22.1. at 19:00 Music Centre

Sakari Oramo conductor soprano

Aarre Merikanto: Fantasia17 min

Aarre Merikanto: Ekho 8 min

INTERVAL 20 min

1 Rued Langgaard: No. 6 23 min “Det Himmelrivende” Theme (Version 1) Theme (Version 2) Variation I (Introduzione) Variation II (Fuga) Variation III (Toccata) Variation IV (Sonata) Magnificamente VIII Variation V (Coda)

Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder TrV 296 24 min Frühling (Spring) September Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) Im Abendrot (At Sunset)

Interval at about 19:35. The concert will end at about 20:55. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and Yle Areena. The concert will be shown in two parts on Yle Teema on 16.2. and 23.2. with repeats on Yle TV 1 on 22.2. and 29.2. Aarre Merikanto: Rued Langgaard: Fantasia & Ekho Symphony No. 6 Aarre Merikanto (1893–1958) was, along Det Himmelrivende with Ernst Pingoud, Väinö Raitio and Uuno The road of seeking new out- Klami one of the young 1920s Modernists lets for expression has been bumpy not introducing new ideas into Finnish music. only in . Such was also the fate of Their novel trends were not, however, very Rued Langgaard (1893–1952). At home welcome, and Merikanto came to perso- in , he was only a marginal fig- nify the obstacles placed in the young ure, and most of his works were never per- Modernists’ path. His main work, the ope- formed during his lifetime. ra Juha (1922), was not staged until five Langgaard was also said to be some- years after his death. thing of an eccentric, which did not help, The transition to Modernism from the and his works are difficult to define. At Late Romanticism of Merikanto’s early one extreme are his few works in conven- works took place in the early 1920s in the tional Romantic style, and at the other his orchestral songs Autumn Sonnet and Ekho visionary Sfaerernes Musik (Music of the (both 1922) and the Fantasia for orchestra Spheres, 1916–1918), webs and slow-mov- of 1923. ing string clusters. Not until long af- 2 Merikanto originally intended the ter his death did people in Denmark be- one-movement Fantasia to be his third gin to appreciate his trail-blazing role as a symphony, but he then made an almost . complete about-turn, arriving at a title His 16 are the biggest sin- that underlines the piece’s free, unsym- gle category in Langgaard’s extensive phonic form. Earth-moving streams erupt output. One of the finest is no. 6, Det in lava-like textures that, at their peak, Himmelrivende (The Heaven-Rending”). build up in multi-layered heaps. There are A composer with a non-conventional reli- also some more lyrical moments, but the gious worldview, he was inspired to write composer seems either unwilling or una- the symphony by a verse by the 18th-cen- ble to check the music’s primitive force, tury hymn poet Hans Adolph Brorson and allowing it to burst out in ecstatic, Late- a fragment from St Paul’s Epistle to the Romantic Expressionist climaxes. Ephesians in the New Testament. The sound of Ekho, composed slightly The sixth symphony is in one move- before the Fantasia, is more controlled. ment. The theme is presented in two ver- The poem by V.A. Koskenniemi tells, sions and is followed by five closely-con- among other things, the story of the nected variations bearing the headings mountain nymph called Echo in Ovid’s Introduzione, Fuga, Toccata Sonata and Metamorphoses. Echo is in love with Coda. Once the theme has been stated, Narcissus, but her love is not requited, be- the music is mostly intensely dramat- cause Narcissus is in love with his reflec- ic, with only a few short lyrical breath- tion in a spring. Echo’s unrequited love is ing spaces. The brass instruments often woven into the rich, Impressionistic tones have a message to proclaim and the final of Merikanto’s music. section of the Coda is separately marked Glorificazione. : Vier letzte “I can feel National Treasure status beck- Lieder oning already,” wrote Evan Hewett of Richard Strauss (1864–1949) composed Sakari Oramo in The Telegraph. Chief his Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) in Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the 1948 and it is easy to see them as the ag- Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra ing composer’s farewell to life. Yet even in since 2008 and Chief Conductor of the his late years, he was still at the height of BBC Symphony Orchestra since 2013, his creative powers when he wrote his best Sakari Oramo was Music Director of the loved and most moving song cycle. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra The soloist at the premiere with Wilhelm 1998–2008 and Chief Conductor – now Furtwängler conducting was, at Strauss’s Honorary Conductor – of the Finnish request, the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Radio Symphony Orchestra 2003–2012. Flagstad. The concert did not take place He was also Artistic Director of the until May 1950, by which time Strauss Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra 2013– was dead. The cycle was published later 2019 and for many years Conductor of that year. West Coast Opera (in Finland). The Four Last Songs combine two of Beginning his career as a violinist, Strauss’s great loves: the soprano voice Sakari Oramo was leader of the Avanti! 3 and the orchestra. The soprano traces Chamber Orchestra (of which he was one magnificent long, long lines, and the or- of the founders) and the Finnish Radio chestra, though full and rich, never drowns Symphony Orchestra before turning her. Two of the songs have moving solos: more to conducting. This he studied with September (a French horn) and Going to at the , Sleep (a violin). and in 2020 he begins a five-year term In its timeless beauty, the cycle exudes a as the Academy’s Professor of Orchestral deep sense of nostalgia and a calm accept- Conducting. ance of approaching death. While the first His guest conducting engagements song still rejoices in the coming of spring, have taken Sakari Oramo far and wide, the second and third are already weary. from Vienna, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam The closing At Sunset brings the proxim- to New York, Chicago and San Francisco. ity of death tangibly close. As the soprano He has a large discography and has con- asks, “Ist dies etwa der Tod?” (Is this per- ducted many rare works and the pre- haps a hint of death?), a quotation from mieres. The Royal Philharmonic Society the transfiguration theme in Strauss’s ear- Music Award for Conductor is just one ly tone poem Death and Transfiguration is of the prestigious distinctions that have heard in the orchestra. When the voice fi- been bestowed on him. nally falls silent, the orchestra leads the music to a state of perfect peace.

