Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo, conductor Jouko Laivuori, piano

Kirmo Lintinen: Piano Concerto 1, fp. (YLE commission) 32 min

INTERVAL 15 min

Gabriel Fauré: Incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande, 16 min Op. 80 I Prélude (Quasi adagio) II La Fileuse (The Spinner) (Andantino quasi allegretto) III Sicilienne (Allegretto molto moderato) IV Molto adagio (La mort de Mélisande, The Death of Mélisande)

Olivier Messiaen: L’Ascension 22 min Four symphonic meditations for orchestra I Majesté du Christ demandant sa gloire a son Père (The Majesty of Christ seeking his glory from his Father) II Alleluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel (Serene alleluias of a soul seeking Heaven) III Alleluia sur la trompette, alleluia sur la cymbale (Alleluia on the trumpet, allelulia on the cymbal) IV Prière du Christ montant vers son Père (Prayer of Christ ascending unto his Father)

Interval at about 7.35 pm. Th e concert ends at about 8.40 pm. Broadcast live on YLE Radio 1 and the Internet (www.yle.fi /rso).

1 Kirmo Lintinen (1967–): Piano Concerto No. 1

Kirmo Lintinen has composed over a hun- Of his fi rst piano concerto Lintinen says: dred works covering a wide range of genres “My Piano Concerto No. 1 (2008) is a work and moods, from children’s songs to opera, lit- lasting over half an hour and is in fi ve move- tle pieces for teaching purposes to fi lm scores, ments performed without a break. Th ough the dance music to dodecaphony, and jazz to Ba- movements all have basic characters of their roque allusions. Th e bulk of his output rep- own, each one incorporates and develops mo- resents the Western classical music tradition. tifs from the others. Among his main works are the Cantata prover- Risoluto e maestoso is an exuberant opening biorum of 1999 for choir and orchestra, Mobile roughly in sonata form. festivo of 2003 for symphony orchestra, the Th e Scherzo urbano quickens the pulse. ‘madrigale concertato’ David and Bathsheba of Th e Notturno calms it down. 2001 for solo voices and Baroque orchestra, In the Cadenza the soloist comes in for spe- and two operas: Nuts about Nosh for children cial observation. and the full-length Baroque tragicomedy Fit- Th e Finale brillante pops a cork. ness (2005–07). He has written two piano con- Th e concerto is dedicated to Jouko Laivuori, certos. No. 1 was fi rst performed by the Finn- whose excellent piano instruction I was once ish Radio Symphony Orchestra and No. 2 is to privileged to enjoy. be premiered by the Avanti! Chamber Orches- tra at its Summer Sounds festival in Porvoo in Happy 50th birthday, Jokke!” June this year. Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924): Incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80

Gabriel Fauré composed his incidental music to reminiscent of Wagner’s Parsifal. Th e Andanti- the play Pelléas et Mélisande by Maurice Mae- no quasi Allegretto introduces a delicate oboe terlinck in 1898. Th e same subject was later tak- melody over restless, humming strings sug- en up by Debussy, Sibelius and Schönberg. gestive of Mélisande’s spinning wheel. Th e Si- Most of Fauré’s stage music was orchestrat- cilienne, a fl ute song accompanied on a harp, ed by Charles Koechlin, another composer, but sounds slightly unreal in its innocence. Dark when it became a success, Fauré decided to ar- shadows dominate the fi nal movement, Th e range it himself as a concert series in 1901. Th is Death of Mélisande, which was originally the four-movement suite also included the well- prelude to Act III. Th e music rolls along in a known Sicilienne, lifted by Fauré from his un- gloomy funeral march but Fauré, as was his cus- fi nished score for Molière’s play Le bourgeois tom, does not let the emotional outpourings gentilhomme. detract from the dignity of the scene. Th e Prelude (Quasi adagio) envelops itself in melancholy gloom but also brings out the cou- Antti Häyrynen ( abridged) ple’s tragic fate with a quiet monumentalism

2 Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992): L’Ascension, four symphonic meditations for orchestra

