20.4. WEDNESDAY SERIES 13 Music Centre at 19.00

Hannu Lintu, conductor Jaan Ots, assistant conductor Kornilios Michailidis, assistant conductor Christoffer Sundqvist, clarinet Emil Holmström, piano Helsinki Music Centre , coach. Tapani Länsiö

Osmo Tapio Räihälä: Myriad, fp (Yle commission) 20 min

W. A. Mozart: Clarinet 30 min I Allegro II Adagio III Rondo (Allegro)

INTERVAL 20 min

Charles Ives: Symphony No. 4 31 min I Prelude (Maestoso) II Comedy: Allegretto III Fugue (Andante moderato con moto) IV Finale: Very slowly – Largo maestoso

Interval at about 20.00. The concert ends at about 21.00.

1 OSMO TAPIO RÄIHÄLÄ would not be interested by an invitation from the FRSO? Osmo Tapio Räihälä is something of an It was clear from the very outset anomaly in the Finnish fra- that I would write the text myself. I had ternity. He came to composing via rock enough – well, a myriad – musical ide- and has not passed through the con- as at least but no paramount idea for ventional conservatory system, though a text. I didn’t know what I wanted the he did study composition privately with choir to sing. I rejected a host of topics. Harri Vuori for a few years. The musi- It is often the case that artistic knots cal premises and material in his earli- suddenly unravel so that totally dispa- est compositions differed considerably rate ideas and characters converge from from one work to the next, but he has different directions, et voilà, they just now gradually settled for free tonality. click together as a collage. The emphasis in his output is on orches- It was thus that I found the idea for tral music, , chamber and solo Myriad. If anyone asks what the text is repertoire, and he has written only a few about, I blandly reply that it’s about the vocal works. world we live in. This world is ugly and beautiful, disorganised, incredibly mul- Kimmo Korhonen (abridged) ti-layered and pluralistic; we don’t know what is genuine and what is fake; we demonstrate for and against; we hate OSMO TAPIO RÄIHÄLÄ and we love; acts of terrorism are com- (b. 1964): MYRIAD mitted and we watch the news, and all the time we have a helluva need to Scored for symphony and comment and be present. We exist only choir, Myriad literally draws on a myri- if we prove it in social media. There’s ad ideas, impulses and experiences. In too much of everything; we can’t handle 2008, I was preparing for the televis- entities; the main thing is to hang on ing of an FRSO concert in St. John’s in real time. And explaining the whole Church, Helsinki. Its broad balconies world is ultimately as absurd as a Monty and echo reminded me of Renaissance Python comedy. call-and-response singing in which vocal So the text of Myriad isn’t really about groups engage, as it were, in dialogue. anything; it is just a mood picture. A Why not make use of this sometime? I mood important to me is the hustle and mentioned it to the orchestra’s General bustle of a city. We all have our favour- Manager, Tuula Sarotie, who was sitting ite spots, and for me, that teeming me- next to me, but soon forgot about it. tropolis is Paris; again and again I find Then in June 2013, to my delight, Tuula in its pandemonium the solitude I crave, asked me whether I would still be inter- surrounded by 12 million people. I can ested in putting that idea into practice, even put up with the noise, including for the conditions in the Helsinki Music the din of the garbage truck that shat- Centre hall were just right. And who ters my morning sleep. I find compen-

