24.4. at 19.00 FRIDAY SERIES13 Helsinki Music Centre

Kaisa Kortelainen flute Kyeong Ham oboe

W. F. Bach: Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major for two flutes F. 55 I Allegro II Adagio ma non molto III Presto

Helena Juntunen 1 soprano Kaisa Kortelainen flute Jussi Särkkä bassoon Sivan Magen harp Camilla Vilkman viola

Otto Virtanen: Five Songs of Soundness, premiere I A Sigh (Anne Finch) II Days (Philip Larkin) III ...all on fire (“a nursery rhyme”) IV I so liked spring (Charlotte Mew) V Elegy (Chidiock Tichborne)

interval 20 min Laura Vikman violin

J. S. Bach: Partita No. 1 in B Minor for solo violin I Allemanda - Double II Corrente - Double (Presto) III Sarabande - Double IV Tempo di Borea - Double

Kyeong Ham oboe Christoffer Sundqvist clarinet Laura Vikman violin Ezra Woo 2 viola Iikka Järvi double bass Atte Kilpinen dance

Sergei Prokofiev: in G Minor, Op. 39 I Tema con variazioni II Andante energico III Allegro sostenuto, ma con brio IV Adagio pesante V Allegro precipitato, ma non troppo presto VI Andantino W. F. Bach: Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major for two flutes F. 55 Six generations of musical Bachs culmina- keyboard. His chamber music included six ted in Johann Sebastian and his four com- charming flute duets. Music for two flutes poser sons. Musically, they had their finger was popular not only in Germany but also well on the pulse of the times and seized at in France, where the instrument was espe- trends that paved the way for Classicism cially well loved. The French spirit that per- and even Romanticism. The eldest of the vades the flute duet by Friedemann Bach four sons, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710– differs from the synthetic style of the late 1784) kept closest to the close-knit contra- Baroque cultivating a classical, more uni- puntal style of his father, leaving behind versal rather than a national approach. sinfonias, church cantatas and works for Otto Virtanen: Five Songs of Soundness Otto Virtanen (b. 1970) has played first biggest work. The focal instrument is the solo bassoon in the FRSO since 2004, but harp. “The idea for a piece for three harps he also studied composition with Tapio in the manner of Debussy had been on 3 Nevanlinna. “The years I’ve spent puffing my mind for years. At some stage it oc- away right in the middle of the orchestra, curred to me that the addition of a sopra- at the very heart of masterpieces, as it no might afford some interesting timbral were, inspired me to experiment with mu- dimensions. Then these poems in English sical structures and mechanisms,” he says. from different eras began to group to- Equally fruitful have been the constant di- gether and I could no longer put them alogue and collaboration with professio- aside. I’m happy and proud now to hear nal composers and other composer-musi- them performed by Helena Juntunen, cians in the FRSO. The song cycle now to Kaisa Kortelainen, Camilla Vilkman, Jussi be premiered is Virtanen’s sixth and so far Särkkä and Sivan Magen.” J. S. Bach: Partita No. 1 in B Minor for solo violin Music for unaccompanied solo violin be- human and suprahuman. The sonatas gan to emerge in Central Europe in the and partitas have been an endless sour- late 17th century. Johann Sebastian Bach ce of sustenance for violinists ever since. (1685–1750) continued the tradition with Partita no. 1 has “doubles” in shorter note his sonatas and partitas. He wrote three values for each of the dance movements. of each, the more abstract sonatas alter- Such doubles were typical of French dan- nating with partitas akin to dance suites. ce suites, and they here alter the mood of He succeeded in entering into the very each dance, giving it deeper meaning. The soul of the instrument, exploiting its po- partita ends with a brisk bourrée (borea). tential for the study of phenomena both : Quintet in G Minor, Op. 39 Lyrical and roguish happily coexist in the performance. Its ballet origins and prac- music of Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953), tical considerations explain the quintet’s and there is no lack of grotesque mischief sprawling structure and unusual combi- in the works of his earlier years, particu- nation of instruments. The clarinet and larly. The burlesque mood of the quintet oboe giggle and squeak, the violin and vi- he composed in 1924 does not therefore ola fume and the double bass growls like come as a surprise, but there is a reason a bear. The gracefully grotesque circus for it: Prokofiev originally wrote a chamber figures and the underlying melancholy ballet called Trapeze on a circus theme for call to mind the puppets of Stravinsky’s a small ballet company founded by Boris Petrushka. The rolling, clown-like gait im- Romanov, a choreographer in the famous merses the listener in the enigmatic story of . The told by the five instruments. company would in time perform three bal- Programme notes by Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen lets to music by Prokofiev. Prokofiev also translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo arranged the music as a piece for concert

4