8.2. FRIDAY SERIES 10 Helsinki Music Centre at 19:00 MUSICA NOVA HELSINKI André de Ridder, conductor Pekka Kuusisto, violin Helsinki Chamber Choir, coach. Jutta Seppinen Daníel Bjarnason: Emergence 15 min Silence Black Breathing Emergence Daníel Bjarnason: Violin Concerto 20 min INTERVAL 20 min Tyondai Braxton: TELEKINESIS, fp in Finland 38 min Overshare Wavefolder Floating Lake Overgrowth 1 The LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER MUSIC will begin in the main Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls. Salla Savolainen, violin Tommi Aalto, viola Jukka Rautasalo, cello Andrew Norman: String Trio 18 min “The Companion Guide to Rome” 1. Teresa 2. Benedetto 3. Susanna 4. Pietro 5. Ivo 6. Cemente 7. Lorenzo 8. Cecilia 9. Sabinai Interval at about 19:50. The concert will end at about 21:05, the late-night chamber music at about 21:40. Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and streamed at yle.fi/areena. A recording of the concert will be shown in the programme “RSO Musiikkitalossa” (The FRSO at the Helsinki Music Centre) on Yle Teema on 10.3. and on Yle TV 1 on 16.3. 2 DANÍEL BJARNASON Breathing starts with sizzling energy before confronting more static webs (b. 1979): EMERGENCE, of sound. Towards the end, the ini- VIOLIN CONCERTO tial rhythmic stimulus transforms into a percussive agitato that makes the Icelandic conductor and composer webs shimmer and blaze. Daníel Bjarnason studied composi- The third movement has the same tion, piano and orchestral conducting title as the work as a whole and bears in Reykjavik and conducting further in out the meaning of emergence as a pro- Freiburg, Germany. He has been one of cess of coming into existence or prom- the most prominent figures in the rise inence. Webs already heard now blend of Icelandic music beginning in experi- in a majestic, hymn-like expanse, rising mental popular music in the 1990s and and falling before fading away. the following decade appropriating art Bjarnason wrote his Violin Concerto music with a disregard for generic dis- (2017) as a commission from the Los tinctions. Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Hallmarks of Bjarnason’s music are Dudamel. He collaborated closely with clear forms, strong dynamics and big Pekka Kuusisto, who was the soloist at contrasts. His motifs may be tonal, but the premiere at the Hollywood Bowl his harmonies and sound not necessar- in August 2017. It has later been per- ily so. Nor is he greatly concerned with formed in Reykjavik, New York, Detroit, generic distinctions; the most impor- London, Paris and elsewhere under con- tant thing is an insatiable curiosity. ductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, The three-movement Emergence Osmo Vänskä and John Storgårds. (2011, 2014/2016) is the first of Kuusisto introduced Bjarnason to Bjarnason’s large orchestral works. The various violin tricks, the first of which titles of the movements are designed can be heard right at the start of the to set the mood, but further than that, 20-minute, one-movement concerto he does not wish to explain his music. when the soloist begins by whistling The piece may be taken as a process accompanied by pizzicatos to which carried along on undulating crescen- the tutti violins reply. (The score says dos in which each of the movements that if the soloist cannot whistle, he/ is bigger than the one before. In its she can hum instead.) The second and webs of sound and orchestral tim- more far-reaching trick is the excep- bres, Emergence may evoke memories tional scordatura tuning, meaning that ranging from Ligeti to Feldman and the violin’s bottom string is lowered from American minimalism to Eastern from G to D. At some point Bjarnason European confessionalism. even entertained the idea of calling the The opening Silence is the shortest work Scordatura. It gives the music an and most static movement and con- unusual harmonic tension and permits sists mainly of string and wind webs of almost orchestral effects in the solo sound that slowly gain in volume. Black part. 3 Though the solo part is highly virtu- tion masterworks like Akira, Feldman’s osic and has almost no time to rest, the Coptic Light, Varèse’s Ameriques, overall impression is of a symphonic TELEKINESIS explores the idea of ab- poem rather than a traditional concer- stracted scale: massive musical shapes to. The music proceeds in broad sweeps and gestures moving through an ever and blocks yet at the same time lives in evolving landscape”. It was commis- the moment, studded with numerous sioned by Musica nova Helsinki and the insightful details. Around the middle is Southbank Centre in London. a big, partly-improvised cadenza. Telekinesis (nowadays known as psy- chokinesis) is an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physi- TYONDAI BRAXTON cal system without physical interaction. (b. 1978): TELEKINESIS It