2 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 10 Helsinki Music Centre at 7 pm

Transcription

1 2 MARCH FRIDAY SERIES 10 Helsinki Music Centre at 7 pm Joshua Weilerstein, conductor Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano Anders Hillborg: Four Transitory Worlds Maelstrom A Flock Descends into the Coral Forest Waltz Machine Ecstatic Air with Echoing Birds Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand Lento Andante Allegro Tempo 1 6 min 18 min INTERVAL 20 MIN Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 I Allegro con brio II Adagio III Allegretto grazioso Molto vivace IV Allegro, ma non troppo 35 min Interval at about 7.45 pm. This concert ends at about 8.50 pm. The late-night chamber-music concert will follow in the Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls. A French cocktail - Jean-Efflam Bavouzet plays French piano music Broadcast live on YLE Radio 1 and the Internet (yle.fi/rso). 1

2 ANDERS HILLBORG (1954 ): FOUR TRANSITORY WORLDS Anders Hillborg s Four Transitory Worlds is a brisk six-minute whirl even for the attentive listener, but the conductor also has to remember where he is travelling from and to. The vision of the transitory nature of existence and of a journey towards a higher truth has Buddhist overtones, seasoned with a little twinkle in the eye. The first part, Maelstrom, sets the wheels turning in the orchestra s low register like a slow and ominous passacaglia. It picks up speed in rising and falling scales before arriving at a majestic vision in which A Flock Descends into the Coral Forest. Toru Takemitsu s A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977) seems to be hovering in the background, but Hillborg s flock consists, it would appear, of flashing, exotic, multi-coloured fish. The Waltz Machine clinks into action with the help of a rhythm section consisting of a car horn, little bells, a flexatone and a guiro. The humorous experiments with the waltz rhythm just about catch up with the strings entertaining melody before everything comes to an end and an Ecstatic Air with Echoing Birds issues forth. The conclusion is a challenging combination of atonal freedom, jerky counterpoint, joy and energy. Hillborg s Four Transitory Worlds was first heard at the 2009 Malko Competition won by Joshua Weilerstein. Among the members of the Competition Jury were Professor Jorma Panula and the FRSO s General Manager Tuula Sarotie. MAURICE RAVEL ( ): PIANO CONCERTO FOR THE LEFT HAND In 1929 Wittgenstein the pianist asked Maurice Ravel to write him a concerto for the left hand. Ravel was already seriously ill by that time and had come up against a brick wall in composing his G Major Piano Concerto. He therefore consolidated his ideas in this concerto for just one hand. In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands, he claimed. For the same reason, I resorted to a style that is much nearer to that of the more solemn kind of traditional concerto. From the moment the work begins, with a contrabassoon solo accompanied by the double basses, Ravel makes widespread use of the orchestra s low register. This supports the left hand in the bass register of the keyboard but also creates an impression of funereal depths out of which rise marching or blues-like themes. Other features of the work are the Spanish touches and the dramatic ascent from shady regions to majestic peaks. The solo cadenza in the first half of the one-movement concerto is a technical masterpiece though not quite what Wittgenstein ordered: If I wanted to play without the orchestra, I wouldn t have commissioned a concerto! Ravel described the sparkling 6/8 rhythms of the Allegro section as being in the nature of an improvisation, introducing a kind of jazz music actually constructed on the themes of the first section. 2

