15 April FRIDAY SERIES 12 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00
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15 April FRIDAY SERIES 12 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00 Hannu Lintu, conductor Li-Wei Qin, cello Qigang Chen: Reflet d’un temps disparu 25 min INTERVAL 20 min Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 7 80 min I Langsam II Nachtmusik III Scherzo IV Nachtmusik V Rondo finale Interval at about 19.40. The concert ends at about 21.30. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso. 1 QIGANG CHEN (b. 1951): No way is Qigang Cheng simply a disciple of Messiaen, as his main work, REFLET D'UN TEMPS Reflet d’un temps disparu (Reflection DISPARU of a Vanished Time, 1996), admirably il- lustrates. In this cello concerto he com- Born in Shanghai in 1951, Qigang Chen bines the ancient Chinese art-music tra- was prompted to move to the West as dition with the shimmering, transparent a result of not only persecution and cu- orchestration he learnt in France and riosity but also of the immense attrac- particularly from Messiaen. tion he felt for Western classical mu- Cast in a single movement, Reflet d’un sic. The son of educated parents, he temps disparu begins with the solo cel- was subjected to three years of ideo- lo, and a melody ornamented with lit- logical re-education – the euphemistic tle glissandos. Both the melody and the name for a labour camp – during the harmony are governed by a song com- Cultural Revolution. This did not, how- posed by the fourth-century Chinese ever, dampen his interest in the Western musician Huan Yi, though this is not ac- music he had begun studying as a child, tually stated until nearly nine minutes and on his release from the camps he after the beginning. Preceding it is scur- continued his studies despite the great rying, hectic music seasoned with many social pressures not to. herbs borrowed straight from French The death of Chairman Mao in 1976 cuisine. brought a slight political thaw for China, Around the middle of the concerto, and along with many reforms, higher the cello has a sort of cadenza featuring education in music once again became left-hand pizzicatos in amongst quick, available. Chen was one of the few to be ticking music in the right. Yi’s song is admitted to the Central Conservatory repeated before swelling to nothing of Music in Beijing the following year. short of ecstatic heights at the orches- In 1983, he was the first nominee at the tral climax, first on the strings and then national postgraduate contest and thus the trumpet. In the slow and somewhat got the opportunity to go abroad and sizeable closing section the soloist ar- work for a Master’s degree. And that rives at a Zen-like peace of mind, and was how he discovered France. the impression is indeed of something In Paris, Chen was assigned to Olivier ancient that was thought to have van- Messiaen as his teacher in composition. ished for ever but that returns to reflect He did have other teachers, too, but that time lost long ago. for Messiaen, who gave up teaching in 1988, Chen was an exceptional case in that he was ultimately Messiaen’s only and last composition student. By that time Chen could manage on his own, however, and was composing for pre- mier-league orchestras and artists. 2 GUSTAV MAHLER The first Nachtmusik begins with a dialogue between brass and wood- (1860–1911): winds, out of which arises a mysteri- SYMPHONY NO. 7 ous march motif the theme of which is from Mahler’s orchestral song cycle Des The fifth, sixth and seventh sympho- Knaben Wunderhorn. It paints in bright nies of Gustav Mahler are known as the colours from time to time, and is given Rückert Symphonies, for they are all car- a deliciously rustic feel by the sound of ry the aroma of the Kindertotenlieder cowbells. – settings of poems by Friedrich The Scherzo is the most bizarre Rückert – and the five Rückert Songs. movement. It begins with some com- Composed between 1901 and 1905, ments from the timpani to which the these symphonies are, however, pure- French horns and woodwinds reply. The ly instrumental and a fine demonstra- muted violins then come in with a ma- tion of Mahler’s masterly handling of cabre waltz motif. The intensity grows orchestral polyphony. as the Scherzo proceeds, enhanced by The five-movement seventh sym- furious string pizzicatos. phony is vast not only in length, but Nachtmusik II returns to the twilight also in its unusually large orchestra, re- zone. Giving it a nocturnal feel all of quiring such things as 2 piccolos, four its own is a mandolin, which does nev- flutes in C, one clarinet in E flat and ertheless now and then also become one in A, a bass clarinet, a tenor horn, a more impassioned. The rondo-form fi- mandolin, a guitar, two harps and what nale is like a series of fireworks in which was at the time an exceptional battery Mahler, in eight rondo sections, makes of percussion instruments. stylistic