10.5. WEDNESDAY SERIES 15 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00

Kent Nagano, conductor

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor

I Allegro moderato II Scherzo (Allegro moderato) – Trio (Langsam) – Scherzo da capo III Adagio (Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend) IV Feierlich, nicht schnell

There will be no interval. The concert ends at about 20.30. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso. Shown on Yle Teema on May 21.

1 A GREAT, they really are great. The “official” ones number eight; the ninth was never fin- GREATER SNAKE OF ished, and Bruckner also wrote two ear- A SYMPHONY ly ones that were never numbered. The shortest, no. 1, lasts less than 50 min- The strange thing about Bruckner is utes. Five of them run to more than an that despite being classed as a great hour – even the unfinished no. 9. The composer, he has fewer of his works per- longest, usually lasting about 80 min- formed than any of his peers: about five utes, is the one to be heard today: no. 8. symphonies and one Mass in the basic It was the last one Bruckner ever heard repertoire. The reason is probably that, performed, and it ended up having sev- in his mature stage, he composed al- eral versions. Though no. 5 was pre- most nothing but symphonies, and they miered later (in 1894), Bruckner was too are so extreme that more would be too ill to attend the performance. much to take on board. As a composer, Another distinctive feature of the he was late to mature; he had reached Bruckner symphonies is their structure. middle age before he really perfected They are “four-square” chunks and re- his style. Bruckner was to the sympho- peat and develop their motifs accord- ny roughly what Wagner was to opera. ing to the conventional rules. Bruckner He admired Wagner above all others, makes almost compulsive use of rhyth- and many of his contemporaries reck- mic figures with a triplet in the second oned he went too far in imitating his half of a four-beat bar (i.e. two beats style. True, his music does bear a certain plus three-in-the-space-of-two) – to affinity with Wagner’s, but it is virtually such an extent that this motif is known impossible to mistake the one for the as the “Bruckner rhythm”. He departs other. from the traditional sonata form (intro- His admiration of Wagner automat- duction – main theme – second theme ically placed Bruckner in the enemy – development – recapitulation – coda) camp for Vienna’s most influential critic, by scattering the movements of his Eduard Hanslick, who thought Wagner symphonies with further themes, build- was an abomination and Brahms the ing up to climaxes before moving on to epitome of pure music. Hanslick did the next one. his best to place obstacles in Bruckner’s The third feature easily recognisable path, and in this he succeeded until as Bruckner’s is his tendency to con- the premiere of the 7th symphony in struct motifs that arise out of silence, December 1884. The Austrian Emperor grow into big clumps and explode into Franz Joseph I honoured the occasion huge brass fanfares. This necessitates with his presence and gave the compos- a bigger-than-usual brass section in er a standing ovation, thus rendering the orchestra, further fortified with the even Hanslick defenceless. penetrating sound of Wagner tubas. For But what about the symphonies? the horn and trumpet players in particu- What makes them so original? First, lar, most of the Bruckner symphonies

2 are as strenuous as running a race, and The opening movement of the eighth the strings do not exactly have an easy symphony is surprisingly short consid- time, either! ering the length of the work as a whole. No. 8 in C Minor is, along with no. 4 It has three independent themes and a (“Romantic”), Bruckner’s longest sym- true Bruckner momentum that peters phony. He finished the first version in out at the end. Although it is, in princi- 1887 and sent the score to Hermann ple, absolute music, Bruckner described Levi the conductor. Levi nevertheless the first movement as a fight with death sent it back, claiming it could not as that is (of course) lost in the end. The such be performed, or that there was second movement is a Scherzo, and the no point in trying. Bruckner is known Deutscher Michel theme with which it to have been annoyed, but he imme- begins is possibly the symphony’s most diately sat down to revise it in 1888, memorable one. This “German Michael” and again in 1890, when it was at last is a sort of symbol for the German peo- scheduled to be premiered in ple, just as bare-breasted Marianne lead- with the young Felix von Weingartner ing the Revolution is a national symbol . The concert was cancelled, of France. however, and the symphony was final- The third movement is a slow one and ly given its first hearing in Vienna just lasts nearly half an hour. It is marked before Christmas 1892, by the Vienna Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schlep- Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by pend, meaning “Solemnly slow, but not . dragging”. The key rises to D-flat ma- The string of versions did not end jor and one of its themes is an echo with Bruckner’s death in 1896. Robert of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasie. The Haas, a musicologist, came up with an- movement is particularly solemn at the other one in 1939. This combined the end. The finale begins in stately vein, as original and 1890 versions but with such if challenging to a duel. In its material a free hand that subsequent scholars it is a summary of the themes of the have criticised him for putting in too previous three movements, treating much of his own. After the Second them in ways varying from a chorale to World War, Haas, who had been a Nazi, a march. The symphony ends in typical lost his position as Bruckner’s editor and Bruckner manner with a fanfare that in 1955 Leopold Nowak made yet anoth- reaches up to heaven and Bruckner’s er version that was popular for a while. beloved God. Robert Haas’s edition has, however, be- gun to find favour again and is the one Programme note by Osmo Tapio to be performed tonight. Anyone who Räihälä translated by Susan Sinisalo wonders how Haas could add bits of his own should remember that every single novel passes through the hands of an editor before it is published. People just accept this in literature, but find it odd in music, though I do not quite see why.

