9 OCTOBER FRIDAY SERIES 3 Helsinki Music Centre at 19

Transcription

1 9 OCTOBER FRIDAY SERIES 3 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 Daniel Blendulf, conductor Tuomas Lehto, cello Ilari Angervo, viola Maurice Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole I Prélude à la nuit II Malagueña III Habanera IV Feria Jukka Tiensuu: False Memories I III III Trauma II Nostalgy I Review 15 min 16 min INTERVAL 20 min Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations, Op. 35 Introduction Theme Variation 1 Variation 2 Variation 3 Variation 4 Variation 5 Variation 6 Variation 7 Variation 8 Variation 9 Variation 10 Finale 35 min 1

2 The LATE-NIGHT CHAMBER-MUSIC will follow in the Concert Hall after an interval of about 10 minutes. Those attending are asked to take (unnumbered) seats in the stalls. Hannu Vasara, violin and organ Lili-Marlene Puusepp, harp Kazutaka Morita, percussion Jarmo Julkunen, lute, renaissance guitar and vihuela Miika Uuksulainen, viol and cello Baroque music from Cervantes Spain Gaspar Sanz ( ): Canarios Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde ( ): Vestiva i colli (diminuutioita Giovanni Palestrinan samannimisestä madrigaalista) Santiago de Murcia ( ): Fandango Santiago de Murcia ( ): Gallardas Tuntematon: La Spagna Luis Milan ( ): Pavana-gallarda Diego Ortiz ( ): Recercada segunda 25 min Interval at about The concert ends at about 20.45, the late-night music at about Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso. 2

3 MAURICE RAVEL ( ): RAPSODIE ESPAGNOLE The seeds of the Spanish Rhapsody were sown in 1895, when Ravel composed a Habanera for two pianos using the same dance rhythm, originally from Cuba, as Bizet in what is perhaps that composer s best-known number in Carmen. In other words, the Latin-American rhythm had been imported to Spain, and in particular Seville. Debussy heard it when it was first performed in 1898, liked it a lot and asked if he could borrow the music. Five years later he published his piano suite Estampes (Prints), the second movement of which, Soirée dans Grenade (Evening in Granada) has possibly an imprudent likeness to Ravel s Habanera. Ravel therefore decided to cover himself: after turning the piece for two pianos into one movement of his orchestral rhapsody, he made sure that the date, 1895, was printed large in the score. This would dispel any doubt as to which of the works was composed first. Ravel expanded his Habanera into the Spanish Rhapsody by adding three more movements. The first was the delicate nocturnal mood piece Prélude à la nuit (Prelude to the Night) dominated almost throughout by the melodic fournote motif F E D C-sharp. At two points the sleepy music is interrupted by a cadenza for first two clarinets and then two bassoons. Next comes the shortest movement, Malagueña. The title alludes to a dance akin to a Fandango known around Malaga in the southernmost part of Spain, though it is here given very free treatment. The Habanera that follows is utterly Spanish in spirit, and the frolicking Feria (Festival), the longest and most spirited of the four movements, brings the suite to a close. JUKKA TIENSUU (B. 1948): FALSE MEMORIES I III Jukka Tiensuu composed False Memories I III in 2008 and it was premiered in April that year by the FRSO conducted by Sakari Oramo. The three Memories can be performed in any order, or each on their own, and Tiensuu told me that he may one day add some more. No. I bears the name Review and tempts the listener to take the overall title False Memories seriously. It is music of strong gestures: little events radiating an air of self-confidence and made up of clear, even sharp staccato notes. Each one sticks in the short-term memory, and they gradually begin to hang together. Since the memories may or most probably will be false, the result is a constantly changing entity a teeming ants nest of potentially false memories. II is a smooth blend of ethereal timbres and aptly named Nostalgy (Nostalgia). The brittle string glissandos and the seemingly improvised bell sounds create a delightfully delicate atmosphere; the few other sound sources are also very important. The whole sound spectrum creates an impression of something as intangible as a memory that is now more distant than in Review. Trauma (III) is possibly even less concrete than the other two movements, as if the ob- 3

