WEDNESDAY SERIES 3 Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Conductor
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3.10. WEDNESDAY SERIES 3 Helsinki Music Centre at 19:00 Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor Anna Larsson, mezzo-soprano Cantores Minores, coach Hannu Norjanen Helsinki Music Centre Choir, coach Jani Sivén Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor 99 min I Kräftig. Entschieden II Tempo di Menuetto III Comodo (Scherzando) Post horn solo: Tomas Gricius IV Sehr langsam – Misterioso V Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck VI Langsam – Ruhevoll – Empfunden No interval. The concert will end at about 20:50. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and Yle Areena. It will also be shown in the programme “RSO Musiikkitalossa” (The FRSO at the Helsinki Music Centre) on Yle Teema on 28.10., with a repeat on Yle TV 1 on 3.11. 1 GUSTAV MAHLER von Mildenburg, “a work of such magni- tude that it actually mirrors the whole (1860–1911): world – one is, so to speak, only an in- SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN D strument, played by the universe. My MINOR symphony will be something the like of which the world has never yet heard! In In the early 1880s, Gustav Mahler was a it the whole of nature finds a voice.” regular patron of the Café Griensteidl While composing the symphony, – or the Café Grössenwahn (the Café Mahler drafted several programmes of Megalomania) as it was known to many sorts but abandoned them on its com- in Vienna – a meeting place for a band pletion. He changed the order of the of progressive vegetarian socialists. It movements as work progressed, and was there that he was introduced to the “What the child tells me. The heavenly philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and life”, which was originally to have been the opposing concepts of Dionysian and the seventh movement, in time be- Apollonian culture that made true beau- came the finale of his fourth symphony. ty seem implausible. Nietzsche pointed The last of his programmes touches on the young culture vultures in a new di- Nietzsche’s basic idea, but with traces rection: “Every art and every philosophy of the optimism of both the Christian may be regarded as a healing and help- belief in salvation and the social-dem- ing appliance in the service of grow- ocratic conviction that ideals can be ing, struggling life: they always presup- achieved with work and patience. pose suffering and sufferers.” (The Gay Science, 1882) Part 1 Suffering and salvation were the Introduction. Pan awakes thread running through Mahler’s second I Summer marches in (Dionysian symphony of 1894, and they would be procession) so again in his third symphony of 1895– 1896. But Dionysian chaos now took the Part 2 place of Apollonian harmony and order; II What the flowers in the meadow tell me Nature and survival that of the Christian III What the animals in the forest tell me promise of salvation. Then early in the IV What man tells me 20th century, Mahler began to feel dis- V What the angels tell me appointed by Nietzsche’s nihilism and VI What love tells me ordered his wife to burn all the philos- opher’s books. They nevertheless left an In his third symphony, Mahler looks at indelible mark on his music. “the whole of Nature”, all creatures great Mahler wrote his third symphony and small. The music is, however, bris- amid the summery Alpine landscapes tling with ideas rather than creatures, of Steinbach am Attersee. His aim was and the themes draw on rich nature im- to create a work capable of embracing agery. life in all its primitive glory and richness The first movement (Strong and de- of detail. “Just image,” he wrote to Anna cisive) was the last to be completed, in 2 1896. Its massive sonata-form structure The birds and beasts of the forest call begins with a majestic unison theme on to the listener in the scherzo-like third the French horns. This is followed by a movement. The struggle for existence gloomy funeral march, and close on its of Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs (Ablösung heels by a cheerful Dionysian proces- im Sommer/Relief in Summer) ceases in sion. The monolithic impression is rein- the Trio section, where a romantic post forced by declamatory trombone solos, horn solo rises above the strings as they broad reprises and squadrons of themes shimmer in the heat. The birds and the all marching in the same direction. beasts then reappear, culminating in the The opening movement is a cavalcade return of the revels of the first move- of romping natural forces, a secular an- ment: Pan reveals himself in all his bar- swer to the opening funeral march of baric glory. the Resurrection Symphony. Said Mahler: The fourth movement is a noctur- “It has almost ceased to be music; it is nal scene to the words of Nietzsche’s hardly anything but sounds of nature. I Zarathustra Mitternachtlied/Midnight could equally well have called the move- Song). Accompanied by calm, sighing ment “What the mountain tells me”— chords, the solo alto asks a question it’s eerie, the way life gradually breaks that often occupies the human mind, through, out of soulless, rigid matter. and out of the darkness receives the And, as this life rises from stage to answer: “Doch alle Lust will Ewigkeit!