2 sation for its noise and pollution in its W.A. MOZART cafés, where I can admire the elegance of Paris and the Parisians. (1756–1791): CLARINET In autumn 2014, I was staying in the CONCERTO artist’s residence at the Baroque Schloss Wiepersdorf in Eastern , sweat- Mozart wrote his Clarinet Concerto for ing over the forceps delivery of my text. his friend Anton Stadler, who gave it its To pass the time, I was watching the first performance in Prague in October film Pierrot le fou directed by Jean-Luc 1791, while playing in the performances Godard in 1965, when all of a sudden there of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. lines began to drop straight into my Mozart had included some magnificent work. It’s mad how the quotations from clarinet solos in his , especially for a text originally written back in 1962 de- Stadler, and his friend’s sensitive com- scribe our time – more than 50 years mand of his instrument had earlier pro- later. The same trick would soon be car- vided the stimulus for such works as the ried off by Federico Fellini in Satyricon Kegelstatt Trio (1786) and the Clarinet (1969). Quintet (1789). The clarinet was still a Plans seldom materialise as such. The relatively new instrument, and it was composition initially inspired by call- Stadler who inspired Mozart to com- and-response singing ended up being pose the first real masterpieces in what more of a work for large symphony or- would one day become the basic clari- chestra and choir, and the lines of text net repertoire. constitute only a small, though very The Mozart Clarinet Concerto is mu- theatrical and undoubtedly memorable sic of unique beauty and poesy in part of the composition. which sorrow and joy, light and shad- And the music of Myriad? ow are inextricably woven together in Unfortunately I cannot describe it in a softly glowing world. To underline words, so perhaps you’d best listen to it this silky softness, Mozart omitted the for yourself and let your senses and im- sharpest-sounding instruments, oboes, agination run free! from his wind section. The solo part, with its quick shifts from one regis- Osmo Tapio Räihälä ter to another, makes effective use of the instrument’s range, yet despite the challenges it poses, the ornamenta- tion does not veer towards superficial brilliance. The exquisitely soulful melo- dies coat everything in a golden sheen. Stylistically, the Concerto represents the simplicity and clarity, yet also the re- fined tone of Mozart’s late years. The first movement is a good exam- ple of Mozart’s distinctive concerto style

3 in which the relationship between solo- formed in its entirety until 1965. By that ist and orchestra is one of seamless mu- time he had been dead for 11 years, and tual understanding; the impression is roughly half a century had passed since more of a civilised conversation than of it was written. He composed most of it the turbulent drama demanded by later between 1910 and 1916, but it is based concerto ideals. The matchless Adagio on material dating from 1898–1911 that is one of the most moving and most af- he also used in several other works. The fecting of all Mozart’s slow movements, second movement, Comedy, was not simultaneously both serene and pro- written until later, however, and was found, happy and sad. While the finale probably among the last things he com- seems outwardly to be lively and flow- posed, in 1924. ing, its many dips into minor keys give The Symphony has four movements, the mood a veiled wistfulness all of its but there the similarities with the tradi- own. tional symphony format end. The large orchestra is supplemented in the out- Kimmo Korhonen (abridged) er movements by a mixed choir, and the orchestra itself has its own odd- ities, such as two saxophones, an or- CHARLES IVES gan, a solo piano, and a piano that can (1874–1954): produce quarter-tones. From time to time Ives also exploits the spatial di- SYMPHONY NO. 4 mension by using smaller, individual in- strumental groups. The juxtaposed mu- The career of US composer Charles sics, with their independent rhythms Ives is one of the most remarkable in and time signatures pose a challenge the history of music. He was a success- of their own in performance; hence ful full-time businessman and found- Stokowski had two assistant conduc- er of one of the biggest US insurance tors at the premiere performance. The companies. Meanwhile, almost hidden fairly short Prelude is dominated by the from the public eye, he was composing hymn Watchman, Tell us of the Night, but a large number of often astoundingly this is not the only hymn tune. The sec- modern works that were not discovered ond, “Comedy” movement is the most until years after he gave up composing complex in structure, with overlapping in around the mid-1920s. In 1947 he was and often almost chaotic layers, but it awarded the coveted Pulitzer Prize for also has its quieter moments. The com- his third Symphony – more than four plexity of the second movement is off- decades after it was written. set by the third, a stately fugue on two The fourth Symphony is one of the hymn tunes. Ives considered the deeply greatest monuments in Ives’s oeuvre. spiritual finale the best music he ever He only ever heard two of its move- composed. ments performed, in New York in 1927, and the complete work was not per- Kimmo Korhonen (abridged Prog­ ramme notes translated by Susan Sinisalo 4 HANNU LINTU 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 . 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 , where he later Orchestre national de Lyon; and debuts studied with . 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- ed by Harry Kupfer, Carmen, and Aulis

