12 SEPTEMBER FRIDAY SERIES 1 Helsinki Music Centre at 19

Hannu Lintu, conductor Sandrine Piau, soprano Topi Lehtipuu, tenor Nathan Berg, baritone Helsinki Music Centre Choir, coaches Christopher Bell & Tapani Länsiö

Joseph Haydn: The Creation 100 min

Part I Prelude. The Representation of Chaos 1. In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth 2. Now vanished by the holy beams 3. And God made the firmament 4. The marv’lous work beholds amazed/ The glorious hierarchy of heav’n 5. And God said let the waters 6. Rolling in foaming billows 7. And God said, Let all the earth bring forth grass 8. Now robed in cool refreshing green 9. And the Heavenly host proclaimed the third day 10. Awake the harp 11. And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven 12. In splendour bright is rising now/the sun 13. The heavens are telling the glory of God

INTERVAL 20 min

1 Part II 14. And God said: Let the waters bring forth in plenty 15. On mighty wings the eagle proudly soars aloft 16. And God created great whales 17. And the angels struck their immortal harps 18. In fairest raiment 19. The Lord is great in his might 20. And God said: Let earth bring forth the living creature 21. At once Earth opens her womb 22. Now shines heaven in the brightest glory 23. And God created Man 24. In native worth and honour clad 25. And God saw every thing 26. The great work is complete 27. All look up to thee, O Lord 28. Fulfilled at last the great work

Part III 29. In rosy mantle appears 30. By thy goodness, O bounteous Lord 31. Our first duty we have now performed 32. Sweet companion, at thy side 33. O happy pair, and ever happy henceforth 34. Sing the Lord, ye voices all

Interval 19.50. The concert ends at about 21.30. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and the internet (yle.fi/rso)

2 JOSEPH HAYDN ant, forte C major. At this point Haydn heeded Swieten’s suggestion: “In the (1732–1809): Chorus, the darkness could gradually THE CREATION disappear; but enough of the darkness should remain to make the momen- In late summer 1795, Joseph Haydn tary transition to light very effective. returned from the second visit to ‘And there was Light’ must be said only England that had culminated his career once.” Another fine moment in the as a symphonist. By then over 60 years banishing of darkness is the evocative of age, he could have retreated into orchestral sunrise preceding Uriel’s re- well-earned retirement, but instead he citative In splendour bright. Part I ends threw himself into a final great spurt of with a trio and the chorus The heavens creation, his crowning glory as a com- are telling the glory of God. poser of vocal music. Among other Animals enter the scene in Part II, things, this period yielded two great or- expressed by Haydn in solo recitatives atorios – The Creation and The Seasons and arias with a wealth of descrip- – and several magnificent Masses. tive orchestral effects. Man joins the With him from England Haydn throng in Uriel’s recitative And God cre- brought home an oratorio libretto in ated Man and the aria In native worth English. Legend has it that this had and honour clad. This aria was the last originally been made for Handel, who number in The Creation which Haydn had nevertheless not used it. The text, himself ever heard, when a soldier from put together by Baron Gottfried van the occupying French forces sang it to Swieten, is based on the biblical Book him as a tribute in May 1809, only a few of Genesis, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, weeks before he died. The closing cho- and in a few of the choral numbers the rus Fulfilled at last the great work com- Psalms. pletes the act of creation. The oratorio is divided into three A serene orchestral interlude leads to main parts, the first and second of the opening recitative in Part III. The which describe the first six days of cre- form of this part is freer than that of ation. Each day begins with a recita- the others. Part III concentrates on the tive, after which the events of that day seventh day of creation and the life of are narrated in different ways (in rec- the two humans, Adam (bass/baritone) itatives, arias, duets, trios and choral and Eve (soprano) in Paradise before scenes). the Fall. Haydn gives them two incred- In Part I, God creates the heaven and ibly beautiful duets, the first of them the earth, the grass, seeds and fruit. It with the choir. Haydn’s Creation ends begins with a well-known evocation of with a chorus praising almighty God. chaos that, with its tense harmonies and big crescendos must have caused Kimmo Korhonen (abridged) unease among its first listeners. Equally rousing is the creation of light in a radi-

