REVIEWS
NILS LINDBERG
Homage to vocal beauty
Requiem (1993) Dur: 45’
soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra: 3344-4331-14-2hp-str Text: Giacomo Oreglia (Dante Anarca e i suoi sei maesteri, Ita)
2 sopranos, baritone, mixed chorus and enlarged big band: 2000-2440-12-5sax-pf-double bass Text: Requiem (Lat)
One is impressed by the marvellous overtones that Sandström can elicit from the choir…Choir, percussion, organ, soloists and brass together form a glimmering majesty around the text of the Catholic Requiem…In the penultimate movement, “Lux aeterna”, Rombo and Dragojevic sing a duet so lovely that one’s thoughts inevitably go to the classic gem “Flower Duet” from Delibes’ opera “Lakmé”. Expressen 24.3.
Lindberg combines jazz with Swedish folk music and Gregorian harmonies to create a dark, brooding and gripping Requiem. Expressive vocal parts, including characteristic ancient folk song ornaments, and choral movements in “Gregorian Dalecarlian style” are framed by the mighty and periodically hard swinging big band.
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
KIMMO HAKOLA Song of Songs (2006) Dur: 50’ solo baritone, vocal ensemble, mixed chorus and orchestra: 2222-2200-01-hp-pf+cel-str Text: Bible (Eng)
Song of Songs is a large-scale, radiant oratorio incorporating the whole of the Old Testament Song of Songs in English. Harmony, beauty and lyricism are basic ingredients of Hakola’s music. The very text is, he says, itself like music, and packed with symbolism. It is also an erotic song of praise to love.
On the Last Frontier (1998) Dur: 24’
Syncopations come reeling like skeletons in a steady wind; absurd whirlwinds spring up from bands of fog; frightening rumblings turn unexpectedly into the purest major…Indeed, who doesn’t want to freak out in Burbank? Gävle Dagblad 29.4. Albert Schnelzer: A Freak in Burbank Gothenburg SO/Stefan Solyom, 21.2.2013 Gothenburg, Sweden Gävle SO/Jaime Martin, 26.4.2013 Gävle, Sweden
Sven-David Sandström: Requiem World premiere: Swedish RSO & Swedish Radio Choir/Gustaf Sjökvist, sol. Elin Rombo, Katija Dragojevic, Olle Persson, Matthew Rose, 23.3.2013 Stockholm, Sweden
mixed chorus and orchestra: 3233-4331-12-hp-str Text: Rautavaara after Edgar Allan Poe (Eng)
Photo: Arne Hyckenberg
Eliasson keeps up the tension and energy throughout this seven-movement apocalyptic oratorio. The music moves between the wildly furious, the intensely expressive and the tenderly beautiful, and leads to a radiant final movement where Dante is depicted as the liberator, the sharpest arrow against evil, fraud, dominion and mammon. He is “the beating heart of our future”.
Rautavaara’s fantasy opens with a sumptuous, mysterious orchestral section. Beautiful, shining flute and oboe solos against a choral background alternate with a sea of orchestral sound in stormy majesty. The poem by Edgar Allan Poe made an indelible impression on Rautavaara while he was still a lad, and through the text the choir transports the listener on a mysterious voyage towards the limits of the unknown.
Jorma Hynninen
New Hakola opera Hynninen brims with vigour and passion in Kimmo Hakola’s monologue opera Akseli…Hakola continues his recent melodic line in this opera. The music has its origins in National Romanticism but Hakola is also skilled at modern distancing. The melodic ecstasy is often dreamily melancholy… Helsingin Sanomat 2.3.
OLLI KORTEKANGAS mezzo-soprano and baritone, mixed chorus, children’s chorus and orchestra: 2222-2221-12-hp-str Text: Wendell Berry, St Francis of Assisi etc. (Eng)
This is a sweeping, ecological work, a reflection on nature and its fragility. The heart of it is the poetry of Wendell Berry, a US poet, farmer and academic. One of the major repeated motifs is the beautiful idea of expanding circles. Included are also some primitive elements such as yoiking, a tradition of the Sámi people in Finland.
