6.12. at 15:00 INDEPENDENCE DAY GALA CONCERT Helsinki Music Centre Klaus Mäkelä conductor Kari Kriikku clarinet Leevi Madetoja: Kullervo, Op. 15 15 min Jouni Kaipainen: Carpe diem!, Op. 38 26 min 1. 2. 1 INTERVAL 20 min Jean Sibelius: Lemminkäinen, Four Legends, Op. 22 48 min 1. Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari 2. The Swan of Tuonela 3. Lemminkäinen in Tuonela 4. Lemminkäinen’s Return Also playing in this concert will be four students from the Si- belius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, chosen for the Helsinki Music Centre’s Orchestra Academy: Beata Kavander, violin 2, Liisa Orava, viola, Otto-Aaron Takala, cello and Saga Söderström, French horn. The Helsinki Music Centre Orchestra Academy is a joint ven- ture launched in 2015 by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the FRSO and the Sibelius Academy aiming at training that is of an increasingly high standard and with a more practical and international orientation. Interval at about 15:55. The concert will end at about 17:25. Broadcast live on Yle Areena and Yle Teema. PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR MOBILE PHONE IS SWITCHED OFF! 2 Photographing, video and sound recording are prohibited during the concert. Leevi Madetoja: Jouni Kaipainen: Kullervo, Op. 15 Carpe diem! Leevi Madetoja (1887–1947) was the “My clarinet concerto Carpe diem! is in fourth Finnish composer to turn to the one sense a protest against the trend tragic figure of Kullervo in the Finnish na- for strong negative feelings to dominate tional epic, the Kalevala. (He was preceded not only in music but in all contempora- by Filip von Schantz, Robert Kajanus and ry art. […] I admit these are difficult ti- Jean Sibelius.) The legacy of Jean Sibelius mes. It is nevertheless more important to lay most heavily upon him, above all that stress positive, life-affirming emotions. of The Swan of Tuonela, Lemminkäinen’s We shouldn’t be afraid of the world. We Return and Pohjola’s Daughter, and Kullervo should seize the day.” would for a long time be his only Kalevala- Thus Jouni Kaipainen (1956–2015) inspired work for orchestra. He wrote it described the psychological background relatively early in his career and the influ- to his clarinet concerto of 1990 before its ence of Tchaikovsky may be detected in premiere conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen the unusually lush, romantic idiom, even at the Helsinki Festival in September 1990, down to a few melodic-harmonic twists. with Kari Kriikku as the soloist. Madetoja’s Kullervo is not a dramat- Carpe diem! was Kaipainen’s first con- 3 ic story, being more of a character por- certo. His encounter with what was for trait. The French horns’ signal-like motto him a new genre proved successful, and against tremolo strings is a focal element concertos became a major category in his of the piece, and in other respects, too, output. The virtuoso clarinet part written the brass play an important part in spur- in collaboration with Kari Kriikku makes ring the music along. extreme demands of the instrument, in terms of both expression and technique. There are two movements marked in the score, but structurally the work is in three parts, for the second movement consists of a slow and a quick part performed wi- thout a break. Carpe diem! – seize the day – is a quo- tation from an ode by the Roman poet Horace and reflects both the concerto in general and the opening, in which the cla- rinet immediately takes command. The movement relies on two contrasting ele- ments, a rhythmically throbbing ‘main theme’ and a chorale-like ‘secondary the- me’ with frail clarinet multiphonics. The second movement begins with an anguished outburst. Orchestral eruptions then alternate with quiet clarinet intros- other two legends not until 1939. pection until an increasingly intense brid- Lemminkäinen is a convincing syn- ge puts paid to any remaining angst and thesis of a Finnish national subject and leads to a brilliant finale. post-Wagnerian Romanticism. It also has traces of late-19th-century symbolism. The Four Legends are almost symphonic in structure. The first movement shows Jean Sibelius: Lemminkäinen in feverishly erotic mood. Lemminkäinen, In the second, the silky strings and sub- limely-etched solo cor anglais capture to Four Legends perfection the mythical swan that glides across the black river separating the world “I believe that music alone, that is to say of the dead (Tuonela) from the land of the absolute music, is in itself not enough. It living. Lemminkäinen in Tuonela casts the arouses emotions alright and induces cer- hero into death’s abode, but the gentle tain states of mind, but it always leaves middle section paints a picture of his lov- something unsatisfied in the soul. One al- ing mother, who has come to fetch him. ways asks, why this? Music is like a wom- The final movement sees Lemminkäinen an; it is only through man that she can return, as a hero bursting with life. give birth. That man is poetry.” 