3 HANNU LINTU in his native Finland and later the , where he also at- Hannu Lintu took over as Chief tended the conducting class taught Conductor of the Finnish Radio by Jorma Panula, Atso Almila, Eri Klas Symphony Orchestra in August 2013. and Ilja Musin. He has further been tu- Formerly Artistic Director of the tored by, among others, Myung Whun Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Chung at the Music Academy Siena. In Chief Conductor of the Helsingborg 1994 he was the winner of the Nordic Symphony Orchestra, he has also Conducting Competition. been Principal Guest Conductor of the Discs by Hannu Lintu have been re- RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in leased on the Ondine, Alba, Naxos, Dublin. He works regularly with the Ricordi, Claves, Hyperion and Danacord Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and was labels. Many of the discs featuring him Artistic Director of its Summer Sounds as the conductor have won awards festival in 2005. both at home and abroad, and his pre- In addition to conducting the lead- miere recording of the The Mine ing Finnish orchestras, Maestro Lintu by was nomi- has made guest appearances with nated for a Grammy. the Radio Orchestras in Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Amsterdam and Madrid, with a number of orchestras in North and South America (such SANDRINE PIAU as the Toronto, Houston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and St. Louis French soprano Sandrine Piau is a re- Symphony Orchestras, and the Los nowned figure in the world of Baroque Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood music, regularly performing with cele- Bowl), in Asia (Seoul, Tokyo, Kuala brated conductors specialising in early Lumpur and Hong Kong) and Australia music such as Marc Minkowski, Nikolaus (the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Harnoncourt, Ton Koopman and Orchestras and others). During the William Christie. Her operatic repertoire 2012/2013 season he made his debut embraces both lyric and Baroque roles, with such orchestras as the London which have recently included Cleopatra Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra (Giulio Cesare), Pamina (The Magic and the BBC Scottish Symphony, Flute), Anna (Don Giovanni) and the and this season he takes up re-invi- title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea. tations to conduct the Stockholm Sandrine Piau also regularly appears and Gothenburg Symphonies, the in concert. In recent years she has, for Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin example, performed at the Salzburg (DSO), the Toronto Symphony and oth- Festival, the, Wigmore Hall in London er orchestras. and the Covent Garden Festival, at the Hannu Lintu studied the piano and Vienna Musikverein and Amsterdam’s cello first at the Turku Conservatory Concertgebouw, and with orchestras

4 from the to the Topi Lehtipuu has conducted a num- Boston Symphony Orchestra. ber of Finnish choirs and taught arran- Sandrine Piau is an exclusive record- gement at the Sibelius Academy. He ing artist for Naïve. Recent releases in- was Artistic Director of the Joroinen clude Après un Rêve and Le Triomphe Music Days from 2004 to 2010 and has de l’Amour. The French Ministry of since been the Artistic Director of the Culture awarded her the prestigious ti- Turku Music Festival. tle of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2006 and she was named Lyrical Artist of the Year in the Victoires NATHAN BERG de la Musique Classique award ceremo- ny in 2009. Canadian bass-baritone Nathan Berg is renowned for his extensive repertoire ranging from Baroque to contempo- TOPI LEHTIPUU rary music and lyric roles. He regularly appears with such celebrated conduc- Topi Lehtipuu has gained an interna- tors as , Esa-Pekka Salonen, tional reputation as one of Finland’s and Roger highly individual artists. In his concerts Norrington. and stage performances of Mozart as Berg studied singing in Canada, the well as of contemporary and early mu- United States, Paris, and at the re- sic, he enjoys intense working relation- nowned Guildhall School of Music in ships with conductors such as Sir John London. His operatic roles include Eliot Gardiner, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon the title roles in Don Giovanni and Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen. A fre- The Marriage of Figaro, the Doctor quent guest in Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, in and the title role in The London, Paris, Salzburg and Vienna Flying Dutchman. He is also in great and at Glyndebourne, he has appeared demand with top orchestras as the so- in concert halls and opera houses all loist in works such as Handel’s Messiah, over Europe, as well as in Japan and the Haydn’s Creation Dvořák’s Stabat Mater USA. Nowadays he spends an increa- and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. He is sing amount of time recording. a regular Lied recitalist and has sung at Having had a permanent job as a such illustrious venues as the Wigmore tenor in the Finnish Radio Chamber Hall in London and the Lincoln Centre Choir, Topi Lehtipuu made his ope- in New York. ra stage debuts at the Théâtre des Among the works in Nathan Berg’s Champs-Elysées (Tamino), at the discography are Mozart’s and Vantaa Opera (Albert Herring) and the Lieder by Othmar Schoecke. He can Savonlinna Opera Festival. For his de- also be heard on the DVD recordings but at the Finnish National Opera he of Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Lully’s sang Ferrando in Così fan tutte. He Armide. subsequently took up residence in Paris.