HILDING ROSENBERG The Revelation of St. John – Symphony No. 4 (1940) Dur: 75’ baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra: 2222-4431-22-hp-pf-cel-str Text: Bible/Chorales to texts by Hjalmar Gullberg (Sw/Eng)
This is a flaming protest against violence and war. It is also music with long lines and sharp contrasts between dynamic, forceful oratorio blocks, ethereal a cappella choruses, and expressionistically suggestive recitatives for baritone and brass. The development goes from horror towards light and hope of “a new heaven and a new earth”.
TIMOJUHANI KYLLÖNEN Missa Festiva (2008) Dur: 31’
SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM
soprano, baritone, mixed chorus, organ and chamber orchestra: 0000-0000-12-str Text: Mass (Lat)
Magnificat (2005) Dur: 20’
Kyllönen’s Mass is, despite its modernism, highly melodic, and precisely because of its beauty and melody easily accessible to the public at large. The organ’s role is to be part of the orchestra, as if to replace the missing wind instruments. The Mass has a clear dramatic charge from the very beginning. It also has zest, a dance-like quality and echoes of Latin-American rhythms.
Katija Dragojevic and Elin Rombo
Pungent for saxophone Tuomela’s idiom is at times pungent, at times even very lyrically beautiful. Saxophone virtuoso Joonatan Rautoila was able to demonstrate his skills in a variety of ways in dialogue with the orchestra’s different instruments. Karjalainen 13.4. Tapio Tuomela: Swap, Concerto for Saxophone and Sinfonietta World premiere: Joensuu CO/Sasha Mäkilä, sol. Joonatan Rautoila 13.4.2013 Joensuu, Finland
SATB soli, mixed chorus and chamber orchestra: 2fl-3trpt-timp-org/hpd-str Text: Magnificat (Lat)
Sandström’s jubilant Magnificat corresponds to Bach’s original in many ways in respect to the outer form and instrumentation. The work opens in genuine baroque manner with timpani and trumpets and a rhythmical and joyful choral texture. The tone language is diatonic or triadic almost throughout. But also influences from early church music, Gregorian chant and imitative counterpoint can be found.
reciter, soprano, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra, original version: 2222-2210-10-hpstr, reduced version: 1111-2100-10-pf-str, symphonic wind band: 1141-2331-12-double bass Text: Hjalmar Gullberg (Sw/Eng/Ger)
A lyrical suite in which recitation alternates with musical episodes. The text is based on the Greek myth about Apollo, who visits the earth disguised as a shepherd playing the flute. The basic mood of the work is bright, optimistic and almost pastoral, and the romantic tone language is simple and straightforward. A God Disguised has become a staple of Swedish choral repertoire.
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
JEAN SIBELIUS mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-4230-11-str Text: Kallio (Fin/Swe)
This evening’s opening piece Volo for string orchestra was characterised by rhythmical figures in a lively dance, excellently captured in flight over both strings and life’s rushing treadmill. Dagens Nyheter 17.2.
Poesis in San Francisco
mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-4230-11-str Text: Eino Leino (Fin/Swe/Eng/Ger)
These cantata gems have been overshadowed by the maestro’s other works. Despite their patriotic tone they serve as exciting portals to his symphonic world. Oma maa is a sort of hymn to the nightless northern night and towards the end achieves almost sacral rapture – a piece that has been hailed by several Sibelius scholars. Maan virsi is a deep-hued, lyrical song in praise of nature, with charming orchestral sections.
Dafgård – Composer of Spring
Jörgen Dafgård: Clarinet Concerto World premiere: Swedish Radio SO/Christian Eggen, 4.5.2013 Stockholm, Sweden
Maan virsi (Hymn to the Earth) (1920) Dur: 10’
Poesis emerged as a vibrant and often gripping display of orchestral virtuosity...The piece offers both vigor and surprise, and the orchestra delivered it beautifully. San Francisco Chronicle 13.4.
Joonatan Rautoila
The blaring French horns and rumbling trombones were placed on the platform, likewise the celesta, the jazzy trumpets above them…The effect of this sound in space was magnificent. Helsingin Sanomat 26.4.