4 ject and the memory of it are gradually drawing apart. I may be wrong in saying all this, for I am not the composer, but since Tiensuu refuses to provide a navigational chart for his works, the mariner is inevitably obliged to set a course as best he can across the waves and the rocks. RICHARD STRAUSS ( ): DON QUIXOTE Scored for cello and large orchestra, Richard Strauss s Don Quixote is a tone poem based on the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes originally published in two volumes in 1605 and In the Introduction, the Don s befuddled state of mind is represented by the use of mutes in all the instruments and strange, almost atonal harmonies. In the first variation, the woodwinds and strings introduce his unattainable love, Dulcinea. Then follows his battle with giants in reality windmills that ends with him falling off his horse in an easyto-spot harp glissando. In variation 2 he fights the army of the Great Emperor Alifanfaron, in reality a flock of sheep. Variation 3 is a sotto voce dialogue in which the Don scolds Sancho for paying too much attention to material things at the expense of the immaterial. Variation 4 is another skirmish, this time with a procession of pilgrims he believes to be a band of robbers planning to steal a statue of the Virgin Mary. In variation 5, he has clearly met his match but has not yet been defeated. He conjures forth a vision of Dulcinea (horn, harp and violins) that gives him courage and strength. Variation 6 tells how Sancho tricks his master into believing that the first hip-swaying, tambourine-tapping señorita they meet in the street is Dulcinea. The Don curses the wizards he now thinks have transformed his goddess into a slut. In the seventh, the Don and Sancho Panza are seated on a hobby-horse imagining they are flying through the air. In the strange Barcarolle in variation 8, they are in a boat without oars, drifting towards the perils of a watermill (oboe and violin). The boat capsizes, but they manage to save themselves and thank God in a passage marked religioso. Religion a most bewildering subject for the Don is also part of variation 9, in which he engages in a strict counterpoint conversation with two monks (two bassoons) whom he takes to be evil wizards. In the tenth and last variation, Sanson Carasco, a man from the same village as the Don and now disguised as a Knight of the Bright Moon, challenges him to a duel and ends up the winner. Strauss reports this turn of events in six tender bars as moving as the closing bars of Brahms s third symphony. Programme notes by Jouni Kaipainen translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo 4

5 DANIEL BLENDULF Daniel Blendulf has emerged as one of Scandinavia s most gifted conductors, appearing regularly with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Chamber and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras. Beginning his career as a cellist, Daniel Blendulf studied with Torleif Thedéen and Heinrich Schiff and was a member of the Mahler Chamber and Lucerne Festival Orchestras. In 2008, he won first prize in the Swedish Conducting Competition; the then went on to graduate from Stockholm s Royal College of Music in 2010, and in 2014 he was awarded the Herbert Blomstedt Conducting Prize. Maestro Blendulf has made a number of significant guest appearances, with such orchestras as the Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic and Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. As an opera conductor, he has worked with the Royal Swedish Opera in productions of Carmen, Don Pasquale and the world premiere of Eliasson s chamber opera Karolinas sömn. Other productions have included Gounod s Faust at the Folkoperan and Berg s Wozzeck with NorrlandsOperan in Umeå. His disc of music by Britta Byström for Daphne Records was nominated for a Swedish Grammy in TUOMAS LEHTO Tuomas Lehto is an active performer of solo and chamber repertoire the world over and can be heard at many festivals. He is principal cellist in the FRSO, a member of the New Helsinki Quartet and the Total Cello Ensemble, and Artistic Director of the KuruFest festival. A former pupil of Hannu Kiiski, Marko Ylönen and Jan-Erik Gustafsson at the Sibelius Academy, he later continued with Torleif Thedéen in Stockholm. He has recorded for radio in Finland and can be heard on many solo and ensemble discs. The Cello Concerto by Ville Matvejeff is just one of the many works premiered by him. In 2006 he was one of the laureates in the Turku Cello Competition. Tuomas Lehto plays a Stefano Scarampella cello of 1897 kindly loaned to him by Jorma Panula. ILARI ANGERVO Ilari Angervo (b. 1968) studied the violin at the Sibelius Academy before switching to the viola and gaining his diploma with distinction in He also studied at the Berlin University of the Arts with Wolfram Christ Appointed leader of the FRSO viola section in 1990, he is a founding member of the New Helsinki Quartet and can also be spotted in the ranks of the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, Avanti!, Kerberos and the Uusi Renttu Quartet. He has been the soloist with the FRSO and most of the other Finnish orchestras and premiered the Viola Concerto by Jouni Kaipainen with the Tapiola Sinfonietta 5

6 under Hannu Lintu (1999) and Juha T. Koskinen s Hamlet-machine with Zagros in 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 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