Programme notes by Kimmo Korhonen translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo temporary music is a major item in the Anu Komsi repertoire of the FRSO, which each year Coloratura soprano Anu Komsi has made premieres a number of Yle commissions. a highly-acclaimed career as the singer Another of the orchestra’s tasks is to re- of Lieder, vocal chamber music, orchest- cord all Finnish orchestral music for the ral songs and over 60 operatic roles. Yle archive. During the 2019/2020 season, These she has performed the world over the FRSO will premiere four works com- and in such eminent company as the missioned by Yle. Also on the programme Vienna, Berlin and New York Philharmonic are a large-scale collaboration between Orchestras, La Scala, Milan, the Salzburg Yle and the Helsinki Festival: Schumann’s and Lucerne Festivals. Her exceptional- Scenes from Goethe’s Faust. The sympho- ly wide repertoire stretches from the nies and concertos of Dmitri Shostakovich Renaissance right up to the present day. will occupy special status during the sea- She is, however, best known as a sovereign son, while the RSO Festival now to be held interpreter of works of the 20th and 21st for the second time will feature new and centuries, and many contemporary com- large-scale works by Magnus Lindberg. posers have written works specifically for Among the visiting conductors will be her. Anu Komsi is renowned for the dedi- Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, cation with which she is prepared to throw Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo, 4 herself into projects both demanding and and a host of young Finnish artists will sometimes unusual. make their debut as FRSO soloists. The FRSO has recorded works The Finnish by Mahler, Bartók, Sibelius, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Radio Symphony Kokkonen and others. It has twice won Orchestra a Gramophone Award: for its disc of Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and of Bartók Violin Concertos in 2018. (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Other distinctions have included BBC Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros is to produce and promote Finnish musical and MIDEM Classical awards. Its disc of culture and its Chief Conductor as of au- tone poems and songs by Sibelius won tumn 2013 has been . an International Classical Music Award The Radio Orchestra of ten players (ICMA) in 2018, and it has been the re- founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- cipient of a Finnish EMMA award in 2016 chestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief and 2019. Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, the world. During the 2019/2020 season Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka its schedule will include tours to Central Saraste and Sakari Oramo, and taking Europe and Japan under Hannu Lintu. over from Hannu Lintu in 2021 will be The FRSO concerts are broadcast live on Nicholas Collon. the Yle Areena and Radio 1 channels and In addition to the great Classical- are recorded and shown later on Yle Teema Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- and TV1.