MAGNUS LINDBERG VIOLIN CONCERTO PEKKA KUUSISTO, VIOLIN & DIRECTOR JUBILEES SOUVENIR MAGNUS LINDBERG, CONDUCTOR TAPIOLA SINFONIETTA 1 Magnus Lindberg 2 nstrumental qualities have always inspired Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958). However abstract his musical ideas may Ibe and however tightly constructed their subsurface structures, his music is always instrumentally idiomatic and powerful. Often his ideas develop in an instrumental direction of their own accord; sometimes they emerge from the special properties of a particular instrument, fusing musical and instrumental innovation into a single creative act. This approach is of course heightened in concertos, which constitute an important genre in Lindberg’s output. He has written two concertos for piano (1990–94; 2012) and one each for cello (1997–99), clarinet (2001–02) and violin (2006), and other works with prominent solo parts. The Violin Concerto was written to a commission from the Lincoln Center in New York together with the Barbican Centre in London, the Casa de Música–Porto and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and was premiered at the Mostly Mozart festival in New York in August 2006. Although the commission was specifically aimed at the 250th anniversary celebration of Mozart’s birth, Lindberg did not write a tribute with Mozart elements in it. However, the situation of the premiere had an influence on the work in the way that Lindberg used a smaller orchestra than usual. There are two oboes, two bassoons and two horns plus strings – a standard Mozart orchestra, in fact. The very fact that the ensemble is so small prompted clearer and more translucent structures than in many of Lindberg’s other orchestral works. Melodic and scintillatingly brilliant soloist passages emerge periodically from the texture. The Violin Concerto demonstrates well how far Lindberg has travelled from the edgy, acerbic defiance of his early works to his current softer and more sonorous sound ideal. A more melodic and translucent approach was heard in the Clarinet Concerto, and the Violin Concerto continues in the same vein. The melodic element in the Violin Concerto appears as a handful of recurring motifs, the first of which is – as in the Clarinet Concerto – introduced in the very first notes of the solo part. On the other hand, the concerto does have its edgy moments, as violinist Pekka Kuusisto points out: “The concerto is very heavy going at times, even violent. It has to have a relentless drive. Metric modulations are very important in Lindberg’s music, and this piece is no exception.” Also typically of Lindberg, the soloist part is demanding and rich. The relationship between soloist and orchestra is tense, in the finest concerto tradition, but the grand heroic gestures of Romantic concertos are absent. In the opening measures, the violin seems to fire up the orchestra, but subsequently the soloist not so much controls the orchestra as is buffeted by it. Pekka Kuusisto explains: “In the first movement, the orchestra sometimes knocks the soloist out of the picture altogether. The second movement is more about exploring the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra, while in the third movement they are more comfortable with one another.” The Violin Concerto is cast in three movements played without a break. The first is the most diverse both in terms of musical dramaturgy and the interplay of soloist and orchestra. It features translucent textures, sonorous sounds, tense meditations and weighty, expressive culminations. The second movement begins with a chorale-like texture, austere and rugged, but towards the middle it flares up. Towards the end there is an extensive solo cadenza leading into the rhythmic, energetic concluding movement. This is a sort of extended final stretta where the power flows in the music build towards a climax in which the chorale from the slow movement reappears. If the work were viewed as a drama, this would be its dénouement. 3 Jubilees had its origin in a piano miniature that Magnus Lindberg wrote for the 75th birthday of Pierre Boulez in 2000. It was followed by five further miniatures in the same year. This collection (now titled Piano Jubilees) represented a wholly new departure for Lindberg, an exploration of small-scale forms (even if the six miniatures have a combined duration of 15 minutes). The first miniature introduces the material that is then examined from various perspectives in the other five. The set forms a wedge-like structure: the odd-numbered movements are fast and the even-numbered movements are slow and progressively longer. Jubilees acquired a new guise in 2002 as Lindberg adapted it for large chamber ensemble to a commission from Ensemble InterContemporain. Lindberg is known for creating new versions of his pieces