/Will stage, it takes on ever more highly de- tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit” (But all joy wants veloped forms: flowers, beasts, man, up eternity/Wants deep, wants deep eter- to the sphere of the spirits, the “angels.” nity). Over the introduction to this move- In the cheerful fifth movement, morn- ment, there lies again that atmosphere ing bells and the voices of women and of brooding summer midday heat; not a children join in an archaic-sounding Des breath stirs, all life is suspended, and the Knaben Wunderhorn song: the burden of sun-drenched air trembles and vibrates. sin is lightly shed and heavenly joy lies At intervals there come the moans of just around the corner. the youth – that is, captive life – strug- The model for the great finale is the gling for release from the clutches of slow movement of Beethoven’s ninth lifeless, rigid Nature. At last he breaks symphony: two themes in variation. The through and triumphs.” devout, chorale-like main theme climbs The second movement, “Blumenstück” steadily to the heights, while the second is a graceful minuet and was performed theme places more and more obstacles in Mahler’s lifetime as a separate num- in its path with its lack of faith and de- ber, as the symphony was not premiered spair. A long crescendo finally builds up until 1902. At first tripping lightly along, to a sustained string song and a mighty it gives way to noisy chatter in the mid- chorus of brass: slowly and majestically dle section, until the return of the main the gates of heaven open. section wafts the listener into sweet- ly-perfumed dreams. Programme notes by Antti Häyrynen and translated (excluding quotations) by Susan Sinisalo 3 JUKKA-PEKKA the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in SARASTE Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris and the orchestras of Cleveland, Boston, Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established Chicago, San Francisco and Montreal. himself as one of the outstanding His extensive repertoire takes in the conductors of his generation. He has great masterpieces of the Classical and served as Chief Conductor of the WDR Romantic eras along with contemporary Symphony Orchestra, Cologne since works by such composers as Dutilleux, 2010 and extended his contract in 2015 Lindberg, Salonen and Saariaho. He until the end of the 2018/2019 season. has conducted numerous premieres of His previous positions include the prin- works by not only Finnish composers cipal conductorships of the Scottish but also Wolfgang Rihm, Friedrich Cerha Chamber Orchestra (1987–1991), the and Pascal Dusapin. He has recorded Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1994– widely with his own orchestras. With the 2001) and the Finnish Radio Symphony WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne he Orchestra (1987–2001), after which he has recorded the complete symphonies was made its Conductor Laureate. of Beethoven and Brahms, and music by Beginning his career as a violinist, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky, Schönberg, Saraste, like Esa-Pekka Salonen and Cerha and others. His discography fur- Osmo Vänskä, trained as a conductor in ther includes the complete symphonies the class of Jorma Panula, and in 1983, of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish together with Salonen, founded the Radio Symphony Orchestra. Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. From 2002 to 2005, Jukka-Pekka ANNA LARSSON Saraste was Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The With her beautiful, rich and powerful Oslo Philharmonic made him the first voice, Swedish contralto/mezzo-so- Conductor Laureate in its history after prano Anna Larsson is renowned as a he had served it from 2006 to 2013. consummate interpreter of Mahler of He was Artistic Advisor of the Lahti Wagner. In 2011 she was awarded the Symphony Orchestra 2008–2011. He is honorary title of Royal Court Singer. Artistic Director of the Finnish Chamber Anna Larsson made her international Orchestra founded by him and its debut in 1997, singing in a performance Tammisaari Festival. of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with His guest engagements have the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra con- led Maestro Saraste to major or- ducted by Claudio Abbado, and the part chestras worldwide, including the of Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold with London, Munich Los Angeles and Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera. New York Philharmonics, the London Other major Wagner roles have included Philharmonia, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung and 4 Kundry in Parsifal.