9 THURSDAY THURSDAY SERIES 6 Helsinki Music Centre at 7 pm

Transcription

1 9 THURSDAY THURSDAY SERIES 6 Helsinki Music Centre at 7 pm Susanna Mälkki, conductor Topi Lehtipuu, tenor Jukka Harju, French horn George Benjamin (1960 ): Ringed by the Flat Horizon Benjamin Britten ( ): Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings Op.31 I Prologue II Pastoral (The day s grown old ) III Nocturne (The splendour falls on castle walls ) IV Elegy (O Rose, thou art sick ) V Dirge (This ae nighte ) VI Hymn (Queen and huntress, chaste and fair ) VII Sonnet (O soft embalmer of the still midnight ) VIII Epilogue 20 min 25 min INTERVAL 20 MIN Robert Schumann ( ): Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major, Op.97, Rhenish I Lebhaft II Scherzo (Sehr mässig) III Nicht schnell IV Feierlich V Lebhaft 33 min Interval at about 8 pm. The concert ends at about 9.05 pm. Broadcast live on the Internet. The concert will be recorded and shown on YLE Teema/ Kausikortti (Season Ticket) on 31 March and 28 April. 1

2 GEORGE BENJAMIN (1960 ): RINGED BY THE FLAT HORIZON The emphasis in the works of British composer George Benjamin has mainly been on orchestral, chamber and piano music. He has, however, also written a few vocal works and in 2006 completed his first for the stage, a chamber opera called Into the Little Hill. One of the earliest works to win Benjamin a wider reputation was Ringed by the Flat Horizon premiered in Cambridge in the year of its composition, It drew inspiration from two sources: a dramatic photograph of a thunderstorm in a New Mexico desert and a fragment of a poem by T.S. Eliot (1922): What is that sound high in the air/murmur of maternal lamentation/who are those hooded hordes swarming/over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth/ringed by the flat horizon only. Benjamin says, I wanted to portray an eerie tension as a landscape is overwhelmed by a vast storm. Right at the beginning he presents three gestures or textures that will recur throughout the piece: a soft bell sound, a sharply accented and sustained semitone, and a low rumble evocative of distant thunder. Later, these are joined by poignant melodic figures on a solo cello. The overall sound is sharp and clear, at times darkened by ominous rolls of thunder. The mood proceeds from a quiet, mysterious feeling of premonition towards ever denser events building up to two climaxes. Gradually emerging from the static landscape towards the end are swelling chords and a short, violent outburst, but the end returns to the initial sense of presentiment. BENJAMIN BRITTEN ( ): SERENADE FOR TENOR, HORN AND STRINGS OP.31 Words fired Benjamin Britten to write some of his best compositions. He chose the texts for his song cycles and operas with great care and entered into their worlds and moods with rare, instinctive understanding. One explanation for Britten s orientation towards vocal music was his partner in life, the magnificent lyric tenor Peter Pears. For him he composed a dozen or so song cycles and many parts in his operas, from the title role in Peter Grimes (1945) onwards. One of these cycles was the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings of 1943; this was also inspired by the French horn player Dennis Brain, only 22 years old at the time. The Serenade comprises six songs, all settings of great English poetry from the 15th to the 20th centuries. It begins with a solo-horn Prologue; the same music reappears at the end as the Epilogue, but this time played offstage. Britten gave the Prologue and Epilogue a special effect of their own by asking the player not to use the horn valves, in other words to produce natural harmonics only; some of these sound out-of-tune to ears accustomed to equal temperament. The first of the songs, Pastorale, is a tranquil picture of the shadowy countryside as the fainting sun leads the world to rest. In the Nocturne The splendour falls on castle walls and The long light shakes across the lakes Three times the voice halts, echoed by the horn, on the words dying, dying, dying. The middle two songs are the shadowy heart of the Serenade. In the Elegy the horn 2

