WEDNESDAY SERIES 3 Hannu Lintu, Conductor Pekka Kuusisto
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5.10. WEDNESDAY SERIES 3 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00 Hannu Lintu, conductor Pekka Kuusisto, violin Perttu Haapanen: Compulsion Island 15 min Anders Hillborg: Violin Concerto No. 1 24 min INTERVAL 20 min Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F, 39 min Op. 68 “Pastoral” I Allegro ma non troppo (Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arriving in the country) II Andante molto mosso (Scene by the brook) III Allegro (Merry gathering of peasants) IV Allegro (Tempest, storm) V Allegretto (Shepherds’ hymn – Happy and thankful feelings after the storm) Interval at about 20.00. The concert ends at about 21.10. 1 PERTTU HAAPANEN genre are an elegant, ambiguous weave of reality, fantasy, sentimentality, cute- (B. 1972): COMPULSION ness, grotesqueness, bothersomeness ISLAND and profound, clear-sighted moments. My works do not so much seek to bor- Perttu Haapanen deftly walks a tight- row aesthetically from Japanese cultu- rope held at one end by post-WWII re. Rather, they address orientalism at Finnish and European modernism and conceptual level; as a means of chan- at the other end by novel expressive ging the perspective on our Western devices and sources of inspiration such culture and of thus trying to see mul- as electronic music and video art. tiple meanings and new potential in fa- Haapanen studied composition miliar elements. at the Sibelius Academy with Erkki There is, however, one quite con- Jokinen and Paavo Heininen – hence crete point of contact with anime in the firm link with the Finnish avant-gar- Compulsion Island. The trumpet motif de – and electro-acoustic music at with which it begins is a highly refined IRCAM in Paris. His extensive knowl- adaptation of the signature tune to the edge and his numerous network con- Paranoia Agent series of Satoshi Kon. tacts have, among other things, land- The discrepancy between this strange- ed him such jobs as Artistic Director of ly yodelling song, bowling far too mer- the Viitasaari Time of Music festival. rily along, and the absurd opening The music of Haapanen carries shots creates a space that generates shades of modern impressionism. He significations pointing in very different seeks inspiration in many directions, directions. one of which is the Japanese anime My attitude to musical material computer animation, but linguistic im- needs a corresponding dichotomy. In pulses and bodily experiences may just the case of Compulsion Island I could, as likely be given expression. Most of to put it simply, say that the musical his early works are for small ensemble, gestures grew out of the cross-current but since the beginning of the century generated by breathing, mechanicality he has been tightening his grip on or- and compulsive reiteration. The associ- chestral music, and just recently he has ations that fixed the ideas on the mu- been honing his linguistic ideas in sev- sical map varied in the initial stage of eral works for choir. the work from a panting gasp to the routines of the strange, clapped-out Osmo Tapio Räihälä machines of Stanislaw Lem and the clarity of the reiterative rituals of su- Compulsion Island is part of an intercon- per-intelligent neurotics. nected cycle of works, the others being Compulsion Island was composed as Ladies’ Room (2007), Obsession Park a commission for the Finnish Radio (2009) and Doll Garden (2013). The Symphony Orchestra. thing that unites them is my interest in Japanese anime. The best works in this Perttu Haapanen 2 ANDERS HILLBORG minutes, the soloist embarks on a long, slow, cadenza-like episode, floating on (B. 1954): VIOLIN high in a realm of its own. This ends in CONCERTO NO. 1 a sort of finale. The lure familiar from the start continues to dash along until Anders Hillborg has an interesting, the carpet is pulled from beneath its varied background as a composer. As feet as in a cartoon film. a youngster, he sang in choirs, played As is often the case in Hillborg’s mu- rock, and did all sorts of things with sic, the Violin Concerto features pairs improvisation while at the same time of opposites: a hyperactive soloist vs. studying composition at the Royal static strings, and brutality vs. a texture College of Music in Stockholm. His of sometimes shimmering beauty. All output is equally varied, taking in vir- in all, Anders Hillborg’s Violin Concerto tually everything apart from opera; he No. 1 is extremely lively music. has even composed film scores and pop. His main instrument is, however, Osmo Tapio Räihälä the orchestra, and he is a real wizard at handling this. Hillborg’s first Violin Concerto (1992) LUDWIG VAN is already the work of a one-of-a-kind BEETHOVEN composer. The thing that makes this vigorous Concerto special is the fact (1770–1827): that although the listener is hardly able SYMPHONY NO. 6 to hum a single tune, it is nevertheless very rich in timbres; it is not just tradi- Following in the wake of his vigorous