31.1. at 19:00 Helsinki Music Centre

Lionel Bringuier conductor Augustin Hadelich violin

Henri Dutilleux: Métaboles 17 min 1. Incantatoire (Largamente) 2. Lineaire (Lento moderato) 3. Obsessionnel (Scherzando) 4. Torpide (Andantino) 5. Flamboyant (Presto) Pjotr Tšaikovski: in D Major, Op. 35 33 min 1 1. Allegro moderato 2. Canzonetta (Andante) 3. Allegro vivacissimo

INTERVAL 20 min

Igor Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1945) 31 min Introduction Prelude and Dance of the Firebird Variations (The Firebird) Pantomime I Pas de deux (Firebird and Ivan Tsarevich) Pantomime II Scherzo (Dance of the Princesses) Pantomime III Rondo (Khorovod) Infernal Dance Lullaby (Firebird) Final Hymn Late-night Chamber-music

The Late-night Chamber-music will follow in the Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls.

Paula Sundqvist, violin Christoffer Sundqvist, clarinet Emil Holmström, piano

2 : The Soldier’s Tale, suite for violin, 16 min clarinet and piano

1. Marche du soldat 2. Violon du soldat 3. Un petit concert 4. Trois danses: Tango, valse, ragtime 5. La danse du diable

Interval at about 20:05. The concert will end at about 21:05, the late-night chamber music at about 21:40. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and Yle Areena. The concert will be shown in two parts on Yle Teema on 1.3. and 8.3. and on Yle TV 1 on 7.3. and 14.3. : It was Lalo’s symphony that gave him Métaboles the idea of writing a violin concerto. The notes poured from his pen: he finished “Every note has been weighed with gold a sketch in less than a fortnight and the scales”, said conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen orchestral score after only a further two of French composer Henri Dutilleux (1916– weeks. The violin concerto is one of his 2013). A great perfectionist, Dutilleux most relaxed creations and one of the wrote only some 40 works, a mere doz- most popular in the genre. en or so for orchestra. Métaboles – a ti- All the things he admired in Lalo’s sym- tle that obviously alludes to metabolism phony – freshness, lightness, piquant – dates from 1963–1964 and was pre- rhythms and beautifully harmonised mel- miered in Cleveland with George Szell odies – are there in the concerto, and conducting in 1965. In each of the five crowned with brilliant writing for the movements, the initial idea undergoes a soloist. series of transformations. The piece also The first movement of this concerto incorporates the idea of a concerto for or- cast in the traditional mould begins with chestra, the scoring underlining the char- a brief introduction before the soloist pre- acter of each movement by spotlighting sents the two main themes. The mid- one instrumental section at a time. In the dle movement is a graceful Canzonetta first movement, the focus is on the wood- (meaning ‘a little song’) and leads without 3 winds, in the second on the strings, divid- a break to the finale, a mixture of Russian ed in different ways. The third, beginning national flavour and joie de vivre. with solo bass pizzicatos, forefronts the brass. The percussions take the stage in the fourth, erupting into a fifth in which Igor Stravinsky: all the sections finally enjoy equal sta- Suite from The tus and together whip the music up to a Firebird Stravinsky-like throb. “It belongs to the styles of its time. It is Pyotr Tchaikovsky: more vigorous than most of the composed folk music of the period, but it is also not Violin Concerto in D very original. These are all good condi- Major, Op. 35 tions for success,” wrote Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) of his ballet, The Firebird, late Spring 1878 found Pyotr Tchaikovsky in life. And successful it was when Sergei (1840–1893) at Clarens in Switzerland. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiered it at While there, he played Édouard Lalo’s the Opéra de at the end of June 1910. for violin and or- It shot the young, as yet unknown com- chestra with his friend Iosif Kotek. “It poser to fame and a standing that was has a lot of freshness, lightness, pi- further reinforced by the two ballets he quant rhythms, as well as beautifully and next composed for Diaghilev: Petrushka splendidly harmonised melodies,” wrote (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Tchaikovsky to his patroness . Based on a Russian folktale, The Firebird Like The Firebird, The Soldier’s Tale is is the story of Koschei, a magician who based on an old Russian folktale – a va- bewitches 13 princesses. Prince Ivan riant of the Faust story. A Russian soldi- Tsarevich, who has been captured by er, Joseph, meets the devil in disguise. The Koschei’s monster guardians, is infor- devil buys Joseph’s fiddle and in return gi- med by the magic Firebird of the secret ves him a book promising great riches. of Koschei’s magic powers, enabling him Joseph experiences all kinds of adventu- to free the princesses and to marry one res but never manages to get free from of them. the devil. Stravinsky presents this fairytale in The Soldier’s Tale is scored for a nar- a fittingly magical guise, in a work bea- rator, two actors, one or more dancers ring echoes of both Impressionism and and a seven-piece instrumental ensem- his teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. From ble. Stravinsky arranged two instrumen- that composer’s opera The Golden Cock tal suites of the music in 1919–1920: a he borrowed the idea of musically dis- nine-movement concert suite for the ori- tinguishing between the human and the ginal instrumental septet and a shorter fi- mythical characters. For the former (the ve-movement suite for violin, clarinet and Prince and princesses) he accordingly wro- piano. te simpler, diatonic music, and for the lat- At around the time of The Soldier’s 4 ter (the Firebird and Koschei) chromatic. Tale, Stravinsky began turning to Stravinsky arranged three orchestral sui- Neoclassicism. The music of this tale is li- tes of music from his Firebird. The last of vely and quirky, presenting seemingly fa- them (1945) comprises about two-thirds miliar objects in cubist distortions. The of the ballet. It summarises the events fourth movement of the trio arrange- and gradually builds up to Koschei’s dra- ment describes a princess encountered matic Infernal Dance before closing on a by Joseph along the way as she rises from triumphant Final Hymn. her sickbed and performs stylised versions of three popular dances. Ragtime was just reaching Europe, and Stravinsky had only Late-night seen some sheet music brought by Ernest chamber music Ansermet from America; he had never heard any live. The devil’s dance effecti- Igor Stravinsky: The Soldier’s Tale, suite vely ends the suite as Joseph makes the for violin, clarinet and piano devil dance until he is exhausted.