3 assumes the leading role, its prelude and postlude framing the shortish poem O Rose, thou art sick by William Blake. The words of the Dirge are by an anonymous 15th century poet. It continues in the grave vein of the previous song and is built on a slow ostinato in the bass. The Hymn to Diana, queen and huntress, is lively and scherzo-like and banishes the solemnity of the Dirge. The Sonnet is soft and soothing and weaves in motifs from the earlier movements. The Epilogue, performed by the horn backstage, envelops the night in a mysterious world of its own. Kimmo Korhonen (abridged) ROBERT SCHUMANN: ( ): SYMPHONY NO. 3, RHENISH Of the four symphonies composed by Robert Schumann, the third was actually the last. It was completed in late 1850, shortly after he had begun as municipal Music Director in Düsseldorf a city on the Rhine. He wrote it in five weeks, straight after the Cello Concerto. The five-movement symphony looked for its model to Beethoven s Pastoral Symphony. It also has traits akin to those in Beethoven s third symphony, the Eroica, is the same key of E flat major. And Schumann s symphony likewise sets off with a heroic theme the rhythmic quirks of which are soon revealed. The listener tapping his foot in time to the beat is soon lost in the rhythmic cross-currents: where is the beat exactly? In his symphony Schumann wanted to paint a picture of life on the Rhine: the first movement has elements of clarity, majesty and space, but also unpredictability and dark lyricism. The second movement was originally headed Morning on the Rhine, but Schumann later rejected the title as he did not wish to guide the listener s thoughts too much. As a scherzo it is atypical: not only its position in the work as a whole but also in its gently turgid mood. The movement is really in the nature of a Ländler, a German country dance. The theme, on the low strings and winds, swings along in full spate. The tempo marking over the third movement says not to hurry. The steady calm prepares the listener for the visions of the following movement. Having leapt sforzato into action, it immediately retreats into a contrapuntal brass pianissimo. Legend has it that Schumann had attended the inauguration of a bishop in Cologne s vast cathedral and been impressed by both the architecture and the sense of occasion. He even planned to equip the movement with the instruction In the character of the accompaniment to a solemn ceremony. The polyphony a nod in the direction of Bach and charged with symbols of the Cross is certainly solemn but not altogether festive: could the increasingly powerful contrapuntal web be a reflection of the horrors lurking in the depths of this arch-romantic composer s mind? The last movement again sets off with confident vigour and the mighty flow familiar from the first movement. The finale backbeats itself along, the syncopations giving it a rhythmic drive. Just before the end the theme of the fourth movement appears again like a vision before rapidly fading beneath the final sprint. Topias Tiheäsalo. 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. 3

4 SUSANNA MÄLKKI Susanna Mälkki s versatility and broad repertoire have taken her to symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and opera houses around the world. She is currently Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain, having been Artistic Director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra until late A former student at the Sibelius Academy, Susanna Mälkki studied with Jorma Panula, Eri Klas and Leif Segerstam. Prior to her conducting studies, she had a successful career as a cellist and from 1995 to1998 was one of the principals of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden. In recent seasons Susanna Mälkki has conducted many prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Boston and Pittsburgh Symphonies, the Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony. Highlights of forthcoming seasons include debuts with the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras and a return to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and New York s Mostly Mozart festival. She will also appear again with the Radio Symphony Orchestras of France and Sweden. In April 2011 Susanna Mälkki was the first woman to conduct an opera at La Scala, Milan. Her debut was followed by an immediate re-invitation. In 2010 she conducted the premiere of Bruno Mantovani s ballet at the Opéra National de Paris and she returns there to conduct two other productions in the 2013/2014 season. Other operas conducted by her have included Thomas Adès s Powder Her Face, Morton Feldman s Neither in Copenhagen and Kaija Saariaho s L amour de loin and Richard Strauss s Der Rosenkavalier at the Finnish National Opera. Susanna Mälkki was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, in June TOPI LEHTIPUU Topi Lehtipuu has rapidly risen to international fame as a leading performer of Baroque and contemporary music and a Mozartopera tenor. He has worked with such distinguished conductors as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen and appeared in productions directed by David Alden, Claus Guth, Peter Sellars and other celebrities. He can regularly be heard at venues that include Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris and Vienna, at Glyndebourne and Salzburg, and outside Europe has performed in Japan and the United States. Much of his time is nowadays spent recording. Having been a regular tenor in Finland s Radio Chamber Choir, Topi Lehtipuu made his stage debut as Tamino at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, as Albert Herring in Vantaa/Finland and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. His Finnish National Opera debut was as Ferrando in Così fan tutte. He now lives in Paris. Topi Lehtipuu has also conducted several choirs in Finland and taught transcription at the Sibelius Academy. He led the Joroinen Music Festival and has been Artistic Director of the Turku Music Festival since Besides his widespread musical activities, he enjoys theatre, photography and tennis. 4

5 JUKKA HARJU Jukka Harju (b. 1975) made his solo debut when he was only 11, in the EBU Young Soloists competition in Dublin. Beginning his studies in Kokkola, he continued with Kalervo Kulmala at the Sibelius Academy and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2004 he supplemented a Master s degree in music with a degree in cinema. He has been principal horn in the FRSO since 2008, first as a deputy and since 2009 as a regular. He has also received invitations to lead the horn section in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Radio Orchestras of Sweden and France, the Stockholm Philharmonic and the celebrated European Chamber Orchestra. A winner of prizes in his age category in a number of competitions, he was awarded the title of Brass Player of the Year by Lieksa Brass Week in 2006 in recognition of his international successes. Outside Finland Jukka Harju has held solo engagements in Sweden, Estonia, Iceland, Italy and Canada. In 2007 he was awarded an honourable mention for directing the best music programme of the year for YLE TV1/YLE Teema. 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, 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. 5

6 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). 6