occupies a notable role in Katsuhiro Otono’s manga Akira (1988), which Braxton once planned to make into an Born in the USA, Tyondai Braxton is opera. He describes TELEKINESIS as “a nowadays associated with Brooklyn, Faustian bargain, an ability like that in New York and as a composer grew up the end can destroy you.” Other sourc- in a world where traditional generic es of inspiration he quotes include distinctions have ceased to have any such telekinetic classic horror films meaning. He has taken and incorpo- as Brian de Palma’s Carrie (1976) and rated music from art rock to orches- David Cronenberg’s Scanners (1981). tral, their strongest and most futur- TELEKINESIS is scored for a monu- istic characteristics. Most important mental line-up: a large symphony or- of all has been the encounter of elec- chestra, four electric guitars, choir, a tronic and acoustic. This is something churning sampler and a synthesiser. It with which he has experimented with, could have incorporated a visual ele- among others, Philip Glass. As his ment. “To be so unfettered, psychically, art music models he mentions Edgar it was like having actual telekinesis – Varèse as an explorer of new sounds, like walking around with buildings ex- the free thinking of John Cage and ploding,” he says. “And then there was the broad carpets of sound of Morton me against myself, which is brutal.” Feldman. The symphony orchestra is This may be the impression it makes for him not a historical contrivance but on the listener. a source of massive sounds and harmo- Having four movements suggests a nies. traditional format, but the combat per- In Tyondai’s own words, “TELEKINESIS vading the whole work – the orchestra’s is a work for large orchestra, electron- massive clusters, electric guitars’ pha- ics and choir which forges a deeper re- langes, battering electronic sounds lationship between my electronic and and, in the last movement, human notated music. With a nod toward sci- voices – piles everything up in a heap. fi film soundtracks and sound explora- TELEKINESIS was premiered in London 4 with André de Ridder conducting in Symphony Orchestras. His debut with April 2018, but Braxton has adapted it the New York Philharmonic in 2015 was for this performance in Helsinki. followed by a return visit last autumn. “Overshare” means “when more infor- De Ridder has a repertoire spanning mation is provided than is necessary or everything from Baroque and Classical even wanted”. “Wavefolder” is an elec- to the very latest music. He has also tronic sound-processing technique worked with many celebrated con- that “folds” sound waves to make them temporary composers (among them harmonically richer. “Floating Lakes” Saariaho, Michel van der Aa, Daníel can be found in both the Far East and Bjarnason, Uri Caine and Damon telekinetic music. “Overgrowth” is of- Albarn) and has conducted a large ten the consequence of uncontrolled number of premieres. In opera, he has processes, but it is also a video game in conducted works by such composers which a rabbit has to fight for survival as Monteverdi, Mozart, Janáček, Henze, in a post-apocalyptic world. and the premiere of Daníel Bjarnason’s Brødre (Brothers) in 2017. Programme notes by Antti Häyrynen In 2013, de Ridder was one of the translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo founder members of the Berlin-based but international s t a r g a z e collec- tive defining itself: “We are a bunch of ANDRE DE RIDDER people who are trained and have been working in classical and classical-con- André de Ridder is known as a conduc- temporary music. Each day, we are get- tor of varied repertoire and as the mas- ting more excited by what’s going on termind behind new musical events. in contemporary pop, electronica and He was Artistic Director of Musica other uncategorizable genres in and nova Helsinki in 2017 and has been in- around these confines.” vited back this year. He was the recipi- De Ridder’s discography includes the ent of the Royal Philharmonic Society album Plastic Beach by the Grammy- Music Award in 2018 in recognition of nominated virtual ensemble Gorillaz, his work on behalf of the Spitalfields and Max Richter’s “recomposition” Music Festival in London. of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which After studying in Berlin in his na- won an ECHO Klassik. He has also re- tive Germany, de Ridder went on to corded work by Bryce Dessner, Jonny further conducting studies in Vienna Greenwood and others, and Terry and London with Leopold Hager, Colin Riley’s minimalist classic In C with local Davies and others. He has been guest Mali musicians. conductor with many top orchestras, such as the Ensemble intercontempo- rain, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tokyo Metropolitan and the Melbourne, Chicago and Toronto 5 PEKKA KUUSISTO Adès, Anders Hillborg, Andrea Tarrodi and Daníel Bjarnason.