tional melody music. Though ostensi- fifth Symphony, the sixth represented bly in a single movement, it falls into a considerable change of direction for several clear sections. In many places Ludwig van Beethoven, even though the solo violin and the first violins play the two do in some ways complement such similar motifs that there is none each other. They were both premiered of the conventional dialogue between at the same concert at the Theater an individual and group. der Wien in December 1808. The con- The Concerto begins in a veritable cert was in many respects a complete frenzy. The soloist speeds along like a fiasco: the musicians had had far too greyhound lure, never glancing to left little time to rehearse their difficult or right. About five minutes from the parts, and since Beethoven could not start, a brutalissimo eruption takes afford to pay for heating, the theatre place in which the soloist begins to was so cold that the instruments kept slither along in feverish glissandos – going out of tune and the frozen au- glissandos being an important factor dience bitterly complained. Yet in ret- throughout this Concerto. At about rospect, no one would deny that the half way into this work lasting about 25 premiere of Beethoven’s fifth and sixth 3 Symphonies was a major milestone in been building up during the dance. It the history of music. breaks out in flashes of lightning, claps After a year hammering away at it, of thunder and a downpour that forces Beethoven completed his Pastoral the peasants to dash for shelter. Symphony in June 1808, at Heiligenstadt The finale follows without a break. in the Vienna hills where Beethoven Beethoven gave it the title Shepherd’s was in the custom of spending his Hymn (Hirtengesang). The countryside summers. Nowadays, Heiligenstadt is a has been reborn, the rain-drenched northern suburb of the Austrian capi- earth smells fresh and full of life, and tal, but in Beethoven’s day it was still the birds are singing on the bough. an idyllic country retreat. It was a place where he could commune with na- Osmo Tapio Räihälä ture unhindered by his deafness. The Programme notes translated (abridged) Pastoral Symphony proves beyond all by Susan Sinisalo doubt the deep satisfaction he felt at being out in the woods, hearing only the fantasies in his head. The first movement is built almost HANNU LINTU entirely round the simple melody, bor- rowed from a Croatian folk tune, stat- Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio ed right at the beginning. According to Symphony Orchestra since August Beethoven, it tells of a cheerful man ar- 2013, Hannu Lintu previously held the riving in the country. positions of Artistic Director and Chief The second movement is described Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic in more detail: a little brook rippling Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor along with a nightingale singing and a with the RTÉ National Symphony cuckoo calling. Beethoven’s biographer Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Anton Schindler even claimed he knew Helsingborg Symphony and Turku the exact brook and the point in the Philharmonic orchestras. shadow of elms that inspired this mu- Highlights of Lintu’s 2016/17 sea- sic, but subsequent scholarship has re- son include appearances with the vealed that Schindler invented so many Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, “facts” about Beethoven that this claim Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Radio- has to be treated with some suspicion. Symphonieorchester Wien, Luzerner The third movement, describing peas- Sinfonieorchester and Orquesta ants making merry, naturally features a Sinfónica de Galicia, and in North country dance with an oboe piping a America with the St Louis Symphony charming melody over heavy-footed and the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore stomping on the bassoons and dou- Symphony and Detroit Symphony or- ble basses. Before long, the revels are, chestras. Recent engagements have in- however, interrupted by a thunder- cluded the The Cleveland and Gulbenkian storm (the fourth movement) that has orchestras, the Orchestre de Chambre 4 de Lausanne, Orchestra Sinfonica di Concertos of Sibelius and Thomas Adès Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and the BBC with Augustin Hadelich and the Royal Scottish Symphony, Iceland Symphony Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. In Hannu Lintu studied cello and piano 2015 he conducted a complete cycle at the Sibelius Academy, where he later of Sibelius’ symphonies in Tokyo with studied conducting with Jorma Panula. the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra He participated in masterclasses with and the New Japan Philharmonic, and Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia toured Austria in January 2016 with vi- Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and took olinist Leila Josefowicz and the Finnish first prize at the Nordic Conducting Radio Symphony Orchestra.