4 Programme notes by Kimmo Korhonen Such were the musings of Jean Sibelius translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo (1865–1957) in July 1893, when he had started sketching an opera, The Building of the Boat, based on the national epic, the Kalevala. It is almost word-for-word what Wagner had been saying in Oper und Drama, but deeper acquaintance with the book and the ‘composer’s block’ this in- duced led Sibelius to abandon his own op- era project. With his Boat on the rocks and inspired by the symphonic poems of Liszt, Sibelius turned to programmatic orchestral mu- sic. The result was Lemminkäinen, four leg- ends based on the ‘wanton loverboy’ (as the translator Keith Bosley called him in English) in the Kalevala. The reception at its premiere in April 1896 was on the whole favourable, but Sibelius was not satisfied and made a re- vised version in 1897. The Swan of Tuonela and Lemminkäinen’s Return became fixed as they are known today in 1900, but the Klaus Mäkelä Kari Kriikku “There may of course be lots of great mo- Kari Kriikku is one of Finland’s foremost ments in a concert, but most special of instrumentalists on the global circuit. He all are the ones when the whole orchestra has had solo engagements worldwide, seems to collectively throw itself into a with the New York Philharmonic, at the state that hasn’t been rehearsed.” Amsterdam Concertgebouw, La Scala and At present Principal Guest Conductor of other such prestigious venues, added to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra which he is an active chamber musician. and Artist in Association of the Tapiola Hitting public awareness in the 1980s, Sinfonietta, Klaus Mäkelä (b. 1996) is Chief Kari Kriikku became a source of inspira- Conductor and Artistic Advisor Designate tion for the young Finnish composer gen- of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra as eration. Jukka Tiensuu, Jouni Kaipainen, of the start of the 2020/21 season. He is Kimmo Hakola, Magnus Lindberg and also Artistic Director of the Turku Music Kaija Saariaho have written works es- Festival. He has guest conducted to high pecially for him, as have many outside acclaim across Europe, the United States Finland, from Michel van der Aa to Unsuk and Asia and his debuts have usually led Chin. Classical masterpieces do, however, to return invitations. Debuts this sea- also feature in his repertoire. In addition son include the NDR Elbphilharmonie in to new music he has recorded the clari- 5 Hamburg, the Munich Philharmonic, the net concertos by Mozart, Molter, Weber, Philharmonique de Radio France, the Crusell and others. London Philharmonic and the City of Kari Kriikku has been the recipient of a Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. number of awards for his merits. His disc of Mäkelä studied orchestral conduct- the clarinet concerto by Magnus Lindberg ing with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius won both a Gramophone and a BBC Music Academy. His work is founded on solid Magazine award in 2006. He was Artistic musicianship, for he is a laureate of the Director of the Crusell Festival in Finland Turku Cello Competition and still appears 1994–1998 and has been Artistic Director from time to time as a cellist. In his work of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra since as a conductor he stresses the “unspoken 1998. dialogue between by orchestra and con- ductor”. The Finnish and Sakari Oramo, and a host of young Finnish artists will make their debut as Radio Symphony FRSO soloists. Orchestra The FRSO has recorded works by Mahler, Bartók, Sibelius, Hakola, The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Kokkonen and others. It has twice won Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission a Gramophone Award: for its disc of is to produce and promote Finnish musi- Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 cal culture and its Chief Conductor as of and of Bartók Violin Concertos in 2018. autumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. Other distinctions have included BBC The Radio Orchestra of ten players Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- and MIDEM Classical awards. Its disc of chestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief tone poems and songs by Sibelius won Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, an International Classical Music Award Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, (ICMA) in 2018, and it has been the re- Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka cipient of a Finnish EMMA award in 2016 Saraste and Sakari Oramo, and taking and 2019. over from Hannu Lintu in 2021 will be The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of 6 Nicholas Collon.