C I D OR N HIGHLIGHTS 4/2020 NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN Focus on Ingvar Antti Lidholm Auvinen centenary NEWS Nana Forte Gehrmans has started a collaboration Photo: Ghadi Boustani Photo: with the Slovenian composer Nana Forte (b. 1981). Miso Hochstätter Miran Photo: Her list of works includes composi- tions for solo instruments, chamber and orchestral music and operas, but especially her choral works have been highly acclaimed and have garnered a number of prizes. Gehrmans is now publishing En ego campana for double mixed choir a cappella, commissioned and premiered by the Swedish Radio Choir during the Baltic Sea Festival 2017. The piece is also on the reper- toire list for the Eric Ericson Award 2021. Pettersson’s Twelfth on CD Mühlrad & Royal Stockholm Allan Pettersson’s monumental 12th Sympho- Philharmonic ny – The Dead in the Square will be released by Jacob Mühlrad has entered into a three-year BIS Records’ in February (BIS-2450). Scored collaboration with the Royal Stockholm Phil- for choir and orchestra to texts by Pablo Neru- harmonic, starting with the orchestral commis- da, the work was dedicated to the victims of the sion REMS (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep). In Acclaim for Kalevi Aho CD BIS Records’ new Kalevi Aho CD has military coup in Chile. It is about man’s cruel- this work Mühlrad goes through aspects of the had a truly enthusiastic reception in ty to man. Pettersson says: No poetry is farther mysteriousness and the energy that exist during the media. Containing the Percussion from ”Lies, damned lies!” than Neruda’s, and with an unconscious dream state. The premiere is Concerto and the his warm and profound sympathy for the outcasts scheduled for 22 April 2021. Sieidi 5th Symphony of society it will always bring to the fore the highest (Lahti Symphony Orchestra /Dima Slo- ethical concepts in a world where even the Good Sa- bodeniouk), it was voted Music Web’s maritan has been struck down. The Swedish Ra- record of the month in October, and the dio Choir and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir Björk Pierre Photo: Symphony made a stunning impact on the perform the work together with the Norrköping critic. In the Gramophone magazine the Symphony Orchestra under the direction of soloist, Colin Currie, writes about Sieidi, Christian Lindberg. one of the best-loved and most frequently performed of all the percussion concer- tos: “Part of this composer’s mastery is the structural backbone to all his music, and the architectural concept of this piece is frankly fantastic.” Other reviews have hailed Sieidi as wild and exotic. Read more and listen to sound samples on our web page. Christian Lindberg & Allan Pettersson C DI R NO HIGHLIGHTS 4/2020 NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll Design: Tenhelp Oy ISSN 2000-2750 (Online) Jacob Mühlrad 2 HIGHLIGHTS 4/2020 The House of the Sun to be Fredrik Högberg’s Jubilee Theme staged Fredrik Högberg was asked to compose the cel- Einojuhani Rautavaara’s chamber opera The Karrabi Carina Photo: ebratory theme for the 250th anniversary of the House of the Sun (Auringon talo) is to be Royal Swedish Academy of Music. It will be heard staged by the Metropolia University of Applied throughout 2021 existing in ten different settings Sciences on 9, 10 and 11 April 2021. The con- – from symphony orchestra to versions for dif- ductor will be Mikko Franck and the stage di- ferent instruments with piano. The performers rector Ville Saukkonen. This popular opera include the Swedish RSO, the chamber ensemble buffa tells about twin sisters whose family aban- Norrbotten NEO, the Swedish Wind Ensemble, doned the splendour of their home and fled to Bohuslän Big Band, the string orchestra Musica Finland in the wake of the Russian revolution. Vitae, the jazz trio Trio con X, et al. Högberg The family became isolated with tragic conse- describes the piece as melodious, relatively tonal, quences, but the old sisters escaped from the sad extrovert and lively. The expression marking is: greyness of their everyday life into the memories ”With Great Expectations”, and the piece is con- of their glorious youth. cluded with a triumphant fanfare. Jubilee Theme is 71 bars long, which alludes to the year 1771 when the Academy was founded, and also to 1971 when Högberg was born; he will thus be 50 years old next year. The piece is an anniversary gift from Rosenborg Gehrmans Foundation in collabora- Fredrik Högberg tion with Gehrmans Musikförlag. Close to 500 pieces as PDF downloads Numerous publications are now available as Music Finland Photo: downloads in Fennica Gehrman’s web shop. Most of them are choral works from the old Fa- zer archives by composers such as Erik Berg- man, Nils-Erik Fougstedt, Armas Maasalo, Leevi Madetoja and Selim Palmgren. Also included are some Christmas carols for SATB choir and easy Christmas music arrangements for small ensembles. There are also several PDFs for voice and piano and solo piano works. You can browse sample pages in the web shop. Cecilia Damström’s Nixus Cecilia Damström’s dedicates her new orchestral Veian MarthePhoto: piece Nixus to all those who suffer from some kind Joonas Kokkonen of mental ill-health. ”In this work, I try to illustrate how thoughts jump back and forth at a rapid pace, Joonas Kokkonen centenary in and often form a kind of hamster wheel, a vicious 2021 circle from which it is difficult to break out. I try to Next year will mark the centenary of the birth of describe how the thoughts often lead to very gloomy Joonas Kokkonen. A leading figure in the history moods and anxiety, which can even become physical of Finnish music, he is especially known for his manifestations in the body, like palpitations and pres- symphonies and his opera The Last Temptations sure in the chest”, says Cecilia. The work is a com- . He first made a name for himself with his mission from the cross-border project ”Big Music Neoclassical Piano Quintet in the 1950s. Other for Small Cities” in the province of Karelia, and popular works include a Cello Concerto, a Requiem is written for the Finnish Joensuu City Orchestra for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, and Lauda- and the Russian Symphony Orchestra of the Ka- tio Domini and Missa a cappella for choir. The Last relia State Philharmonic. The work exists in ver- Temptations will be performed at Jyväskylä Thea- sions for chamber as well as symphonic orchestras tre from 31 December 2021 onwards; the Jyväsky- and its premiere is planned for February 2021. lä Sinfonia will be conducted by Ville Matvejeff. Fennica Gehrman has published a piano reduction of the opera to honour the centenary. HIGHLIGHTS 4/2020 3 Antti Auvinen’s turbocharged world of sound Few contemporary composers have caught the ear of the public at large as Photo: Photo: Tervo Eija quickly as Antti Auvinen. Returning home in the early 2000s after studying abroad, he crashed into public awareness in 2015 and has since become one of Finland’s most talked-about contemporary composers. Herein lies the core of Antti Auvinen’s aesthet- rhythms and timbres. Next came the multimedia ics: his untiring search and experimentation in chamber opera Autuus (Bliss) that won Finland’s order to find a way of expressing contemporary coveted Teosto Prize. In 2017, the orchestral se- phenomena in the language of today: “The clas- ries became a triptych with the addition of Turbo sical music tradition is extraordinarily rich and Aria . long, and an endless source from which to draw. These works had not only a novel idiom; they You must nevertheless have the courage to exper- also carried an open underlying statement. Junker iment, seek and discover,” he says. Tw i s t is a comment on the new rise of the extreme Above all, Auvinen is fascinated by timbre and right, Himmel Punk on religious bigotry. The rhythm. Information technology features large seeds of Turbo Aria were sown when Auvinen in his composition process, as a means of both stood gazing at the Mediterranean with his child analysing and producing sound. It augments the in his arms; he was reminded of the press photos traditional toolkit, and the combination of image of refugees trying to cross the sea and a drowned and sound provides even greater scope. “I do a lot child washed up on the shore. with multimedia – I often use video manipula- Auvinen’s recent works include Cantus Fresco tions, for example, as an element in my music.” Disco for orchestra and video, a joint commission ntti Auvinen came to classical music According to Auvinen, classical music requires from the Joensuu City Orchestra and the Jyväsky- later than many of his colleagues. His time in a very special way. The processes are often lä Sinfonia. The video shows manipulated 1960s early piano lessons were exchanged long and slow. “Speed and efficiency, or demands films and the soundtrack also features Finnish for the guitar, which in turn gave way for productivity, are ill suited to the composition soprano Anita Välkki. It is a follow-up to Digital Ato heavy rock and its more gritty sounds. Then of classical music, and all in all to the creation of Madrigal premiered in early 2019 incorporating at around the age of 20 he again headed in a new profound art. Putting broad and otherwise com- a video in which processed fragments of archive direction, becoming increasingly interested in plex ideas into practice calls for sustained and and language-teaching films dart hither and contemporary music.