Programme notes by Kimmo Korhonen As the First World War drew to a close, translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo Stravinsky and his friend the Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz hit on the idea of writing a small-scale work for the stage that would be easy to take on tour. The re- sult was L’Histoire du soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) and it was premiered in Lausanne in September 1918. Lionel Bringuier a Gramophone Award, and in 2016 he was awarded a Grammy for his recording of Still in his thirties, France’s Lionel Bringuier Henri Dutilleux’s violin concerto L’arbre is one of the most interesting conductors des songes. Other items in his discogra- of his generation. At the start of this sea- phy include the Mendelssohn, Bartók and son he accepted the position of Artiste Tchaikovsky violin concertos and recital Associé at the opera in his home city, Nice, repertoire by composers from Telemann to give a series of five concerts. to Kurtág. From 2014 to 2018 he was Chief Augustin Hadelich plays the 1723 “Ex- Conductor and Music Director of the ce- Kiesewetter” Stradivari violin, on loan lebrated Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, from Clement and Karen Arrison through and he has guested with many others, the Stradivari Society of Chicago. among them the , the Cleveland and Boston Orchestras, The Finnish the London Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Radio Symphony Bringuier’s discography includes a Ravel Orchestra concerto with pianist Yuja Wang and works by Chopin and Saint-Saëns. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish 5 Augustin Hadelich Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission is to produce and promote Finnish musical German-American Augustin Hadelich has, culture and its Chief Conductor as of au- in the past ten years or so, risen to join tumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. the world’s violinist elite, acclaimed for The Radio Orchestra of ten players his dazzling technique, soulful interpre- founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- tations and beautiful violin tone. Victory chestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief in the Indianapolis Violin Competition in Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, 2006 set him well on the way to fame, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, bringing invitations to perform across Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Europe, the United States and Asia. Saraste and Sakari Oramo, and taking The prestigious online Musical America over from Hannu Lintu in 2021 will be named him the 2018 “Instrumentalist of Nicholas Collon. the Year”. His broad repertoire takes in In addition to the great Classical- works ranging from the staple concer- Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- tos to music of the 20th and 21st centu- temporary music is a major item in the ries, such as the concertos by Dutilleux, repertoire of the FRSO, which each year Ligeti and Thomas Adès, and chamber premieres a number of Yle commissions. works by , , György Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- Kurtág, Toru Takemitsu and Bernd Alois cord all Finnish orchestral music for the Zimmermann. The disc he made with Yle archive. During the 2019/2020 season, Hannu Lintu in 2014 of the Sibelius and the FRSO will premiere four works com- Adès violin concertos was nominated for missioned by Yle. Also on the programme are a large-scale collaboration between Yle and the Helsinki Festival: Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust. The sympho- nies and concertos of Dmitri Shostakovich will occupy special status during the sea- son, while the RSO Festival now to be held for the second time will feature new and large-scale works by Magnus Lindberg. Among the visiting conductors will be Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo, and a host of young Finnish artists will make their debut as FRSO soloists. The FRSO has recorded works by Mahler, Bartók, Sibelius, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others. It has twice won a Gramophone Award: for its disc of Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 6 and of Bartók Violin Concertos in 2018. Other distinctions have included BBC Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros and MIDEM Classical awards. Its disc of tone poems and songs by Sibelius won an International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in 2018, and it has been the re- cipient of a Finnish EMMA award in 2016 and 2019. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. During the 2019/2020 season its schedule will include tours to Central Europe and Japan under Hannu Lintu. The FRSO concerts are broadcast live on the Yle Areena and Radio 1 channels and are recorded and shown later on Yle Teema and TV1.