3 The second cadenza is bubbling and poetic and in the coda Ravel draws together all the orchestral tentacles. The ripples leading from darkness, fear and aggression to life and sunshine gather force in a wild and fearless torrent. Antti Häyrynen (abridged) ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK ( ): SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN G MAJOR, OP. 88 Antonín Dvořák was the composer of works ranging from nine symphonies to numerous operas and from concertos to dance suites. He was equally versatile in style, drawing on many different traditions. Partly responsible for the popularity enjoyed by Dvořák among his contemporaries was his colleague Johannes Brahms ( ), who in 1984 sat on the board dealing with Dvořák s application for a grant from the Austrian Government to finance his work as a composer. Brahms was immediately bowled over by Dvořák s music. He was also able to offer the younger composer some valuable contacts that led to the international distribution of his works and thus assured him a more certain income from his music. Dvořák himself conducted the premieres of his works on numerous occasions, in England, for example. The apex of his career coincided with the period and his directorship of the National Conservatory in New York; 1893 marked the premiere of what is possibly his bestknown work, the Symphony No. 9 From the New World. While in the United States, he also became interested in the use in classical music of national music traditions, especially of Afro-American music and that of America s indigenous people. Dvořák s deep-hued Symphony No. 7 was born in 1885, in the emotional aftermath of the death of his mother and his eldest child. But the Symphony No. 8, which he wrote back home in Bohemia in the space of a mere two-and-a-half months in autumn 1889, is, contrary to contemporary trends, unashamedly good-humoured and relaxed. Its folk-like quality is tangible. His love for his homeland is expressed in warm landscape painting that may, to today s listener, sound even cinematic, while the sometimes lively dance rhythms avoid the heaviness characteristic of the era. Of all his symphonies, the Eighth best mirrors the influence on Dvořák s musical idiom of his Bohemian roots. Jaakko Kaski (abridged) This programme note was produced in partnership with the degree programme in musicology at the University of Turku. The writer is a student of musicology. JOSHUA WEILERSTEIN Joshua Weilerstein was only 21 when he won both the First Prize and the Audience Prize in the 2009 Malko Competition for Young Conductors. One of the works in the competition repertoire was that by Anders Hillborg Four Transitory Worlds on tonight s programme. Weilerstein s career has rocketed since the Malko Competition. After graduating from the New England Conservatory in 2011 as a pupil of Hugh Wolff, he was appointed one of the two 3

4 Assistant Conductors to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In the summer of 2009, he participated in the prestigious American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS), where he studied with David Zinman and was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize. Among others, he has appeared with the Tapiola Sinfonietta here in Finland, the Malmö and Norrköping Symphony Orchestras and the Houston Symphony. He is taking part in the Dudamel Fellowship programme of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in which young conductors not only receive personal tuition but also have a chance to conduct the Philharmonic and contribute to, for example, the orchestra s education projects. Conducting engagements this season include his debut with the Toronto Symphony, the Frankfurt and German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Northern Sinfonia and the Oslo Philharmonic. JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET One of the most engaging live performers of his generation, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has been the winner of numerous distinctions, most recently an Artist of the Year by International Classical Music Awards and Gramophone Award for the Ravel concerto to be heard tonight. This concerto is, he says, so challenging that the player could really do with three hands, not just one. Bavouzet regularly tours as the soloist with some of the world s finest orchestras, working with such celebrated maestros as Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi and Leonard Slatkin. Engagements this season include appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. An active recitalist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet regularly performs at the Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Cité de la Musique and other prestigious venues. He has won multiple awards for his recording of Debussy s Complete Works for Solo Piano, including the BBC Music Magazine Award for Volume 3 and a Gramophone Award for Volume 4. The first volume of his new recital CD project of Haydn s complete Piano Sonatas received the prestigious Choc de l annee award. Future recording projects include a Beethoven Piano Sonatas cycle. Bavouzet is Artistic Director of the Lofoten Piano Festival in Norway. 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. Its Chief Conductor since 2003 has been Sakari Oramo. The new Chief Conductor as of autumn 2013 will be Hannu Lintu, following a season (2012/2013) as the orchestra s Principal Guest Conductor. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, now the orchestra s Honorary Conductor, was Chief Conductor and still collaborates closely with the orchestra. The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra strength in the 1960s. Its previous Chief Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, 4

5 Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year premieres a number of YLE commissions. Another of the orchestra s tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral music for the YLE archive. With Sakari Oramo the orchestra has recorded music by Bartók, Hakola, Saariaho, Respighi, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. The FRSO disc (Ondine) of Symphonies 3 & 5 by Nordgren won the Académie Charles Cros Award in 2000, and that of Magnus Lindberg s Clarinet Concerto the BBC Music Magazine Award in That of the Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos (Sony BMG) with Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist received the MIDEM Classical Award in 2008, in which year the New York Times chose the other Lindberg disc as its Record of the Year. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world and has so far given over 300 concerts abroad. During the 2011/2012 season its foreign engagements include an appearance at the prestigious Beethoven Festival in Bonn and a concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. All the FRSO concerts both in Finland and abroad are broadcast, usually live, on YLE Radio 1. They can also be heard the world over via the Internet (yle.fi/rso). 5