13 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 10 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 Krzysztof Urbański, conductor Antti Siirala, piano Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of 9 min Hiroshima W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 KV 466 32 min I Allegro II Romanze III Rondo (Allegro assai) INTERVAL 20 min Witold Lutosławski: Concerto for Orchestra 29 min I Intrada (Allegro maestoso) II Capriccio notturno e Arioso (Vivace) III Passacaglia, toccata e corale (Andante con moto – Allegro giusto) THE LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER-MUSIC CONCERT will follow in the Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls. 1 Laura Vikman, violin Hannu Vasara, violin Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma, viola Jussi Tuhkanen, viola Mikko Ivars, cello W.A. Mozart: String Quintet in C Minor KV 406 30 min I Allegro II Andante III Menuetto in canone – Trio in canone al roverscio – Menuetto IV Allegro Interval at about 20.00. The concert ends at about 21.00. The late-night chamber music ends at about 21.45. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and at yle.fi/rso. 2 KRZYSZTOF atmosphere is inevitably evocative of horror and suffering. Stanley Kubrick, PENDERECKI (1933–): who had a brilliant knack of choosing THRENODY FOR THE just the right music for his films, spot- VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA ted this and used a fragment from Tren in his horror classic The Shining (along with music by Ligeti and Bartók). At The work for which Krzysztof Penderecki the time, this aroused philosophical de- really first became famous was Tren ofi- bate about why contemporary music is arom Hiroszimy, often known simply as deemed suitable only for accompany- Tren or by its English name Threnody ing violent, horrifying and distressing for the Victims of Hiroshima. ‘Threnody’ moods, even though to its composers means ‘Lament’. This one is scored for it meant something quite different and a large string orchestra of 52 players, all had no extra-musical associations. And with individual parts. They are not, how- surely it is not the composer’s fault if ever, soloists, for Penderecki operates music he considers sophisticated and with blocks of sound produced as the inspiring sounds to the untutored ear joint effort of many. like nuclear meltdown or impending Penderecki began composing this doom? But in the case of Tren, the ti- work for a competition in Katowice, tle is inevitably thought-provoking and where it won third prize. Its name then helped to win the work a worldwide rep- was 8’37”. This was how long it took to utation. For the winners of the first and play and was a friendly nod in the direc- second prizes in the Katowice competi- tion of John Cage. At the time, the mu- tion have not had nearly so much pub- sic was so unusual that Penderecki had licity or received so many performances. to devise his own notation for it. He had no idea, he later claimed, how it would sound. “It existed only in my imagina- WOLFGANG AMADEUS tion, in a somewhat abstract way. When MOZART (1756–1791): I heard an actual performance, I was struck by the emotional charge of the PIANO CONCERTO work...I searched for associations and, in NO. 20 KV 466 the end, I decided to dedicate it to the Hiroshima victims.” And later: “Let the Mozart composed 27 piano concertos Threnody express my firm belief that at relatively even intervals throughout the sacrifice of Hiroshima will never be his short but all the more intense career. forgotten and lost.” Two milestones stand out on their time- The listener should remember line. In 1777, when he was 21, he com- that atomic bombs were far from posed his ninth piano concerto (known Penderecki’s mind when he composed as the Jeunehomme) that, with its nov- the piece. Yet the message of the ti- el dramatic structure, carried the gen- tle is impossible to overlook. The bleak re a big step into the future. The sec- 3 ond milestone came in the mid-1780s. ahead to the closing movement of the In 1784 he composed no fewer than G minor symphony. The sunny switch six concertos (14–19), and the follow- to the major key at the end was diffi- ing year a further two. The six of 1784 cult for some sentimental Romantics to served as a sort of laboratory for an un- swallow, but hear for yourself just how usually large number of experiments – perfectly it sits in music of such deep altering the relationship between soloist waters. Many of Mozart’s concertos end and orchestra, playing with peculiar for- with a joyful shout that differs in tempo mal solutions and on one occasion even and mood from what has gone before. tampering with the tonal undercurrent. Having completed the sixth 1784 con- certo, Mozart took a short rest. It was WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI nevertheless long enough for him to (1913–1994): CONCERTO change gear and set off in a new direc- tion. The two concertos composed with- FOR ORCHESTRA in one month of each other in early 1785 are, despite being products of the same Witold Lutosławski composed his flood of inspiration, different in their Concerto for Orchestra in response to a approach. This time they represent not request from conductor Witold Rowicki Experiment but Grand Synthesis. Both in 1950 for a new piece for the Warsaw the D Minor (KV 466) and the C Major Philharmonic Orchestra he (Rowicki) (KV 467) concertos are among the best- had just founded. One of the conditions loved ones by Mozart, and the former, was that it had to be based on folklore. in particular, would leave its mark on the Lutosławski said his first thought was aesthetics of later eras. This applies only a piece the size of an overture, but his in principle, however, for there are no di- thoughts gradually expanded to a large rect imitations. format. The result was no mean con- A couple of hints for the listener. Note struction. Though it does incorporate how effectively the syncopations at the folk tunes, the content and form are on beginning of the first movement cre- a symphonic scale. The structures and ate a restless, almost uneasy mood. The texture, virtuosic and unfailingly pol- idea of the individual versus the collec- ished, operate at many levels. tive is greatly underlined by the fact that The concerto took a long time to they share virtually no material. The pi- mature and was not finished and pre- ano, for example, does not join in the or- miered until 1954. Some say that al- chestra’s syncopations, and the orches- though “the dawn of Polish music” did tra never touches the piano’s opening not show its first signs until a couple of statement. This was something quite years later, it really began with this pre- new at the time. The same applies to miere performance. the aggressive episode in the middle of The Concerto for Orchestra is the earli- the Romance. The finale wells forth from est example of a form weighted towards the depths in a way that clearly looks the end. It is in three movements. In the 4 Intrada, the expectant atmosphere has the listener wondering whether it could just enough embryo motifs to make the possibly get any faster. listener hunger for more. The second movement flashes past and consists of Abridged programme notes by a nocturnal capriccio and a singing epi- Jouni Kaipainen translated by sode dominated by brass instruments. Susan Sinisalo It has an affinity with the famous noc- turnal works of Bartók, but whereas Bartók’s nocturnes are often almost static, Lutosławski’s are peopled by frol- KRZYSZTOF URBAŃSKI icking fairies, goblins and other little creatures whose concept of time has a Krzysztof Urbański graduated from quicker-than-human pulse. the Chopin Music Academy, Warsaw The finale is longer and weightier in 2007 and was the unanimous First than the first two movements togeth- Prize Winner of the Prague Spring er. Again, this master of concise expres- International Conducting Competition. sion does not waste time, so that al- His career has since progressed in leaps though the Concerto for Orchestra is in and bounds, so that he is now Music every respect cast in a big mould, it is Director of the Indianapolis Symphony not particularly long. The Passacaglia Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor grows and grows to 15 variations that of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and nevertheless trace a single broad span. Chief Conductor and Artistic Leader of The listener is hardly aware of the vari- the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. ation form, or that the theme is filtered In August 2014 he took the Trondheim from folk music. The Toccata dashes in Symphony on tour to Poland, where at the point where the Passacaglia has they opened the 10th International calmed down after a persistent crescen- Chopin Music Festival. This autumn do. Lutosławski even slips in the famous he takes up the position of Principal Dmitri Shostakovich motto, transposed. Guest Conductor of the NDR Symphony It is not around for long and may easily Orchestra Hamburg. be thought a coincidence. It is, howev- Debuts last season included appear- er, a deliberate gesture to a fellow com- ances with the Berlin Philharmonic and poser who knew only too well what it the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and meant to be an artist in a totalitarian among the highlights of the forthcom- regime. The third element is a Chorale ing season are engagements with the deliberately reminiscent of a snatch of New York Philharmonic, the London theme in the second movement of the Symphony, the Philharmonia and the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók.