14 OCTOBER WEDNESDAY SERIES 4 Helsinki Music Centre at 19

Transcription

1 14 OCTOBER WEDNESDAY SERIES 4 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 Hannu Lintu, conductor Stephen Hough, piano Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Photoptosis 12 min Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, Op min I Allegro con brio II Largo III Rondo (Allegro scherzando) INTERVAL 20 min Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D, Op min I Allegro non troppo II Adagio non troppo L istesso tempo, ma grazioso III Allegretto grazioso (quasi andantino) Presto ma non assai Tempo 1 Interval at about The concert ends at about

2 BERND ALOIS ZIMMERMANN ( ): PHOTOPTOSIS Photoptosis by Bernd Alois Zimmermann is a work like no other. The Greek title translates into English as incidence of light, and the composition interprets its relationship with music in a variety of ways. The listener is possibly best advised to accept the course of events as such, and only when the ten minutes or so this requires have passed to try to figure out what has just happened and what to think of it. The music flows throughout like lava, intense in the extreme, so that by the end, the listener cannot help realising that something immense is happening. What comes next is a sort of eruption: out bursts music familiar from other sources music that in its original context also occupied a somewhat similar role, as a safety valve. It matters not what this familiar music is. The listener does not miss anything if he cannot at that moment identify it, so long as he goes with the mighty flow. And when he realises he has been shaken in the process he will, I believe, have grasped the essence of the piece. This is, to me, an outstanding composition. I initially made the acquaintance of Photoptosis when our thirst for excitement was first being aroused by the idea of black holes, and what would happen if we could fly through them. Could this be one answer? When the accumulation of notes becomes so intense that everything shatters into tiny pieces and hurtles off to where? I came to the conclusion years ago that Photoptosis represents the state the other side of the hole, something new, something never experienced before. In a way, it then answers the question of what, in music, may represent the future a question that seems to be decisive to the spherical nature of time. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN ( ): PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 The numbering of Beethoven s first two Piano Concertos is something of an enigma. Various theories exist as to why the one in C major composed at a later date is numbered 1: some sources claim the number was simply a mistake, others that when the time came to send the Concertos to press, the one in B Flat still had bits missing and was full of illegible hieroglyphics while that in C was all neat and tidy. The numbering would not really matter had not Beethoven at this point taken a major leap forwards in his stylistic development. In all the essential ways, the B Flat is along the same lines as the Concertos of Mozart and Haydn, whereas Beethoven really shows his lion s claws in the one in C. Piano Concerto No. 1 begins with a long orchestral introduction that clearly paves the way for what lies ahead. It presents all sorts of material: fanfarish, robust, playful, sweetly singing, and so on. The themes stand in an ambivalent relationship to the corresponding ones 2

3 of Haydn and Mozart: the details could have been penned by them, but the overall structures could not. The texture is naturally richer when the piano enters. The themes, as such relatively simple, gradually reveal their expressive potential and prove unexpectedly fertile. The delightful Largo exudes a classical nobility throughout; not even the rich ornamentation ruffles the underlying calm. The clarinet in many places engages in dialogue with the piano. The Rondo finale is marked scherzando (playfully); this is a mild way of expressing the rough and tumble, the roguish gestures and rhythmic onslaught. This finale is in fact one of the earliest examples of Beethoven s fully-developed merciless humour. One point in the rich, inventive texture has wittily been termed the first boogie-woogie. Just before the final chords is a short, unexpected, solemn pause for breath. Jouni Kaipainen JOHANNES BRAHMS: ( ) SYMPHONY NO. 2 The road to becoming a great symphonist was not an easy one for Johannes Brahms. He first had plans for composing a symphony as early as summer 1854, but the material he had in mind for it found its way into other works. Not until the early 1860s did he set about composing a symphony in earnest, and even then, progress was either slow or at times non-existent. In 1876, only a year after completing his first symphony and having struggled for a decade-and-a-half to do so, Brahms put the finishing touches to a second symphony that had proved far less difficult to write. It seemed to reflect his newly-acquired self-confidence, and the ease with which the music had flowed from his pen, for it was the most optimistic and unconstrained of all his symphonies: his Pastoral. The beginning of the opening movement is one of the most relaxed in all symphonic literature, and far removed from the rock-hard defiance of the first symphony. In the development, the music nevertheless acquires darker and at the end even elegiac tones. The slow movement, too, abandons its idyllic mood, diving deep into the restless world of a minor key to which counterpoint adds an almost Baroque solidity. As in his first symphony, Brahms rejects the dynamic Scherzo of Beethoven as the third movement in favour of a rustic scene more in the nature of an Intermezzo. It has two quicker sections that vary its main theme. Initially restrained, as if holding its strength in check, the last movement works up to radiant brilliance the most jubilant finale in the four Brahms symphonies. Kimmo Korhonen Programme notes by Jouni Kaipainen and Kimmo Korhonen and translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo. 3