Ingvar Lidholm: Poesis US premiere: San Francisco SO/Herbert Blomstedt, 11.4.2013 San Francisco, USA
Mikko Heiniö: Sonata da chiesa Finnish RSO/Arvo Volmer, 24.4.2013 Helsinki, Finland
Jyrki Linjama: Vanitas World premiere: Finnish RSO & Dominante, Murtosointu choirs/Arvo Volmer, 24.4. 2013 Helsinki, Finland
Veli-Matti Puumala
Intimate expression Inspiring Dream Play in Weimar
Nature’s mystique presents itself immediately in Dafgård’s music. But also the pumping rhythms. The clarinet concerto opens with a heavily loaded artillery salvo from the brass… then the piece glides into a fog of strings and a dreamlike state that is lifted by the third movement’s triplet figures and tempo changes… Dagens Nyheter 6.5.
Oma Maa (My Own Land) (1918) Dur: 11’
Magnificent Heiniö sound in space
Linjama’s Vanitas for choir is a powerful sermon… Debussy inspired the diaphanous nature scenes and heavenly visions. Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem hovers in the background. Linjama handles his big mixed choir with assurance and variety. Helsingin Sanomat 26.4.
Kimmo Hakola: Akseli, monologue opera World premiere: Avanti!/Ville Matvejeff, sol. Jorma Hynninen, 28.2.2013 Helsinki, Finland
Jörgen Dafgård: Volo Swedish Radio SO/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, 15.2.2013 Stockholm, Sweden
LARSERIK LARSSON Förklädd gud/A God Disguised (1940) Dur: 30’
Powerful Vanitas premiere
Kaleidoscope – a metaphor that aptly applies to the constantly changing characters in Hakola’s music. At best, it provided beautiful vocal melodies gratifying for the soloist and mighty, throbbing instrumental writing… Hufvudstadbladet 5.3.
Photo: Heikki Tuuli
Seven Songs for Planet Earth (2011) Dur: 40’
The instrumentation underlined and elucidated the content of the music, often with a sense of humour. In addition, there was an easily accessible rhythmic structure that held out its hand to the listener. Göteborgsposten 23.2.
Lidholm’s sensual, undogmatic and continually surprising musical language creates a kaleidoscope of impressions of human life…The big a cappella choral movements are spectacular… Gesellschaft Freunde der Künste 30.4. The dialectic is captured brilliantly in Ingvar Lidholm´s music…He plays with stylistic devices such as plainchant, waltzes and polkas, which he mixes together in his exquisite modern tone language. Thüringische Landeszeitung 22.4. The big choir both acts and sings splendidly…In Lidholm’s music the world may collapse, sometimes with a scornful laugh, sometimes with sensitivity and sorrow, but it can also occur with lightning and thunder. And Staatskapelle Weimar, with conductor Stefan Solyom, performs with all the colours and nuances. Die Deutsche Bühne 21.4. Director Christian Sedelmayer has got magic hands when it comes to staging the tragic. Another brilliant success… Thüringer Allgemeine 22.4. Ingvar Lidholm: A Dream Play Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar/Stefan Solyom, 20.4.2013 Weimar, Germany
The premiere afforded something quite special and distinctive. Tear is characterised by intimate expression that speaks to the listener. The bittersweet mood culminates in a sound all of its own at around the middle: modal jazz mixed with sighing and scratching. Hufvudstadsbladet 4.3. Veli-Matti Puumala: Tear World premiere: Tapiola Sinfonietta/Hannu Lintu, 1.3.2013 Espoo, Finland
Aho’s enchanting Gejia The super-evocative percussion parts indicated at the very outset that something very special was happening. Aho had sought his melodic building blocks among the traditions of the Gejia, a minority people in Southern China, and used them in a most sophisticated way so that the whole almost, but not quite gave an “authentic” impression. Hufvudstadsbladet 14.4. Kalevi Aho: Gejia Finnish premiere: Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk, 11.4.2013 Lahti, Finland
Attractive oboe-CD Of the many concertos that Aho has written, the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra is one of the most attractive and innovative…The oboe concerto in particular is a lovely piece which grows in stature with each hearing. theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.co.uk Kalevi Aho: Works for the Oboe (Oboe Concerto, Solo IX, Sonata for Oboe and Piano) CD: Lahti SO/Martyn Brabbins, sol. Piet Van Bockstal, Yutaka Oya, piano (BIS-SCD 1876)
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
Photo: Saara Vuorjoki
ANDERS ELIASSON Dante Anarca (1998) Dur: 80’
Stefan Solyom in Gothenburg (from video clip)
Freak out!
Photo: Matthias Horn
Choral works with orchestra
Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Erica Othman
REPER TOIR E TIPS