5 JAAN OTS CHRISTOFFER Estonian pianist and conductor Jaan Ots SUNDQVIST is assistant FRSO conductor for the pres- ent season. After graduating from the Christoffer Sundqvist (b. 1978) graduat- Estonian Academy of Music in 2011, he ed from the Sibelius Academy in 2002 entered the orchestral conducting class as a pupil of Anna-Maija Korsimaa be- at the Sibelius Academy, where he is fore continuing with François Benda in now in the final stage of his studies. He Basel. Winner of the shared first prize in has also been an exchange student at the 2002 Crusell Clarinet Competition, the Paris Conservatory. In the course of he has also been awarded the Pro masterclasses with Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Musica medal and first prize in the Thomas Sanderling, David Zinman and Juvenalia Competition Paavo Järvi, he got to conduct orches- in Espoo, . tras in Finland (Joensuu and Oulu) and Christoffer Sundqvist was featured as the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra. the FRSO’s debutant-of-the-year in 2004 Jaan Ots has, furthermore, won prizes in and has since been the soloist with al- a number of piano and trumpet com- most all the Finnish orchestras. Abroad, petitions, in , Latvia, Russia and he has appeared with such orchestras Germany. as the BBC Symphony, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Estonian National, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, KORNILIOS MICHAILIDIS the Norrköping Symphony, the Basel Symphony and the Lithuanian St Born in Athens, Kornilios Michailidis is Christopher Chamber Orchestra. He has studying orchestral conducting at the performed at many festivals, among Sibelius Academy, with Atso Almila and them Warsaw Autumn, Fürstensaal Hannu Lintu. He has previously studied Classix in Kempten, Märzmusik, and the the piano at the Skalkotas Conservatory West Cork Chamber Music Festival in of Athens, the École Normale de Musique Ireland. in Paris, and Indiana University in the Also an active chamber musician, USA, where he also completed conduct- Christoffer Sundqvist is a member of ing studies. He has guest conducted or- the Plus Ensemble in Turku and a found- chestras in Athens and Thessaloniki, the ing member of the Arctic Hysteria wind orchestra of the Toulouse Conservatory, quintet. He has been Artistic Director the Bloomington and other symphony of the Jakobstads Sinfonietta and Rusk orchestras. With his colleague Jaan Ots Festival since 2013. He has premiered he has launched the Beethoven Now! many works for his instrument, includ- project seeking to present the music of ing the Clarinet Concertos by Markus Beethoven from different perspectives. Fagerudd and Sebastian Fagerlund, When not making music, Kornilios en- and with Tommi Aalto the Double joys flying and sailing. Concerto for clarinet and viola by Aulis

6 Sallinen. With his chamber ensembles Just recently, Emil Holmström has he has premiered numerous Finnish developed an interest in Beethoven works – by Pehr-Henrik Nordgren, and early 20th-century art, and specif- Sampo Haapamäki, Magnus Lindberg, ically the performance of music by the Atso Almila and others – and he works Second Viennese School , in close collaboration with Sebastian and of Ferruccio Busoni and Heitor Villa- Fagerlund. Lobos. In spring 2013 he was awarded a Recent releases on the BIS and three-year working grant by the Finnish Alba labels include the Emma-award- Cultural Foundation, during which time winning, internationally-acclaimed disc he was able to concentrate on his high- of the Fagerlund Clarinet Concerto with er-degree research into Busoni. One of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra the highlights of 2015 was the com- (BIS), Peter Eötvös and Aulis Sallinen pletion of the Sonatas disc released by Concertos (Alba) and an Emma-award- Alba, on which he performs music by winning disc of music by Jukka Tiensuu Beethoven, Bartók and Lindberg with with the Plus Ensemble (Alba). violinist Pasi Eerikäinen. Christoffer Sundqvist has been the FRSO’s principal clarinettist since 2005. He teaches at the Sibelius Academy THE HELSINKI MUSIC and regularly holds masterclasses. CENTRE CHOIR

