1 APRIL WEDNESDAY SERIES 13

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1 1 APRIL WEDNESDAY SERIES 13 Helsinki Music Centre at 19 François-Xavier Roth, conductor Tabea Zimmermann, viola Béla Bartók: Dance Suite Sz. 77 I Moderato II Allegro molto III Allegro vivace IV Molto tranquillo V Comodo VI Allegro György Kurtág: Movement for Viola and Orchestra Béla Bartók: Viola Concerto, Op. posth. Sz. 120 I Moderato II Adagio religioso Allegretto III Allegro vivace 17 min 12 min 21 min INTERVAL 20 min Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Sz. 106 I Andante tranquillo II Allegro III Adagio IV Allegro molto 26 min Interval at about The concert ends at about Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso. 1

2 BÉLA BARTÓK ( ): DANCE SUITE In some of his works, it is difficult to distinguish between Bartók the composer and Bartók the folk music researcher. In the Sz. 77 Dance Suite for orchestra, the folk music elements, both authentic and fake, blend imperceptibly with his very own idiom. The themes and the instruments begin to resemble flora and fauna heeding their allotted place in the natural order. There is a modernistic air to the first dance (Moderato) in the bassoons, which was described by Bartók as having a definite Arabic inflexion. The clanking rhythms and grotesque undercurrent dispel any impression of artistic folklorism and the mood at the end is delicately idyllic. The second dance is quicker, with irregular rhythms, and also racier with its trombone glissandos and its trumpets in minor thirds. After a swaggering beginning, the dance bursts into melodic flower. The third dance, combining Romanian and Hungarian bagpipe rhythms, dashes past first in the woodwinds and then in the full orchestra. The fourth dance is a characteristically Bartók nocturne: a peaceful but mysteriously sighing landscape across which the woodwinds flit one at a time like rare night birds before fluttering off in the reverse order. The last two dances are closely connected. Comodo has an ominous throb, gradually gathering strength for the final Allegro that gallops off at top speed. Motifs from the earlier movements flash past in a riotous cavalcade that momentarily calms down to catch its breath before the final sprint. GYÖRGY KURTÁG (B. 1926): MOVEMENT FOR VIOLA AND ORCHESTRA György Kurtág originally had plans for studying composition with Béla Bartók, but Bartók died in 1945 and he became a pupil of Sándor Veress, Ferenc Farkas and Leo Weiner instead, at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. It was nevertheless from Bartók that Kurtág learnt his musical vernacular, and it was Bartók s Viola Concerto that inspired him to compose his Movement for Viola and Orchestra in He dedicated it to Imre Pataky, who premiered it with the Railway Symphony Orchestra of Debrecen in 1955, but from then onwards the concerto fell into oblivion. The Movement is an unusual work in the light of Kurtág s later compositions and an opportunity to hear him working with larger formats. Kurtág wrote it as the opening movement of a concerto that was never continued. It was also intended as a demonstration of what he had learnt at the Liszt Academy, which is why, according to Kurtág, it reflects the influence of not only Bartók but Haydn and Brahms as well. The Movement begins with an orchestral introduction with gloomy timpani and brass. The viola joins in with a singing theme and soon bursts into virtuosic flames. Soloist and orchestra 2

3 engage in dialogue in the dramatic development section, but arrive at an amicable conclusion. BÉLA BARTÓK: VIOLA CONCERTO In 1940, Béla Bartók fled to the United States to escape the war and stayed on there, without any work. His friends therefore set about finding him some commissions. Unfortunately, Bartók was by then suffering from leukaemia; time ran out, and he never finished the concerto commissioned by him from the viola virtuoso William Primrose. A week before his death, Bartók received a visit from Tibór Sérly ( ), who saw that Bartók was busily working on both a piano and a viola concerto. The latter was, said Bartók, nearly finished; he just had to do the orchestration and add a few details. Sérly was the obvious person to finish the concerto, and it was duly published in In 1995, Bartók s son Peter published a critical edition of the manuscript he had edited with Nelson Dellamaggiore. Tabea Zimmermann plays her own reading of the Bartok Viola Concerto, based on Serly's orchestration. Having studied the autograph she comes to different conclusions about. dynamics and phrasings and she has taken out the added notes and bars that Serly had 'completed' or simply changed. The Viola Concerto is in the same clear, classical idiom as Bartók s third Piano Concerto. The opening movement is longer than the other two together. Its sonata form branches out in many directions, beginning with a viola solo and orchestral pizzicatos. The viola s monologues in the first movement are summarised in a brief cadenza before the return of the main theme, but the viola continues its meditations in a solo before the end of the movement. This is taken up by the bassoon, which forms a bridge to the second movement in the same way as, according to Sérly, in the third Piano Concerto. The mood of the slow movement is fragile and intimate, full of cooing nocturnal sounds and echoes of the calls of the steppes in the string quartets. The passages in the high viola register acquire despairing tones. The closing movement also follows without a break and is dominated by dance rhythms in the Romanian style. Hungarian folklore blossoms in the slower episode in C-sharp minor, but despite the life-affirming virtuosity, there is an inevitable sense of sadness. The closing bars nevertheless bring the concerto to an end in a brisk, decisive manner. BÉLA BARTÓK: MUSIC FOR STRINGS, PERCUSSION AND CELESTA The Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is very much about timbre: the strings and harp form one group of their own, the pitched percussions another, and the job of the non-pitched percussions is to add effects. The four-movement format is unusual for Bartók. The first movement is a 3