for different ensembles, adapting them to the lineup available, but in the case of Jubilees he took a slightly different approach and decided to make the adaptation resemble the original as closely as possible. In this he was thinking, as a self-imposed challenge, of the orchestral arrangements made by Maurice Ravel of his own piano pieces, for instance the effortless and flamboyant way in which Le tombeau de Couperin translates from keyboard to chamber orchestra. Indeed, the two versions of Jubilees illustrate the dimensions of instrumental thinking in Lindberg’s music: the idiomatic keyboard texture of the original morphs into an equally idiomatic large chamber ensemble texture. The differing characters of the six movements are naturally heightened in the chamber ensemble adaptation. The opening movement is the most complex and restless, full of abrupt shifts and transitions. “It refuses to stay still,” says Lindberg. The second movement is sombre and slow, the third movement light and scherzo-like. The fourth recalls the hesitant mood of the opening but acquires more momentum at times and grows to greater sonorities. The fifth is a moto perpetuo for winds only, and the concluding sixth movement opens in a steady progression of chords enriched with arabesque ornaments, growing to a broad conclusion. Magnus Lindberg’s recent activities have been dominated by his three-year appointment as Composer-in-Residence to the New York Philharmonic (2009–2012). The orchestra commissioned several substantial works from him, including EXPO (2009) and Al Largo (2010) for large orchestra, and Piano Concerto no. 2 (2012) customised for Yefim Bronfman. The set of residency pieces also includes Souvenir for large chamber ensemble, the last notes to which Lindberg wrote in New York at the end of September 2010. Alan Gilbert conducted the premiere in New York in November of the same year. The title Souvenir alludes to two of Lindberg’s teachers, giving it the flavour of an hommage or a memorial. The programme of the concert where Souvenir was premiered also included Gérard Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. Grisey died in 1998; this was his final work, which he never heard performed. Lindberg studied with Grisey in Paris in the early 1980s and wished to dedicate a tribute and souvenir to his significant mentor. Indeed, the work bears the sub-title ‘in memoriam Gérard Grisey’. The other tribute in the title is to Italian composer Franco Donatoni, with whom Lindberg also studied; Donatoni’s output also includes a work named Souvenir (1967), sub-titled ‘chamber symphony’. 4 It is the sub-title of Donatoni’s work that yields a clue as to what genre Lindberg’s Souvenir might be assigned to. Lindberg has never wanted to describe any of his works as a ‘symphony’ or even a ‘chamber symphony’ but does concede that Souvenir is conceived as a type of chamber symphony. It is a three-movement piece whose movements may be ascribed functions in the symphonic tradition. Also, there is a clear sense of symphonic growth and coherence of musical material in the form of recurring motifs. In the context of Lindberg’s output, Souvenir represents a return to the large chamber ensemble last seen in Jubilees, after several works for large orchestra. This is an ensemble in the true sense of the word, as there is only one instrument or musician per part, except for the horns and percussion. However, all the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra are included (piano and harp too). The sound of the music ranges from a chamber-music lucidity to an almost Romantic orchestral opulence. Lindberg describes the first movement as “a vortex, a fast and concise movement where events collide”. However, the music begins low and heavy before the momentum gets going. The rhythmic element coalesces in a couple of brief percussion interludes preceding the eruption that culminates the movement. “The shape of Souvenir is built around the middle movement. It is supposed to be a slow movement, but it escalates into grand culminations,” says Lindberg. The musical expression here extends from lyrical woodwind colours and Ravel-like clarity to massively powerful climaxes, balanced by solo utterances from individual instruments (piano, violin, harp). The fast concluding movement is much briefer and more to the point than the other two; Lindberg describes it as “toccata-like”. After a brief introduction, it launches into a determined, energetic motion that coalesces into the brilliant final climax. Kimmo Korhonen Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi 5 Violinist Pekka Kuusisto is internationally renowned both as soloist and director and is recognised for his fresh approach to the repertoire. Born in Finland in 1976, he began his violin studies at the age of three, and went on