EMIL HOLMSTRÖM Founded in autumn 2011 on the ini- tiative of Hannu Lintu, Jukka-Pekka Emil Holmström is a graduate of the Saraste and John Storgårds, the Helsinki Sibelius Academy, where he studied the Music Centre Choir of about 80 sing- piano with Erik T. Tawaststjerna, com- ers works in close partnership with the position with Veli-Matti Puumala and main Helsinki Music Centre occupants: harmony and counterpoint with Olli the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Väisälä. He also studied in Paris with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Marie-Françoise Bucquet. His musician- and the Sibelius Academy. Its Artistic ship has been greatly influenced by his Director has from the very beginning involvement with the Uusinta Ensemble, been composer Tapani Länsiö. and with the defunensemble focusing The Choir made its debut in 2012, on electroacoustic music. He is also a in a performance by the Finnish Radio familiar face in the ranks of the Avanti! Symphony Orchestra conducted by Chamber Orchestra. Together with Jukka-Pekka Saraste of Brahms’s Ein Markus Hohti and Eriikka Maalismaa, Deutsches Requiem. Its first year cul- he founded the Ristiveto Festival first minated in a performance conduct- held at the Ateneum Art Museum in ed by of Beethoven’s Helsinki in conjunction with the exhibi- ninth, Ode to Joy symphony with the tion of works by Helene Schjerfbeck in Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. autumn 2012.

7 The HMCC repertoire, planned joint- repertoire of the FRSO, which each year ly by the main Helsinki Music Centre premieres a number of Yle commissions. occupants, consists primarily of sym- Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- phonic choral and orchestral works and cord all Finnish orchestral music for the unaccompanied music for large choir, Yle archive. During the 2015/2016 sea- not forgetting contemporary music. son it will premiere six Finnish works Each year the Choir gives a concert at commissioned by Yle. The programme the Helsinki Music Centre of unaccom- will also include Piano Concertos by panied hymns on the evening of All Beethoven and Prokofiev, Symphonies Saints Day. by Schumann and Brahms, and The Choir appears in concert from Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. Among eight to ten times a year, mainly at the its guest artists will be pianists Murray Helsinki Music Centre but also at festi- Perahia, Nelson Freire and András vals. The members of the choir are am- Schiff, conductors David Zinman, Tugan ateurs with a passion for singing. Sokhiev and Manfred Honeck, soprano Karita Mattila and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The FRSO has recorded works by THE FINNISH Ligeti, Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen RADIO SYMPHONY and others, and the debut disc of the op- ORCHESTRA era Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some prestigious distinc- The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra tions, such as the BBC Music Magazine (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Award, the Académie Charles Cros Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission Award and a MIDEM Classical Award. is to produce and promote Finnish musi- The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg cal culture and its Chief Conductor as of Violin Concertos was Gramophone mag- autumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. The azine’s Editor’s Choice in February 2014. FRSO has two Honorary Conductors: The FRSO regularly tours to all parts Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. of the world. One of the many high- The Radio Orchestra of ten players lights of the 2015/2016 season will be founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- tours to Japan and Austria with conduc- chestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu tor Hannu Lintu. Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor The home channel of the FRSO is Yle by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- , Okko Kamu, Leif certs, usually live, both in Finland and Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and abroad. Its concerts can also be heard Sakari Oramo. and watched with excellent live stream In addition to the great Classical- quality on the FRSO website (www.yle.fi/ Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- rso), and the majority of them are tele- temporary music is a major item in the vised live on the Yle Teema channel.

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