3 KENT NAGANO and Hindemith’s at the Paris National Opera. With the Montreal Symphony US conductor Kent Nagano is equally at Orchestra Kent Nagano has recorded home in music of the Classical, Romantic the complete Beethoven and Mahler and contemporary eras, in concert rep- symphonies, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder, ertoire and opera. He is General Music concert versions of Wagner’s Tannhäu­ Director of the ser, Tristan und Isolde and Das Rhein­ and Philharmonic Orchestra, Music gold, Mahler’s Director of the Montreal Symphony and Beethoven’s Piano Concertos 4 Orchestra and Artistic Advisor and & 5. His releases with the Deutsches Principal Guest Conductor of the Symphonie-Orchester Berlin include Gothenburg Symphony. Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, Bruckner’s Born in California, Nagano maintains Symphonies 3 & 6, Schönberg’s Jacob’s close connections with his home state Ladder and symphonies by Brahms and and was Music Director of the Berkeley Mahler. Symphony Orchestra from 1978. He was later assistant conductor to at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His success in the USA brought invitations to Europe, where he served as Music THE FINNISH Director of the Opéra National de Lyon in France and Music Director of the Hallé RADIO SYMPHONY Orchestra in the UK. He has also held di- ORCHESTRA rectorships at the , the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin and , and (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish made guest appearances with, among Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mis- others, the Vienna, Berlin and New York sion is to produce and promote Finnish Philharmonics, the Leipzig Gewandhaus musical culture and its Chief Conductor Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony. as of autumn 2013 has been Hannu While General Music Director at the Lintu. The FRSO has two Honorary Bavarian State Opera, Nagano commis- Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and sioned new operas from Jörg Widmann, Sakari Oramo. Wolfgang Rihm and . He The Radio Orchestra of ten players conducted new productions of Boris founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- Godunov, Wozzeck and the Ring cy- chestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu cle. At other opera houses, his pro- Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor ductions have included the premiere by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, of ’s L’amour de loin at Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif the , Shostakovich’s Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and The Nose at the Berlin State Opera Sakari Oramo.

4 In addition to the great Classical- season its schedule will include a tour Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- in Finland, taking in concerts conduct- temporary music is a major item in the ed by Hannu Lintu in Suomussalmi, repertoire of the FRSO, which each year Kajaani, Mikkeli and Kuopio. premieres a number of Yle commis- The home channel of the FRSO is Yle sions. Another of the orchestra’s tasks is Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- to record all Finnish orchestral music for certs, usually live, both in Finland and the Yle archive. abroad. Its concerts can also be heard During the 2016/2017 season the and watched with excellent live stream FRSO will premiere five Finnish works quality on the FRSO website (www.yle.fi/ commissioned by Yle and feature such rso), and the majority of them are tele- pioneers of Finnish Modernism as Väinö vised live on the Yle Teema channel. Raitio and Uuno Klami. The programme will also include orchestral works by Stravinsky, symphonies by Mahler and Bruckner, Haydn’s The Seasons oratorio and concertos by contemporary com- posers. Among its guest artists will be soprano Karita Mattila and mezzo-so- prano 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 Emma award in the Classical Album cat- egory. Music by Sibelius, Prokofiev and Fagerlund will be among the repertoire recorded during the 2016/2017 season. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. During the 2016/2017

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