10 FEBRUARY WEDNESDAY SERIES 9 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00

Transcription

1 10 FEBRUARY WEDNESDAY SERIES 9 Helsinki Music Centre at Mikko Franck, conductor Alina Pogostkina, violin Einojuhani Rautavaara: Angels and Visitations 20 min Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, Op min I Andantino ( Andante assai) II Scherzo (Vivacissimo) III Moderato ( Allegro moderato Moderato Più tranquillo) INTERVAL 20 min Claude Debussy: Images 36 min I Gigues II Ibéria III Rondes de printemps Interval at about The concert ends at about Broadcast live on Yle Teema, Yle Radio 1 and online at yle.fi/rso. 1

2 EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA (1928 ): ANGELS AND VISITATIONS Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote Angels and Visitations at a time when he was beginning to create a free synthesis of his music so far. His early Neoclassical style was followed by dodecaphony and a few serial experiments from the 1950s onwards, and atonality at the end of the next decade. In the course of the synthesis hatched in the 1970s he created music often Neoromantic in spirit yet sometimes relying on highly-advanced constructions such as row technique and symmetry. The variety of his resources is also reflected at surface level, in the soft fullness of pure triads as much as harsh dissonances, clusters and aleatory. Angels and Visitations could be described as a modern variation on the symphonic poem, but without any clearly-defined programme. It is something in the nature of a poem about beauty and horror telling an abstract story by means of stark contrasts. In Rautavaara s own words, It is a set of variations in which the theme is contrast, polarity, the logic of antithesis. At the opposite extremes are rippling, Palestrina-like string textures evocative of Sibelius s sixth symphony and violent brass outbursts, like the exclamations in Rilke s poem ein jeder Engel is schrecklich. With its shifting moods and orchestral textures, Angels and Visitations is one of Rautavaara s most colourful works. SERGEI PROKOFIEV ( ): VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 1 This Violin Concerto is dominated by a transparent soundscape of enchanting clarity against which the violin etches soaring, floating melodies. In honing the solo part Prokofiev was assisted by the Polish violinist Pawel Kochanski in Russia at the time; only shortly before this, Kochanski had acted as consultant to Karol Szymanowski over his first Violin Concerto (1916). The radiant violin parts of the two works do have something in common, despite being very different in other respects: Szymanowski s is sensuously poetic while Prokofiev s, though full of feeling, is classically clear-cut. Though cast in the standard three movements, the Prokofiev Concerto breaks with tradition in that it has slow outer movements framing a quick one in the middle. The lyrical charge is present from the very first moment of the opening theme. The music becomes more active in the second theme and development, but the opening theme returns in the recapitulation, so fragile and defenceless that Prokofiev did not wish to shatter the mood by repeating the second theme. The middle movement is an ethereal Scherzo, sharp-featured and radiant, and the violin is here at its most virtuosic. It also makes rich use of such special effects as flageolet notes, spiccato and sul ponticello (playing on the violin bridge). A diaphanous movement, it does not totally reject the enchanted 2

3 mood of the first but it does introduce a sharper, modernistic edge. The closing movement returns to the more tranquil tempo of the first and swift-flowing melody, but now in more full-bodied, earthier vein. It works up to its biggest climax against passionate and at times virtuosic figures on the violin, but as if at the stroke of a magic wand, the music ends in a fairytale-like shimmer embroidered by the Concerto s opening theme. CLAUDE DEBUSSY ( ): IMAGES Debussy s plans for a new orchestral work, Images, proved laborious to put into practice and he kept coming back to them between 1905 and Progress was slow due to other projects, above all the opera La chute de la maison Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher). Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, it never got completed. The first of the Images to be written was Ibéria, in , then Rondes de printemps ( ), and last of all Gigues ( ). Not long before, Debussy had composed two suites for piano called Images (1905, 1907), but they have no musical connection with the work for orchestra. The orchestral Images were originally to have been a three-movement set, but the set is not homogeneous in the same way as the almost symphonic La mer. The Images movements were premiered separately, and they are still often performed as individual pieces; the middle movement, Ibéria, is particularly popular. Each of the three movements is connected with a different country: England, Spain and France. Gigues begins in delicate, impressionistic mood, from which emerges a wistful oboe d amore melody, not a genuine folk tune but an adaptation of one. The second main theme is the livelier and edgier English Keel Row folk dance already hinted at by the flute in the introductory bars. Debussy weaves his two themes together and lets the music build up to a climax before returning to the oboe d amore theme and the opening mood. The middle Ibéria is in three sections, thus constituting a sort of triptych within a triptych. It shows that, like Ravel, Debussy had a knack for absorbing things Spanish, and the composer Manuel de Falla paid tribute to the authentic feel of Debussy s Spanish stylisation. The opening panel brings to life the colourful, vivacious bustle of the streets and alleyways, to which the sensual, nocturnal middle section makes a breathtakingly beautiful contrast. This leads straight into the third panel, which swells from its waking morning mood to a cheerful buzz. Said Debussy: It sounds like music that has not been written down the whole feeling of rising, of people and nature waking. There is a watermelon vendor and children whistling I see them all clearly! And so does the listener. In Rondes de printemps, as in several other works, Debussy weaves in the children s song Nous n irons plus au bois (We ll go to the woods no more). His orchestral technique is here at its most 3

4 refined, packed with poetry, light and shade, the lyrical rustle of spring. Programme notes by Kimmo Korhonen translated (abridged) by Susan Sinisalo MIKKO FRANCK Mikko Franck took over as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in September 2015, previous appointments having included that of Artistic Director of the Finnish National Opera and the National Orchestra of Belgium. He has guest conducted numerous other orchestras, among them the Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and London Philharmonics and the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies. Having studied the violin at the Sibelius Academy in his native Finland, in New York and Israel, Mikko Franck began taking lessons in conducting, first privately with Jorma Panula and later at the Sibelius Academy. At the Finnish National Opera he has conducted Wagner s Parsifal, Janáček s The Markopoulos Case, Aulis Sallinen s The Red Line, Puccini s La bohème and Verdi s Rigoletto. His guest conducting engagements have included the Berlin Staatsoper, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Covent Garden and the New York Metropolitan. The disc of Sibelius s En Saga and Lemminkäinen Suite with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra won Mikko Franck a Diapason d Or award and a Grammy nomination in His other recordings include works by Debussy and Tchaikovsky, and the operas Aleksis Kivi, The House of the Sun and Rasputin by Einojuhani Rautavaara. He has also co-written a book Conversations and Writings (in Finnish) with Einojuhani Rautavaara. ALINA POGOSTKINA Alina Pogostkina made her international breakthrough on winning the Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in 2005, having studied at Berlin s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler with Antje Weithaas. She has made solo appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Oslo and Stockholm Philharmonics, NHK Symphony and other orchestras. This season she makes her debut with the Philharmonia in London under Vladimir Ashkenazy and will play at the Arts Square festival of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. She can also be heard at the international Heidelberger Frühling and Aix-en-Provence festivals. In chamber repertoire, Alina Pogostkina has in recent times focused particularly on music for piano trio, which she performs with cellist Andreas Brantelid and pianists Shai Wosner and Ihle Hadland. Other chamber music partners have included Steven Isserlis, Pekka Kuusisto, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer and Joshua Bell. Alina Pogostkina has recorded widely for radio and television. She has a passion for contemporary music and 4

5 has recorded all the works for violin by Pēteris Vasks. She plays the 1717 Sasserno violin of Antonio Stradivari on loan to her from the Nippon Music Foundation. 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. 5