4 symmetrically-constructed fugue proceeding in canon on the strings, alternately a fifth up and down. The theme is presented by the violas, and the instruction tranquillo and the muffled strings add to rather than detract from the ominous effect. The movement builds up to a climax underlined by the percussions before subsiding again, so that the theme appears in a mirror image. The chromatic celesta undulations add a supernatural touch to the crumbling theme. The second movement is in sonata form and has a theme borrowed from the opening movement, but the focus is now on Bulgarian-type rhythms. Bartók leads his motifs further and further away from their starting points, and the playful scherzo with its shifting metres erupts with alternately diabolical and barbaric energy. The slow movement is an example of Bartók s nocturnal music. The silence is broken by a xylophone, and timpani glissandos leave the violas to grope their way in the darkness. Taking the leading role in the finale are folk-like themes sped along by temperamental virtuosity. The symmetry that has dominated the preceding movements often wavers in the torrent of motifs and interjections, until the main theme of the first movement appears as a solemn hymn. In the development, the hymn motif breaks up and lapses into placid solos. A childish, diatonic version of the fugue theme and the final, apotheosis-like dash catapult the music into the sunshine. Programme notes by Antti Häyrynen (abridged) translated by Susan Sinisalo FRANÇOIS-XAVIER ROTH French conductor François-Xavier Roth has been appointed General Music Director of the City of Cologne as of September He has been Principal Conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg since 2011 and with the orchestra is at present recording the complete cycle of symphonic poems by Richard Strauss. His extensive repertoire ranges from music of the 17th century to contemporary. In 2003, he founded the innovative orchestra Les Siècles, which performs contrasting and colourful programmes on modern and period instruments as appropriate, often within the same concert. To mark the centenary of Stravinsky s Rite of Spring in 2013, they performed the work on period instruments on tour, including performances at the BBC Proms and the Alte Oper, Frankfurt. With the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg Roth has premiered works by, among others, Philippe Manoury, Georg-Friedrich Haas, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann and Helmut Lachenmann. Future engagements include major projects with the London Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras and appearances with the Boston, Vienna and NHK Symphony Orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Roth has conducted opera in Paris and Berlin, 4

5 including Delibes Lakmé and Morton Feldman s Neither. This year he also conducts Wagner s Flying Dutchman with Les Siècles. Outreach projects are an important aspect of François-Xavier Roth s work. He is the conductor of the ground-breaking LSO Panufnik Young Composers Scheme and, with the Festival Berlioz and Les Siècles, founded the Jeune Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz, an orchestra academy with its own collection of period instruments. Roth and Les Siècles also devised Presto!, their own television series for France 2 attracting weekly audiences of over three million. TABEA ZIMMERMANN Tabea Zimmermann is one of the very finest players of her instrument, the viola, and a regular soloist with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony and the Orchestre de Paris. She is also Artist in Residence of the Ensemble Resonanz and has appeared with them in Vienna, Hamburg and Cologne. A former student of Ulrich Koch in Freiburg and Sándor Veg in Salzburg, Tabea Zimmermann won the international viola competitions in Geneva and Budapest in 1982 and 1984, respectively. She has been Professor of the viola at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin since For chamber music, Tabea Zimmermann is a member of the Arcanto Quartet (with violinists Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras) and together they have performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, New York, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Vienna Konzerthaus. They have also recorded works by Bartók, Brahms, Ravel, Dutilleux, Debussy and Schubert. This season, Tabea Zimmermann is holding a viola day at the Wigmore Hall in London, at which she will be playing works for the viola from the Baroque to the present day with colleagues Garth Knox, Antoine Tamestit and Rosalind Ventris. Tabea Zimmermann has inspired many composers to write works for the viola. Among those she has premiered are a solo sonata by György Ligeti, Heinz Holliger s Recicanto, Wolfgang Rihm s Viola Concerto and the double concerto by Bruno Montavani. During the Paul Hindemith jubilee in 2013, Tabea Zimmermann released a highly-acclaimed disc of his complete works for viola. She has also recorded works by Reger, Bach, Brahms and others that have won many awards. 5

6 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 is 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 most recently 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 2014/2015 season it will premiere four Finnish works commissioned by Yle. The programme will also include colourful orchestral poems by Richard Strauss, symphonies by Shostakovich and Haydn s great The Creation. The orchestra s distinguished guests will include conductors Leonard Slatkin, Kent Nagano, Herbert Blomstedt and Esa- Pekka Salonen, soprano Karita Mattila, violist Tabea Zimmermann and pianist Olli Mustonen. 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 and the Académie Charles Cros 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 2013/2014 season was a criticallyacclaimed concert conducted by Hannu Lintu at the Vienna Musikverein during a tour of Central Europe. During the 2014/2015 season the orchestra, under the baton of Hannu Lintu, will appear in Stockholm and tour Finland. It will also visit the EBU Festival in Bucharest with Joshua Weilerstein as its conductor. 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 (yle.fi/rso), and the majority of them are televised live on the Yle Teema channel. 6