in sim- [Note: German S, H and B correspond ple time, while the third shows great in English to E flat, B and B flat, respec- variation. There are also three rhythmic tively.] models (7), and approaches to harmo- More significant than the motifs ny (8): some vaguely tonal, some open- themselves is, however, the number ly atonal and some dodecaphonic. And three, or rather its presence in multi- to crown it all, the numbers of bars in ples at every level of the music. Berg the movements and sections are divis- listed nine ways in which the music im- ible by three (9). plements the idea of “threeness”. The Concerto is in three movements Jouni Kaipainen (abridged) (1), the third being a cleverly-crafted combination of the first and second. Analogically, each movement has its OLIVER KNUSSEN own timbre: the soloist in the first is the piano, in the second the violin and One of the pre-eminent composer- in the third the piano and violin to- conductors in the world today, Oliver gether. In other words, there are three Knussen (born in Glasgow in 1952) is types of instruments (2): a keyboard, a presently Artist-in-Association with stringed and a wind instrument. both the BBC Symphony Orchestra In the first movement, variation form and the Birmingham Contemporary combines with sonata form to pro- Music Group. The recipient of duce six different perspectives on the many awards, he has been Artistic same basic idea (3). Like countless Director of the Aldeburgh Festival, slow movements of the Classical and Head of Contemporary Music at the Romantic periods, the beautiful, lyrical- Tanglewood Music Center and Music ly-melodic second movement observes Director of the London Sinfonietta. the ABA scheme, where the first A and Among his best-known composi- the B section differ and the second A tions are three symphonies, concertos repeats the first but with some altera- for horn and violin, several song cycles, tions (4). works for ensembles and for solo piano, The third movement begins with an and the operas Where the Wild Things introduction that is also a cadenza for Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! written the soloists. Then comes a synthesis of in collaboration with the late Maurice the two preceding movements. Berg Sendak. said he combined them in three ways Oliver Knussen’s 60th birthday was (5): by superimposing themes from the celebrated with special events in previous movements, by rearranging Aldeburgh, Amsterdam, Birmingham, them like a montage, and by playing London and Tanglewood. whole passages from them simultane- ously, note-for-note. 4 LEILA JOSEFOWICZ KIRILL GERSTEIN An outstanding advocate and cham- Multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein has pion of contemporary music for the rapidly ascended into classical music’s violin, Leila Josefowicz is a frequent highest ranks, reaching beyond the collaborator of several leading compos- classical genre with his unique back- ers, orchestras and conductors around ground in jazz. Winner of the first prize the world. Violin concertos have been at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano written especially for her by Colin Competition in 2001, he was honoured Matthews, Steven Mackey and Esa- with the Gilmore Award in 2010 for his Pekka Salonen. Her latest recording, merits as a pianist. He has since used released by Deutsche Grammophon his Gilmore prize to commission new in autumn 2012, features Salonen’s works by Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio and Oliver Knussen, music by whom Symphony Orchestra conducted by the he has also recorded. His disc of recit- composer. John Adams has recently al works by Schumann, Liszt and Oliver been commissioned to write a work for Knussen was named by the New York her, and another, by Luca Francesconi, Times as one of the ten best record- was premiered in February this year. ings of 2010. During the 2013/14 season Leila Highlights of the 2013/2014 season Josefowicz performs John Adams’ include performances with the London Violin Concerto with the Sydney Philharmonic and Philharmonia, the Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Czech Philharmonic, the Melbourne orchestra, conducted by the compos- Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus er. Elsewhere, she appears with the Orchestra. North American engage- BBC and Toronto Symphony, the Los ments include appearances with the Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago and New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Baltimore Symphony and in recital in and Cleveland orchestras, and the London and Gent. Symphony Orchestras of Chicago, San Leila Josefowicz has been the re- Francisco, St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati cipient of the prestigious MacArthur and Houston. Fellowship. Born in Russia in 1979, Mr. Gerstein became an American citizen in 2003 and is currently a professor of piano at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. 5 THE FINNISH discs have reaped some major distinc- tions, such as the BBC Music Magazine RADIO SYMPHONY Award and the Académie Charles Cros ORCHESTRA Award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg violin concertos (Sony BMG) The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist recei- (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish ved the MIDEM Classical Award in 2008, Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its missi- in which year the New York Times chose on is to produce and promote Finnish the other Lindberg disc as its Record of musical culture and its Chief Conductor the Year. as of autumn 2013 is Hannu Lintu. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts The Radio Orchestra of ten players of the world. During the 2013/2014 sea- founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- son it will be visiting Central Europe un- chestra strength in the 1960s. Its previo- der the baton of Hannu Lintu. us Chief Conductors have been Toivo All the FRSO concerts both in Finland Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo and abroad are broadcast, usually live, Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, on Yle Radio 1.