L’Ascension, the four symphonic meditations lujahs were often only sketchily notated to per- for organ of 1933, fi rst won Olivier Messiaen a mit airy, spontaneous expression. name as a composer that was further enhanced Th e last meditation peers further into the fu- by the orchestral version premiered in 1936. ture, both of Messiaen’s music and his theo- Th e fi rst meditation is a monumental brass cho- logical worldview. Th e slow tempo, the leisure- rale based on the words in the Gospel accord- ly shift from one modal chord to another, and ing to St. John: “Father, the hour is come; glo- the enigmatic but gentle radiance of the eter- rify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee.” nal light in the string timbres indicate that the Herein lies the glorifi cation of Christ that be- traditional concept of time and space has been gins on the cross and continues via the resur- abandoned. Th e build-up to the last fortissi- rection to Ascension Day. mo is not a physical eff ort but a release: “I have Th e second meditation is a vision of heav- manifested thy name unto the men thou gav- en in pastoral mood in which woodwind ara- est me out of the world… I am no more in the besques alternate with three interludes. world, but these are in the world, and I come to Th e third movement continues the glorifi ca- thee.” (John 17:6 & 11) tion, referring to the words of Psalm 47. Mes- siaen’s shouts of joy are descended from Grego- Antti Häyrynen ( abridged) rian plainsong in which, he claimed, the halle-

Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo

Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo is a familiar face in Jesús López-Cobos in the Spanish National Or- Finland, having appeared with such orchestras chestra, and a year later Pierre Boulez invited as the FRSO, the Philharmonic and him to become assistant conductor of the En- Avanti!. Among the orchestras he has conduct- semble InterContemporain in Paris. He is at ed elsewhere are the Ensemble Contemporain present Chief Conductor and Artistic Director de Montréal, the Ensemble Modern (Frank- of the Pablo Sarasate Orchestra in Pamplona furt), the Klangforum (Vienna) and the French and has appeared with ensembles of his own at Radio Symphony. Last year he conducted the such venues as the Châtelet Th eatre, the Am- opera Adriana Mater by at the sterdam Concertgebouw, the Queen Elizabeth Finnish National Opera and the Santa Fe Opera Hall in London and the leading halls in Berlin Festival in the United States. In 1988 he was and Vienna. off ered the position of assistant conductor to

Jouko Laivuori

Jouko Laivuori studied at the 1985–87, he has also been an accompanist at with Merete Söderhjelm and , ob- the Sibelius Academy and keyboard player with taining his diploma in 1984 and giving his de- the FRSO since 1989. He was a founder mem- but recital at the Sibelius Academy the follow- ber of Avanti! and has played in the ranks of the ing year. Pianist with the Finnish National Bal- New Radio Sextet, has premiered works by Eero let and the Finnish National Opera Orchestra Hämeenniemi, Paavo Heininen, Magnus Lind-

3 berg and others and been the soloist with the has made a number of recordings with Avanti! FRSO in such works as Messiaen’s Turangalîla and released discs of solo works by Paavo Hein- Symphony and Transfi guration. Jouko Laivuori inen and other repertoire.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Th e Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FR- emy) Hall as a radio greeting to the Americans SO), the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting on New Year’s Day 1939. Th is recording is the Company (YLE), celebrated its 80th anniversa- only known document of Sibelius in the role ry in autumn 2007. Its Chief Conductor is Sa- of conductor. kari Oramo, who assumed the post in 2003 af- With Sakari Oramo the FRSO has recorded ter nine years as its conductor. music by Bartók, Hakola, Lindberg, Kaipain- Th e Radio Orchestra of ten players founded en, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc in 1927 grew to a full-size symphony orchestra of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its in the 1960s. Its chief conductors have been discs have won many prestigious distinctions, Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo such as Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam and Juk- awards. Its most recent honour, a MIDEM Clas- ka-Pekka Saraste. sical Award, was for the recording of the Lind- Contemporary music is a major item in the berg and Sibelius Violin Concertos with Lisa Ba- repertoire of the FRSO, which each year pre- tiashvili as the soloist in 2008. mieres a number of YLE commissions. All in Since its fi rst foreign tour, to Leningrad, in all the FRSO has so far premiered more than 1963, the FRSO has given nearly 300 concerts 500 works. Its programme for the 2008/09 abroad. It has visited Japan four times. During season features seven world and many Finn- the spring 2009 season it will be visiting Ger- ish premieres. many, Vienna and Athens. Th e FRSO recordings now number over 100, All the FRSO concerts, both in Finland and on the Ondine, Warner, DG and other labels. abroad, can be heard on the FRSO’s home chan- One historic gem is the Andante festivo con- nel, YLE Radio 1. Th ey are usually broadcasted ducted by the composer, Jean Sibelius, at the live and can also be heard worldwide via the In- Helsinki Conservatory (now the Sibelius Acad- ternet (www.yle.fi /rso).

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