6 DECEMBER INDEPENDENCE DAY GALA CONCERT Helsinki Music Centre at 15

Hannu Lintu, conductor Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano

Aulis Sallinen: Symphony No. 8, Op. 81 20 min Autumnal Fragments

Jean Sibelius: Songs. Fp of the orchestrations 18 min by Aulis Sallinen (Yle commission) Jägargossen, Op. 13:7 Hennes budskap, Op. 90:2 De bägge rosorna, Op. 88:2 Sippan, Op. 88:4 Men min fågel märks dock icke Op. 36:2 Kyssens hopp, Op. 13:2 Under strandens granar, Op. 13:1

INTERVAL 20 min

Sebastian Fagerlund: Stonework 15 min

Jean Sibelius: Tapiola, Op. 112 18 min

Jean Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26 8 min

Interval at about 16.00. The concert ends at about 17.20. Broadcast live on Yle Teema and online at yle.fi/rso.

1 AULIS SALLINEN motif” in the symphony’s closing sec- tion is in turn derived from the name (1935–): SYMPHONY of the commissioner, the Amsterdam NO. 8 AUTUMNAL Concertgebouw Orchestra. FRAGMENTS Until half way, the music of the eighth symphony is mostly free and experimental, but the options dwin- While composing his , Aulis dle as the work proceeds. When the Sallinen was quietly developing as a themes and “blocks” reappear, relations symphonist. Now with eight sympho- between them become strained, and nies under his belt, he has taken a liberal by the time the symphony reaches its attitude to the genre while yet remain- climax, it has entered the very heart ing aware of the demands of motivic of darkness. Even the tinkling bells are development and discipline. He com- buried beneath the gloomy strings and pleted his eighth symphony, Autumnal timpani. Darkness covers the earth. Fragments, in 2001. Having composed an (King Lear, 1999) and a sym- Antti Häyrynen phony (his 7th, 1996) inspired by ex- ternal stimuli, he felt the need to write JEAN SIBELIUS some music that was purely instru- (1865–1957): SONGS. mental, to forget the rest of the world and concentrate solely on the music, as ORCHESTRATIONS BY he wrote in February 2001. AULIS SALLINEN The symphony combines two con- trasting elements: one that is frag- The poetry of Johan Ludvig Runeberg mentary and sketchy, and one that (1804–1877) meant much to Jean maintains a symphonic discipline and Sibelius. For it shows the Finns in a ro- coherence. There is also a third, au- mantic, primordial light, in a state of tumnal, element prompted by both the innocence in which man exists in har- ’s age and the symphony’s mony with nature and its rhythms and completion in October 2001. Indeed, understands its language. the symphony is just as topical to- Sibelius himself orchestrated many day, as the shadowof the events of 11 of his songs and approved of the or- September 2001 is just as deep now, in chestral transcriptions and key chang- late autumn 2015. es made by others. Written into the Though cast in a single movement, piano parts of many of the songs are the symphony falls into two sections: a orchestral effects, such as the arpeggi- deep-breathing slow one and a playful os that begin Jägargossen (The Young scherzo. One of the melodic elements Huntsman); these Aulis Sallinen has is the “Theme of the Dead” that always assigned to wind instruments. Rugged appears in connection with death in textures accompany the huntsman as the opera . The tinkling “bell he sets his sights on black grouse, wil-

2 low grouse and hazel grouse and re- tion (Andantino, ad libitum). The harp grets his failure to catch something punctuates the song as would a teller even more precious – a sweetheart of of tales, and the yearning for long, light his own. summer days causes the orchestra to The message borne by the North burst into flower. But the second verse Wind in Hennes budskap (Her Message) reverts to pessimism and loneliness. is icy, as flute, clarinet and strings trace Kyssens hopp (The Kiss’s Hope, frosty flowers round the voice. The Runeberg) represents the romantic melody seems almost to stagger to its dreams of the young Sibelius, painting culmination (Ve mig, edsförgätna), to an a picture in pastel shades of a kiss the awareness of old age, of broken prom- singer does not wish to risne away with ises and lost love. wild strawberries or spring water. The The Op. 88 “Flower Songs” were com- harp, solo and divided strings capture posed in 1917 for the dwindling vo- the erotic vibes of the piece. cal resources of Ida Ekman, an untir- Runeberg’s Under strandens granar ing champion of Sibelius’s music. The (Under the Fir Trees) is like an epic bal- poems by Franz Michael Franzén and lad, a folktale in which a water sprite Runeberg use flowers as metaphors entices a boy and then his mother into for the early Romantic awareness of the watery depths. Sibelius’s piano ac- nature. In De bägge rosorna (The Two companiment, with its trills and trem- Roses), to words by Franzén, the rose olos, is like the miniature score of an is the personification of beauty from orchestral work. Sallinen makes use of whom even the sky borrows colours. this, beginning with French horns that, Sibelius’s melody is apprehensive- with the strings, tower like mighty fir ly melancholy and Sallinen’s choice of trees by the lake. The song has some- strings to express it emphasises the thing of the horror romanticism and transitory nature of beauty. mysticism (harp) of Schubert’s Erlkönig. Sippan (The Primrose, Runeberg) Carl Snoilsky was a Swedish noble- shivers in the chilly early spring, but man, diplomat and director of the Sallinen also captures the song’s light- Royal Library. His poem Dold förening ly flirting tones. The beauty of the (Hidden Connection) demonstrates primrose fades, says the song, when the underwater network of a water plucked, but nothing can cool the ar- lily. It is a phenomenon also taken up dour of the narrator. by in her string quar- Men min fågel märks dock icke (But tet Nymphea, but Sibelius uses it to my Bird is Nowhere to be Seen) once create an amorous vignette. Sallinen’s again describes the child of nature in orchestra ripples lightly and the sing- love, watching out for signs of spring. er shows how beauty is born of hidden The swan, goldeneye, lark and curlew motivic connections. have already arrived, but not my bird. The flocks of migrating birds inevita- Antti Häyrynen bly keep the woodwinds busy as they prepare the way with a short introduc-

3 SEBASTIAN day and distant worlds. Stone is often thought of as a dead substance, but FAGERLUND (1972–): in the music of Fagerlund it lives and STONEWORK pulses and generates seamless conti- nuity. Sebastian Fagerlund has rapidly be- Fagerlund alternates, overlaps and come a front-line contemporary mixes his motifs into a convoluted Finnish composer of international re- shape that finally builds up to a wild, nown. He studied with Erkki Jokinen at fortissimo climax. In the last bars the the , receiving his di- music dissolves into a void, as if to ploma in composition in 2004. remind us that geological history is Stonework (2015) was commissioned much, much longer than the story of jointly by the Bergen and Tampere mankind. Philharmonic Orchestras to mark the 250th anniversary of the Norwegian Antti Häyrynen orchestra and it was premiered in Bergen with Edward Gardner conduct- ing on November 26. It was first heard in in Tampere on November 27, JEAN SIBELIUS: with Santtu-Matias Rouvali conduct- TAPIOLA ing, and on the same day in Sweden during the Bergen Philharmonic’s tour to Gothenburg. Jean Sibelius was not only a great sym- Stonework is above all a feast for phonist; he was just as ambitious and a large virtuoso orchestra. Its title prolific as a composer of tone poems. has made its mark on the music. But Comparison of the one-movement sev- while works referring to stone usual- enth symphony, Op. 105 (1924) and ly concentrate on pounding percus- Tapiola, Op. 112 (1926) shows just how sions and monolithic orchestral slabs, similar these projects were. Fagerlund does not so much measure Tapiola can be said to have ended a the strength of his stone, its weight period in his output that began with and permanence. Rather, his orchestra the fifth symphony and was charac- sows the seeds of a myriad hues and terised by music that grew out of lit- features evocative silence just as much tle cells into big processes. Tapiola was as to thunder. to be Sibelius’s last work for orchestra, The opening, with robust yet war- though this was not his intention. bling wind figures serves as a reminder The three-note motif heard at the be- that stone is actually quite a malleable ginning may be evocative of rune-sing- material. Its irregular rhythms suggest ing, but it was not a primitive nature the dynamic role of stone in cultur- credo. Tapiola has also been hailed only al and military history. The Stone Age too lightly as representing present-day was a period in ancient history, but in ecological thinking, but it is not so Stonework it is also part of the present much postmodernist as modernistic.