4 HANNU LINTU Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra since August 2013, Hannu Lintu previously held the positions of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony and Turku Philharmonic orchestras. Highlights of Lintu s 2015/16 season include appearances with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre national de Lille, Gulbenkian Orchestra, and the Iceland Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Moscow State Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. He conducts the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra on tour in Japan in autumn 2015 as part of his complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies with the New Japan Philharmonic and on tour in Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck in January 2016 with violinist Leila Josefowicz. Recent engagements have included the Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Cleveland and St Louis Symphony orchestras; the Houston Symphony, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig and the Orchestre national de Lyon; and debuts with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, the Hallé, and the Detroit Symphony and Minnesota orchestras. In May 2016 Lintu returns to Finnish National Opera to conduct Wagner s Tristan und Isolde, having previously conducted them in Parsifal - directed by Harry Kupfer, Carmen, and Aulis Sallinen s King Lear. Other recent operatic projects include Sallinen s Kullervo at the 2014 Savonlinna Opera Festival and Tannhäuser with Tampere Opera in Lintu has also worked with Estonian National Opera, recording Tauno Pylkkänen s Mare and her son. Hannu Lintu has made several recordings for Ondine, Naxos, Avie and Hyperion. In summer 2015 he recorded Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky s Violin Concertos with Fumiaki Miura and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Avex, while other recent recordings feature works by Ligeti, including the Violin Concerto with Benjamin Schmid, and Messiaen s Turangalîla Symphony with Angela Hewitt and Valerie Hartmann-Claverie both for Ondine with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Lintu has received several accolades for his recordings, including a 2011 Grammy nomination for Best Opera CD plus Gramophone Award nominations for his recordings of Enescu s Symphony No.2 with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Hannu Lintu studied cello and piano at the Sibelius Academy, where he later studied conducting with Jorma Panula. He participated in masterclasses with Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and took first prize at the Nordic Conducting Competition in Bergen in

5 STEPHEN HOUGH Named by The Economist as one of 20 Living Polymaths, British pianist Stephen Hough is a rare renaissance man of our time. Over the course of a long and distinguished career as one of the world s leading concert pianists, he has also excelled as a writer and composer. Made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2014, he was also the first classical performing artist to win a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. A frequent soloist with the leading European and American orchestras, Mr Hough has also given solo recitals at prestigious concert halls the world over. He is a regular guest at the Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Aspen, Edinburgh and other festivals and the BBC Proms in London, and recent engagements have included appearances with the New York, London and Berlin Philharmonics. Highlights of the 2015/2016 season include performances with the Cleveland, New Zealand and Singapore Symphonies, and the London and Los Angeles Philharmonics. Mr Hough can be heard in recital in London, New York, Chicago, Tokyo and China, and on tour in Australia with Musica Viva. Several of Stephen Hough s over 50 discs have received Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Magazine Awards. Plans for the near future include the release of a live recording of the Schumann and Dvořák Piano Concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a disc of solo works by Scriabin and Janáček. Also a composer, Stephen Hough has carried out commissions for the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, the Wigmore Hall, Westminster Abbey and others. His most recent work is to be premiered at the London Barbican this autumn. The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph have all published articles by him, and he writes a cultural blog that receives thousands of hits every week in The Telegraph. Mr Hough is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and a member of the piano faculty of the Juilliard School in New York. THE FINNISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission is to produce and promote Finnish musical culture and its Chief Conductor as of autumn 2013 has been Hannu Lintu. The FRSO has two Honorary Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra strength in the 1960s. Hannu Lintu was preceded as Chief Conductor by Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. In addition to the great Classical- Romantic masterpieces, the latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year 5

6 premieres a number of Yle commissions. Another of the orchestra s tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive. During the 2015/2016 season it will premiere six Finnish works commissioned by Yle. The programme will also include Piano Concertos by Beethoven and Prokofiev, Symphonies by Schumann and Brahms, and Mendelssohn s oratorio Elijah. Among its guest artists will be pianists Murray Perahia, Nelson Freire and András Schiff, conductors David Zinman, Tugan Sokhiev and Manfred Honeck, soprano Karita Mattila and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The FRSO has recorded works by Ligeti, Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some prestigious distinctions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Award, the Académie Charles Cros Award and a MIDEM Classical Award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos was Gramophone magazine s Editor s Choice in February The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. One of the many highlights of the 2015/2016 season will be tours to Japan and Austria with conductor Hannu Lintu. The home channel of the FRSO is Yle Radio 1, which broadcasts all its concerts, usually live, both in Finland and abroad. Its concerts can also be heard and watched with excellent live stream quality on the FRSO website ( rso), and the majority of them are televised live on the Yle Teema channel. 6