5 THE HELSINKI MUSIC THE FINNISH CENTRE CHOIR RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The Helsinki Music Centre Choir of about 80 singers can, as required, re- The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra group as a male or female choir. It (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish works in close partnership with the Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mis- main Helsinki Music Centre occu- sion is to produce and promote Finnish pants – the Finnish Radio Symphony musical culture and its Chief Conductor Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic as of autumn 2013 is Hannu Lintu. The Orchestra and the Sibelius Academy – FRSO has two Honorary Conductors: and its Artistic Director has from the Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. very beginning been composer Tapani The Radio Orchestra of ten players Länsiö. founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- The HMCC repertoire, planned over chestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu the long term with the three main Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor Music Centre occupants, consists most- by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, ly of symphonic choral and orchestral Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif works, but it also includes unaccom- Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and panied music scored for a large choir, most recently Sakari Oramo. and contemporary music. The Choir In addition to the great Classical- gives an annual All Saints Day concert, Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- “Hymns Night”, of unaccompanied mu- temporary music is a major item in the sic at the Helsinki Music Centre. repertoire of the FRSO, which each The Choir appears in concert from year premieres a number of Yle com- eight to ten times a year, mainly at the missions. Another of the orchestra’s Helsinki Music Centre but also at other tasks is to record all Finnish orches- venues – next year, for example, at the tral music for the Yle archive. During Organ Night and Aria festival in Espoo. the 2014/2015 season it will premiere The members of the Helsinki Music four Finnish works commissioned by Centre Choir are amateurs with a pas- Yle. The programme will also include sion for singing. colourful orchestral poems by Richard Strauss, symphonies by Shostakovich and Haydn’s great The Creation. The orchestra’s distinguished guests will in- clude conductors , Kent Nagano, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa- Pekka Salonen, soprano Karita Mattila, violist Tabea Zimmermann and pianist Olli Mustonen.

6 The FRSO has recorded works Musikverein during a tour of Central by Ligeti, Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Europe. During the 2014/2015 sea- Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, son the orchestra, under the baton of Kokkonen and others, and the debut Hannu Lintu, will appear in Stockholm disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas and Moscow and tour Finland. It will Launis. Its discs have reaped some also visit the EBU Festival in Bucharest prestigious distinctions, such as the with Joshua Weilerstein as its conduc- BBC Music Magazine Award and the tor. Académie Charles Cros Award. The disc The home channel of the FRSO is Yle of the Sibelius and Lindberg violin con- Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- certos was Gramophone magazine’s certs, usually live, both in Finland and Editor’s Choice in February 2014. abroad. Its concerts can also be heard The FRSO regularly tours to all parts and watched with excellent live stream of the world. One of the many high- quality on the FRSO website (yle.fi/rso), lights of the 2013/2014 season was and the majority of them are televised a critically-acclaimed concert con- live on the Yle Teema channel. ducted by Hannu Lintu at the Vienna

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