20 DECEMBER THURSDAY SERIES 4 Helsinki Music Centre at 17
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20 DECEMBER THURSDAY SERIES 4 Helsinki Music Centre at 17 Hannu Lintu, conductor Karita Mattila, soprano Anssi Karttunen, cello Kari Kriikku, clarinet Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 10 min Yuki Koyama, flute Magnus Lindberg: Cello Concerto No. 2, Finnish premiere 25 min I–II–III Jean Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op. 70 9 min INTERVAL 20 min Jouni Kaipainen: Nyo ze honmak kukyo to, Op. 59b 6 min Kaija Saariaho: Mirage 12 min Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, suite no. 2 16 min I Lever du jour II Pantomime III Danse générale Five students at the Sibelius Academy will be playing with the orchestra tonight under the training scheme between the Sibelius Academy and the FRSO. They are: Johannes Hakulinen, 1st violin, Khoa-Nam Nguyen, 2nd violin, Aino Räsänen, viola, Sara Viluksela, cello and Joel Raiskio, double bass. Interval at about 18.00. The concert ends at about 19.25. 1 CLAUDE DEBUSSY Afternoon of a Faun”. But the very fact that it is, by nature, a prelude makes it (1862–1918): PRÉLUDE Impressionistic. À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN Debussy’s faun basks in a languor- FAUNE ous, melancholy yet contented haze. In the composer’s own words: “The mu- The label “Impressionism” in music tends sic of this prelude is a very free illustra- to be automatically – and maybe errone- tion of Mallarmé’s beautiful poem. By ously – associated with Claude Debussy. no means does it claim to be a synthe- For was he in fact an Impressionist? And sis of it. Rather there is a succession of what exactly is Impressionism in music? scenes through which pass the desires The safest thing would no doubt be and dreams of the faun in the heat of to apply the term to features that ap- the afternoon. Then, tired of pursuing pear here and there in the music of the timorous flight of nymphs and nai- various composers, and not to use it ads, he succumbs to intoxicating sleep, to cover all the music of one particular in which he can finally realise his dreams composer. Maurice Ravel, Paul Dukas, of possession in universal Nature.” Karol Szymanowski, Frederick Delius, Ottorino Respighi and Väinö Raitio are, Jouni Kaipainen for example, all composers whose mu- sic was in a way Impressionistic, some more, some less. MAGNUS LINDBERG Let us therefore heed Debussy’s (1958–): CELLO own wishes: let us not call him an Impressionist and instead assign him a CONCERTO NO. 2 title he himself was proud to carry: “un musicien français” – a French musician. Magnus Lindberg completed his second Having prepared the ground, I can now cello concerto as a commission from safely say that L’après-midi d’un faune the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra was the work that sparked off debate in 2013. The commission had come at on Impressionism in music. Debussy unusually short notice when it became originally intended to use the poem by apparent that the concerto ordered Stéphane Mallarmé as the basis for an from Oliver Knussen would not be ready orchestral suite in three movements. in time. Thus pressed for time, Lindberg The “Faun” would then have been a decided to base his concerto on his “Prélude, Interlude et Paraphrase Finale earlier Santa Fe Project (Konzertstück), pour L’après-midi d’un faune”, but on a duo for cello and piano of 2006. No completing the Prélude in 1894, he de- way can the concerto be regarded sim- cided that nothing more was necessary. ply as an expanded, updated version, It was a masterpiece in itself. Nowadays however. The soloist at the premiere we usually forget it was meant to in Los Angeles in October 2013 was be a prelude and just speak of “The Anssi Karttunen, with whom Lindberg 2 had a close working relationship, and JEAN SIBELIUS the conductor was another friend and colleague, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the or- (1865–1957): chestra’s Music Director for many years. LUONNOTAR In writing his new concerto, Lindberg made sure his soloist would not be Tracing the way a work came to be com- drowned by using a moderately-sized, posed is often difficult. Sibelius actual- almost classical orchestra. The brass ly got the notes of Luonnotar down on section is small and the score lacks the paper in a short period in July–August percussions and piano usually found in 1913, after completing his fourth sym- Lindberg’s tool kit; nor is there a harp. phony, but the seeds had been sown way The cello is an active, multidimension- back in his youth. He wrote Luonnotar al partner to the orchestra, its range of for the soprano diva Aino Ackté as com- expression varying from delicate medi- pensation, so to speak, for failing to pro- tation to lively embellishment and fleet- duce the orchestral song The Raven he ing outbursts of glowing, romantic mel- had promised her. She first sang it at ody. Despite being rather few in number, the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, these snatches of song have an impor- England in September 1913. tant function as punctuation marks in The description of the Creation in the the musical narrative. Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, in- The concerto is in three movements spired Sibelius to write one of his most performed without a break. Despite original and most distinctive works. having lots in common with the Santa Combining elements of a solo song and Fe Project, it is cast on a much bigger a symphonic poem, it represents a rare scale. The lyrically-inclined beginning, genre in his output. The music sounds for example, in which the cello out- austere and archaic, yet it also has vi- lines the basic material, is new. The first sionary, modernist traits such as bito- movement of the Santa Fe Project has a nality and cluster-like chords. cadenza-like solo that is now accompa- The opening bars paint a picture of nied by instruments from the orchestra, the primeval void before the world was and the big cadenza in the middle created. From the cosmic humming of movement of the concerto is missing the strings, the soprano plucks the initial from the duo. This cadenza is sort of germ for her melody. The main theme is the heart of the concerto, the turning more narrative, while the second, follow- point from which the music gradual- ing a great gust of wind (harp glissan- ly proceeds to the rhythmically more dos), is more static and profound, like sharply-articulated finale before ending an incantation or lament. Following a in limpid, tranquil mood. dense development section and a cli- max that erupts in radiant splendour, Kimmo Korhonen Luonnotar ends with one of the most magical moments in all Sibelius, as the stars come out in the sky. Kimmo Korhonen 3 JOUNI KAIPAINEN he emerged in a new light as a compos- er with a greater awareness of tradition. (1956–2015): NYO ZE He went on to write four symphonies in HONMAK KUKYO TO all, the last of which was the mighty or- atorio-like Commedia (2012) inspired by Jouni Kaipainen’s illustrious career as a Dante’s Divine Comedy. composer was cut short on 23 November As the years went by, he began to by a disease from which he had suffered speak of his admiration for the classics for a long time. Among his works in pro- more and more often. Favouring the tra- gress was the fifth symphony, a commis- ditional large-scale forms, he bravely – sion from the Finnish Radio Symphony and successfully – placed himself open Orchestra. to comparison with an age-old tradition. Kaipainen was one of Finland’s most In addition to the symphonies, his core eminent composers. His broad and var- output consisted of numerous concer- ied output covered many genres: or- tos and seven string quartets, all sover- chestral, chamber and vocal. The trom- eign genres ever since the Classical era. bone concerto premiered in summer He once reported how, as a young man, 2015 bore the opus number 100, an in- he finally woke up to the world of clas- dication that he did indeed work hard. sical music and composing thanks to He was also a respected teacher of com- Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. And how, position at the Tampere Music Academy a little later, he nourished himself by lis- and one of Finland’s finest writers about tening to a Béla Bartók string quartet music. Readers of his FRSO programme each morning. notes will have noted and appreciated Faith in the lasting values of music his exceptionally profound knowledge of and a brand of classicism across generic his subject. borders can also be heard in the works Emerging on the musical scene in of Jouni Kaipainen; it finds expression the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jouni in their logical formal thinking and of- Kaipainen was a member of the Korvat ten in the clarity and appropriateness of auki/Ears Open group that shook his textures. They seem to be driven by Finnish music both verbally and aural- some inner force, even when the music ly. In his early works he associated him- is complex and operates at many levels. self with the modernism that dominat- His music also has an expressive edgi- ed the spirit of the times, but his music ness and emotional force, and often also gradually then acquired features hinting a richness of timbres and tones akin to at the more traditional ideals that would that of French music. later manifest themselves. One sign of Nyo ze honmak kukyo to is a version for an incipient change of course was the clarinet, string orchestra and Japanese first symphony (1985), still sharply mod- dabachi temple bell of the third move- ern, though its very genre was alien to ment of Kaipainen’s clarinet quintet many strict modernists.