A HUNDRED YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP Eero Lehtimäki, Kazutaka Morita, conductor marimba www.joensuu.fi/orkesteri THU 7.11.2019 AT 7PM | CARELIA HALL A HUNDRED YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP Eero Lehtimäki, conductor Kazutaka Morita, marimba Hikaru Hayashi: Andantino Three Film Scores Con Moto Espressivo Intermezzo (Allegretto) Adagio Akira Miyoshi: Concerto for marimba and string ensemble Yasushi Akutagawa: Triptyque for string orchestra Toru Takemitsu: Allegro Requiem for String Orchestra Berceuse Presto VÄLIAIKA Konsertin kesto on noin 2 tuntia Pehr Henrik Nordgren: Symphony for Strings op. 43 ESIINTYJÄT sic groups. In addition to his acknowledgements Eero Lehtimäki | as a musician, Lehtimäki has also graduated as conductor a Master of Science (Technology) in acoustics at the Aalto University. He admires versatile so- Eero Lehtimäki (b. 1989) made his bre- phistication and makes music to take people to akthrough by conducting the Mariinsky Theat- places they could not even imagine. re Orchestra in concert on extremely short noti- ce at Turku Music Festival in 2016. Since then, he has performed with almost all of the Finnish pro- Kazutaka Morita | fessional symphony orchestras. He started as the marimba artistic director and chief conductor of Joensuu City Orchestra in 2019, and has been the artis- Kazutaka Morita was born in Kochi, Japan. tic director of the Brinkhall Music Festival since He started at the age of 16 with percussion. He 2018. In 2020, Lehtimäki will start as the artistic studied at the Aichi Prefectural University of director of the Joensuu Winter Music Festival. Fine Arts and Music in Japan and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Eero started his conducting studies in Jorma Netherlands. Panula’s class for young conductors in 2010 and After graduating, Morita performed with finished his conducting studies at the Sibelius numerous orchestras and chamber music groups Academy in spring 2016. He has also studied or- in Japan. In 2006, he was invited to New York chestral and opera conducting in Vienna with Jo- for the Steve Reich @ 70 production, where he hannes Wildner, Simeon Pironkoff and Konrad played the entire Reich program at Carnegie Hall. Leitner. Eero has attended master classes of Jor- Morita's dream of becoming a member of ma Panula and Valery Gergiev and studied pri- the Nordic Orchestra came to fruition when he vately with Hannu Lintu. received a place as a percussionist at the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway. Before starting his conducting studies, Leh- From there he came to the Tampere Philhar- timäki graduated from the Helsinki Conserva- monic in Finland. Morita, who has also wor- tory of Music with clarinet and bass clarinet as ked at the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, is main instruments, and he has also studied the currently the percussionist of the Radio Sympho- historical clarinets in Austria and Germany. He ny Orchestra, officially the vice-principal of the has been the artist in residence clarinetist at Iit- percussion. ti Music Festival annually since 2013 and he is still irregularly performing as soloist and musi- cian with various orchestras and chamber mu- TEOSESITTELYT traditional instruments in his works, and the Japan has long been known as the giant of art aesthetics of Japanese art can be heard in music in the East, but its special features may even more compositions. In 1984, the Tokyo still need to be reminded. The history of the Philharmonic Orchestra visited Joensuu with piano Japanese art music tradition is as long as that concerto by Akio Yashiro, performed by of the Western world and dates back to the Izumi Tateno and conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. middle of the first millennium. Inherited Japa- nese court music of those days, gagaku, is an Hikaru Hayashi (1931-2012) was a Japanese artwork steeped in many East Asian influences, composer, pianist and conductor who studied and has for centuries been a source of fake Ja- composing at the University of Tokyo with teacher panese character. Hisatada Otaka. Hayashi made his breakthrough with his Symphony in G (1953), which won Japan's connection to Western culture, da- several major awards in his home country. ting back to the 1860s, has been amazed by Another noteworthy composition was the its rapid development and Japanese ability to choral work Scenes from Hiroshima (1958), absorb the interest of Western culture. which he finished in his final years. Nowadays struggling with the problems of cultural assimilation, it has been difficult for Hayash's productions include operas on clas- Westerners to understand how the Japanese sical subjects (including Three Sisters, Don managed to preserve their own identity in the Quixote, Romeo and Juliet), orchestral works face of enormous change and open-minded ta- (three symphonies), and a piano music. Like keover of the new. many Japanese composers, Hayashi was an active composer of film music. Movie