borrowings from such works The seventh symphony is in itself as Wagner’s Meistersingers and Léhar’s a readily accessible work, but in true The Merry Widow, a tremendous suc- Mahlerian style, it has enough mate- cess at its premiere in 1905. The finale rial for several works and is brimming also refers back to earlier motifs from with references to earlier works by him the symphony; the allegro theme of the (which only goes to confuse the sharp- first movement returns. With fanfares eared listener). The opening Langsam led by the strings, brass and percus- – allegro starts with a theme presented sion, the symphony finally builds up to on the tenor horn, an unusual march a majestic, jubilant conclusion. Indeed, that hovers between darkness and this symphony really does seem to em- light. The first movement, beginning brace the whole universe as it was at in E minor, may in places evoke strong that time. associations with Wagner. Gloomy cel- lo and brass solos give way to bright- Programme notes by er moods as the movement draws to Osmo Tapio Räihälä translated a close. (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo 3 HANNU LINTU ed by Harry Kupfer, Carmen, and Aulis Sallinen’s King Lear. Other recent oper- atic projects include Sallinen’s Kullervo Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio at the 2014 Savonlinna Opera Festival Symphony Orchestra since August and Tannhäuser with Tampere Opera 2013, Hannu Lintu previously held the in 2012. Lintu has also worked with positions of Artistic Director and Chief Estonian National Opera, recording Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Tauno Pylkkänen’s Mare and her son. Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu has made several re- with the RTÉ National Symphony cordings for Ondine, Naxos, Avie and Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Hyperion. In summer 2015 he recorded Helsingborg Symphony and Turku Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Philharmonic orchestras. Concertos with Fumiaki Miura and the Highlights of Lintu’s 2015/16 sea- Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin son include appearances with the for Avex, while other recent recordings Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Orchestre de feature works by Ligeti, including the Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre na- Violin Concerto with Benjamin Schmid, tional de Lille, Gulbenkian Orchestra, and Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony and the Iceland Symphony, Baltimore with Angela Hewitt and Valerie Symphony, Moscow State Symphony Hartmann-Claverie – both for Ondine and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. He with the Finnish Radio Symphony conducts the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Lintu has received sev- Orchestra on tour in Japan in autumn eral accolades for his recordings, in- 2015 – as part of his complete cycle of cluding a 2011 Grammy nomination Sibelius’ symphonies with the New Japan for Best Opera CD plus Gramophone Philharmonic – and on tour in Vienna, Award nominations for his recordings Salzburg and Innsbruck in January of Enescu’s Symphony No.2 with the 2016 with violinist Leila Josefowicz. Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Recent engagements have included the the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony, Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Cleveland and St Louis Symphony or- Orchestra. chestras; the Houston Symphony, MDR Hannu Lintu studied cello and piano Sinfonieorchester Leipzig and the at the Sibelius Academy, where he later Orchestre national de Lyon; and debuts studied conducting with Jorma Panula. with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, He participated in masterclasses with the Hallé, and the Detroit Symphony Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia and Minnesota 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 previous- ly conducted them in Parsifal - direct- 4 LI-WEI QUIN Yu Long has been released by Sony Classical. Li-Wei teaches at the YST Born in Shanghai, Li-Wei moved to Conservatory and is a guest profes- Australia at the age of 13, and was sor at the Shanghai and the Central there awarded the Young Australian Conservatory of Music in China. Prior of the Year title in 2002. His musical to teaching at the YST Conservatory, studies later brought him to Europe, to he was a Professor of the cello at the the Royal Northern College of Music in Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, and from there as a Manchester. He plays a 1780 Joseph pupil of David Takeno to the Guildhall Guadagnini cello generously loaned to School of Music and Drama in London. him by Dr and Mrs Wilson Goh. Second prize in the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition opened up the path to international acclaim, and was soon followed by first prize in the Naumburg Competition in New York in 2001.