4 All seem to agree that its motif tech- Finlandia was first heard as part of nique is “organic”, i.e. the music seems a pageant or series of tableaux de- to grow naturally out of the themes voted to Finland’s history and held in and the broader entities evolved from Helsinki in 1899. The pageant was a them. It traces a broad arch from the protest against the press censorship morose near-silence at the beginning imposed by Nikolai Bobrikov, the iron- to the great, chromatic build-up and fi- fisted Governor General of Finland. nally the resigned coda. For Finland was at that time still an Sibelius wanted the underlying mes- Autonomous Grand Duchy of the sage of Tapiola to remain an enigma. Russian Empire. Considering how well- In it, nature has become even more known Finlandia is today – a sort of closed and inaccessible, just as its to- national musical emblem – it attracted nality has become more conditional. surprisingly little attention when first The prehistoric divinities seem to have performed. The audience were swept retreated into a world of their own and away by the tableaux and hardly heard man merely eavesdrops on nature’s the music. The version of Finlandia processes. nowadays performed and differing only slightly from the original one dates Antti Häyrynen from 1900. It quickly became an inde- pendent concert number as the musi- cal symbol of Finland’s struggle for in- JEAN SIBELIUS: dependence, finally won in 1917. FINLANDIA It is easy to understand why Finlandia is so famous. It is stirringly patriotic. Being so popular, it has, however, at In the late 19th and early 20th centu- times almost endangered Sibelius’s in- ry, Finland needed heroes, and the role ternational reputation as a composer to of hero fell naturally to Jean Sibelius. be taken seriously. Its defiant brass and In composing Kullervo (1892) and the its ultimately triumphant drama have Lemminkäinen Suite (1896), he had all the solidity of the Finnish bedrock, already more or less consciously con- while the hymn-like interlude expresses tributed to the nationalist project. For more tranquil sentiments. Words have his works reflected a sense of national been set to this hymn many times, so awakening similar to that of the mas- that Finlandia has become a sort of terpieces inspired by the Finnish na- unofficial national anthem. This again tional epic, the , by the paint- says something of its lasting signifi- er Akseli Gallen-Kallela in the 1890s. cance, transcending any particular pe- Sibelius’s role grew even greater, how- riod in history. ever, with the composition of several works deliberately intended as a sort Kimmo Korhonen of protest. One of these was Finlandia. Programme notes translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo

5 HANNU LINTU conducted them in Parsifal - direct- ed by Harry Kupfer, Carmen, and Aulis Sallinen’s King Lear. Other recent oper- Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio atic projects include Sallinen’s Kullervo Symphony Orchestra since August at the 2014 Savonlinna Opera Festival 2013, Hannu Lintu previously held and Tannhäuser with Tampere Opera the positions of Artistic Director and in 2012. Lintu has also worked with Chief Conductor of the Tampere Estonian National Opera, recording Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Tauno Pylkkänen’s Mare and her son. Guest Conductor with the RTÉ National Hannu Lintu has made several re- Symphony Orchestra and Artistic cordings for Ondine, Naxos, Avie and Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Hyperion. In summer 2015 he recorded and Turku Philharmonic orchestras. Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky’s Highlights of Lintu’s 2015/16 sea- Concertos with Fumiaki Miura and the son include appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Orchestre for Avex, while other recent recordings de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre feature works by Ligeti, including the national de Lille, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Violin Concerto with Benjamin Schmid, and the Iceland Symphony, Baltimore and Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony Symphony, Moscow State Symphony with Angela Hewitt and Valerie and Seoul Philharmonic orches- Hartmann-Claverie – both for Ondine tras. He conducts the Finnish Radio with the Finnish Radio Symphony Symphony Orchestra on tour in Japan Orchestra. Lintu has received sever- in autumn 2015 – as part of his com- al accolades for his recordings, in- plete cycle of Sibelius’ symphonies cluding a 2011 Grammy nomination with the New Japan Philharmonic – for Best Opera CD plus Gramophone and on tour in Vienna, Salzburg and Award nominations for his recordings Innsbruck in January 2016 with violinist of Enescu’s Symphony No.2 with the Leila Josefowicz. Recent engagements Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and have included the Philharmonia, BBC the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Scottish Symphony, Royal Stockholm Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich Philharmonic, Cleveland and St Louis and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Symphony orchestras; the Houston Orchestra. Symphony, MDR Sinfonieorchester Hannu Lintu studied cello and piano Leipzig and the Orchestre nation- at the Sibelius Academy, where he later al de Lyon; and debuts with the WDR studied conducting with . Sinfonieorchester Köln, the Hallé, and He participated in masterclasses with the Detroit Symphony and Minnesota Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia orchestras. Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and took In May 2016 Lintu returns to Finnish first prize at the Nordic Conducting National Opera to conduct Wagner’s Competition in Bergen in 1994. Tristan und Isolde, having previously

6 ANNE SOFIE VON Album. She had an exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Gramophone OTTER for many years and during that time released a large number of award-win- Highly-acclaimed for her distinguished ning discs. Many of her opera pro- stage and recording career, mezzo-so- ductions, such as Der Rosenkavalier, prano Anne Sofie von Otter has ex- Pelléas et Mélisande and Iphigenia in celled in such operas as Strauss’s Der Aulis have also been released as DVD. Rosenkavalier (Octavian), Mozart’s Idomeneo and The Marriage of Figaro. She also makes frequent solo appear- ances with orchestras, among them the New York and Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Orchestre THE FINNISH National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. RADIO SYMPHONY Recent engagements have included ORCHESTRA Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Covent Garden, the part The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra of Clytemnestra in the Dutch National (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Opera production of Iphigenia in Aulis, Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission Countess Geschwitz in Lulu at the New is to produce and promote Finnish musi- York Metropolitan and Waltraute at the cal culture and its Chief Conductor as of Vienna State Opera. autumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. The This season, Anne Sofie von Otter FRSO has two Honorary Conductors: makes her debut as Jenny in the Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. Dreigroschenoper at the Theater an The Radio Orchestra of ten players der Wien and sings in the premiere of founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- the opera The Exterminating Angel by chestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu Thomas Adès at the Salzburg Festival. Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor She can, for example, also be heard by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, as the soloist with the Swedish Radio , , Leif Symphony Orchestra and the London Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Philharmonic. In September 2017 she Sakari Oramo. is to sing the leading role in the new In addition to the great Classical- opera Autumn Sonata by Sebastian Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- Fagerlund, the libretto of which is temporary music is a major item in the based on the film of the same name by repertoire of the FRSO, which each year Ingmar Bergman. premieres a number of Yle commissions. Douce France, Anne Sofie von Otter’s Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- most recent CD, this year won the cord all Finnish orchestral music for the Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal Yle archive. During the 2015/2016 sea-

7 son it will premiere six Finnish works commissioned by Yle. The programme will also include Piano Concertos by Beethoven and Prokofiev, Symphonies by Schumann and Brahms, and Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. Among its guest artists will be pianists Murray Perahia, Nelson Freire and András Schiff, conductors David Zinman, Tugan Sokhiev and Manfred Honeck, soprano and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The FRSO has recorded works by Ligeti, Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the op- era Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some prestigious distinc- tions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Award, the Académie Charles Cros Award and a MIDEM Classical Award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos was Gramophone mag- azine’s Editor’s Choice in February 2014. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. One of the many high- lights of the 2015/2016 season will be tours to Japan and Austria with conduc- tor Hannu Lintu. The home channel of the FRSO is Yle Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- certs, usually live, both in Finland and abroad. Its concerts can also be heard and watched with excellent live stream quality on the FRSO website (www.yle.fi/ rso), and the majority of them are tele- vised live on the Yle Teema channel.

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