The modernist concept of art was also one compositions originated from Seijun Suzuki's of the winners of World War II in Japan, and Thriller Without Shadow (Kagenaki Experiment, many young Japanese composers went to 1958) to the drama film Postcard (Ichimai no Europe to pick up speed. The collision with Hagaki, 2010) directed by Kaneto Shindo at the traditional conceptions of music and age of 100. Concerto versions of Hayashi's film institutional structures was violent in Japan, but music have also been compiled. also productive in many ways. Akira Miyoshi (1913-2013) was also born in Finns have had their own role in Japanese Tokyo and began his career as a child genius with development. Jean Sibelius has been a popular piano. He later studied French literature and composer in Japan in the pre-war period and of language at the University of Tokyo and Pa- later composers Pehr Henrik Nordgren studied in ris. Of French composers, Miyoshi was most Tokyo from 1970-73. He has used Japanese impressed by Hen- ri Dutilleux. Miyoshi studied in Japan Japanese composers such as Yasuji Kijosen and under Tomojiro Ikenuchi and in 1953 attracted Fumio Hajasaka. After the Second World War the attention of the Sinfonia concertantel- Takemitsu sought new solutions to Western art la for piano and orchestra. In Paris, his teach- music modernism, which he felt was the only er was Raymond Gallois-Montbrun. Finns may free-breathing music. remember Miyoshi as a composer of the fanfare of the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics. The 1957 Requiem for Strings was an international breakthrough for Takemitsu. Igor Percussion has played a central role in Stravinsky was the first to praise the work, he traditional Japanese music, where they have praised it as "very impressive and condensed". naturally found their way into modern art music. Stravinsky's statement accelerated Takemitsu's Many of these works have been created for the position at the forefront of contemporary music. world-famous marimbavirtu Keiko Abe. Miyoshi's 1969 concerto for marimba and strings is one of For the first time in the Requiem, the his most popular compositions. theme that dominates Takemitsu's art is the fragility of life and beauty and the ensuing sha- The short concerto begins with the dark-sou- dow of death. At the time of writing the Requiem, ded strings as marimba breaks away from qui- Takemitsu, who was suffering from tuberculosis, was et trills into a solo solo part. The tempo remains himself blinkered to death. relatively sluggish, but modernist tensions increase both within the string textures and Requiem's ​​wide-arched bow melodies are between the soloist and the orchestra. At colored by slow-changing chords and many the end of the work, the drama is condensed special powers of the bow, divisions, glissando, into the cadastral solos of the marimba, but the sordans and solos. If you can distinguish the actual answers the piece does not offer. effect of Messiaen in chord use, the free- spirited form of the work and the flow of ideas Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is undoubtedly resemble Debussy. the best known for combining Japanese art with Western tradition. His sensual music, with The more active and lively theme is disturbed by sophisticated tones in music, was one of the the peaceful and elegant atmosphere. In the end, modern variations of impressionist art, but Takemitsu also repeats his material according also a concentrated story of oriental aesthetics. to Western structural thinking. The melody of less than ten minutes, despite its compactness, Takemitsu was mainly self-taught as a is multidimensional, peaceful and reconciling. composer and received pri- vate tutoring from senior The Symphony for Strings, completed in 1978, is Pehr Henrik Nordgren's (1944-2008) one of the sic at the Tokyo School of Music, but in 1954 strongest and most concise works in which the traveled to the Soviet Union (with which symphonic language, structure and kinetics are Japan had no official relations at that time), naturally balanced. The accountable nature of where he became interested in Shostakovich, the work, the search for reconciliation or hope, Hatshaturjan and About Kabalevsky's music. undoubtedly brings to mind Shostakovich, but Like many of his compatriots, Akutagawa was It does not detract from the personal nature and also an active teacher, film and TV composer. personal tone of the Nordgren conflicts. The triptych for strings was completed in The opening of the symphony is aggressive, fil- 1953 and can be distinguished from the led with pain and anxiety interpreted through deceased that year Prokofiev's motoristic energy. dramatic gestures - offset by sadly sullen Akugatawa also draws on Japanese and themes. In the second part of the killer beat (Con Continental influences in his work, featuring themes moto), the pizzicato hits and scary effects only based on the Pentatonic scale. The first part (Allegro) come to an end with long tones, after which the is energetic and dancing.