Aho’s opera, based on a play by Juha Mannerkorpi, is a forceful drama about a nurse who succumbs to the pressures of work and her private life and commits suicide by jumping off a bridge right at the start of the opera. The events leading up this extreme act are revealed as flashbacks that say much about the hardness of our society. Aho’s music does not leave anyone cold; its great emotional content gets right inside the listener and grips its guts.
DANIEL BÖRTZ Marie Antoinette 1997, dur: 152’, sol: 3S, 4Mz, A, 5T, 6Bar, 4B, boy, speaking part, 2232-220-11-0-str Libretto: Claes Fellbom (Sw)
A dramatic opera about Marie Antoinette’s love affair with the Swedish count Axel von Fersen. Börtz and Fellbom use a kind of film technique in this opera, with quick changes between various periods and places. The music, too, changes rapidly between solos, dialogues, ensembles and mass scenes in a varied tone language that includes everything from dense chamber music and borrowed melodies to the convulsed volcanic musical eruption that depicts the storming of the Bastille.
MIKKO HEINIÖ Käärmeen hetki (The Hour of the Serpent) 2002-05, dur: 140’, sol: 3S, 1Mz, A, T, Bar, BBar, B, coro, 3333-4331-13-1-pf(+cel)-str+quintetto scenico Libretto: Juha Siltanen (Fin)
This opera is a character drama focusing on one woman and four men. In order to defend her honour, Alice holds on to a lie which leads those around her to their destruction. The work unfolds slowly, like the most sophisticated thriller, and the music proceeds through cantatas, pop songs and Khachaturian-like waltzes, while also taking in beautiful ensemble scenes that respect the old opera tradition.
FREDRIK HÖGBERG The Woman of Cain 2009/13, dur: 135’, sol: S, Mz, 3T, Bar, 2B, speaking part, coro, dancers, 3333-4231-13-1-str Libretto: Tove Alsterdal (Eng)
This is the story about the woman of Cain, whose origin and identity until now have remained unknown. It is a story about the people who believed they were the first people on earth; a drama about truth and lies, forbidden love, the everlasting dream of a paradise and human struggle to control life itself. With irresistible post-modern music and optional spectacular multimedia scenographics noted in the score.
OLLI KORTEKANGAS Marian rakkaus (Maria’s Love) 1996-99, dur: 80’, sol: S, MZ, A, 3T, 2Bar, BBar, mimic, coro, 3333-4331-13-hp-cel(+pf)-str Libretto: Paavo Rintala (Fin)
Maria’s Love is set in 20th century Europe and based on a real story about Maria and a theologian who became a martyr to his faith in the 1940s. It is also a contemporary credo about the force of unconditional love that is able to overcome despair and even death. In places, the music features some almost Wagnerian outbursts and is not lacking in romantic references.
VELIMATTI PUUMALA Anna Liisa 2001-06, dur: 145’, sol: 5S, 3Mz, 2CA, 3T, 4Bar, 3B, coro=singers of the smaller parts, 2121-2220-02-pf-str Libretto: composer & Tiina Käkelä-Puumala (Fin)
Based on the play by Minna Canth of 1895, Anna Liisa is the tragic, timeless story of a secret infanticide and the consequences of the crime. The marriage of a cast-iron libretto and Puumala’s skilful and
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2014
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA Das Sonnenhaus (The House of the Sun) 1990, dur: 100’, sol: 3S, Mz, A, 2T, 2Bar, B, 1111-2210-02-synth-str Libretto: composer (Fin/Ger/Eng)
This story of twin sisters and their tragic fate is not without its comical side. The old immigrants refuse to accept that the world has changed and escape into the splendid memories of their youth. Rautavaara’s music brings together Russian romances, blues, a polonaise and neo-romantic harmonic textures, and the pluralistic elements co-exist in perfect harmony. The musical core of the opera lies in the lovely lyrical ensembles, especially the twins’ duets.
JÜRI REINVERE 2011, dur: 120’, sol: 3S, Mz, T, 2Bar, 2B, coro, 3333-4331-14-2-pf(cel)-tape-str Libretto: composer (Fin+Est)
In this acclaimed story by Sofi Oksanen war and oppression drive people to extreme acts. Zara becomes a victim of sex trafficking, while Aliide has experienced a ruthless era in a nightmarish regime. The choir occupies a big role and transforms from wedding guests and forest brothers to Soviet soldiers. Reinvere’s music contrasts the sensitive and subtle with brutality; after this highly successful opera, he received a commission from the Norwegian National Opera.
CARL UNANDER SCHARIN Lysistrata
1968, dur: 120’, sol: S, Mz, 2T, 2Bar, 3B, mixed chorus, 3322-4331-12-0-cel-str Libretto: Jaan Kross (Est/Sw)
Based on CJL Almqvists’s novel The Queen’s Tiara, the story takes place around the time of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden. The beautiful, androgynous Tintomara is accused of complicity in the conspiracy. She is the object of attraction for both men and women, something which leads to jealousy, insanity and death. Werle depicts the complicated interplay with the enigmatic Tintomara by employing subtle harmonic fluctuations. We can hear both the “contemporary” Werle and romantic melodies that sound almost as if they were taken from the time of Almqvist´s “Songes”.
Exquisite Tally …airy hissing sounds, modernistic playing techniques and metal thunder plates. This is typical for Tally, but also true to Beethoven and quite exquisite in all its lamenting unobtrusiveness. Dagens Nyheter 25.1. Mirjam Tally: Lament (companion piece to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) World premiere: Norrlandsoperan SO/Rumon Gamba, 23.1.2014 Umeå, Sweden
Light and Darkness … a pulsating buoyancy with expressive orchestral playing and terrifically deft percussionists. Västerbottenskuriren 1.3. Mirjam Tally: Ljuset och mörkret (Light and Darkness) World premiere: Norrlandsoperan SO/Sångkraft Chamber Choir/Risto Joost, 27.2 2014 Umeå, Sweden
Enigmatic Samuelsson on CD In the incredibly beautiful violin concerto “Bastet the Sun Goddess” the solo part appears as an enigmatic reflexion of light in an almost blackened darkness. A sphinx-like being, which, as the concerto develops, becomes more and more enticing and ambiguous in Anna Lindal´s hands. Dagens Nyheter 16.4. She is one of Sweden´s most mysterious contemporary minimalists. It is said that the orchestral piece Singla was inspired by a dish that was dropped, but the work is like a sphinx, a riddle to the very last minute. When Samuelsson is at her best her music is beautiful but frightening, many-headed like a hydra. Göteborgs Posten 16.4. Marie Samuelsson: Bastet the Sun Goddess , Float for Orchestra, Fantasia in a Circle CD: Royal Stockholm PO/Mats Rondin, sol. Anna Lindal, violin, Peärls Before Swïne Experience (Myran Prod 01)
This new recording and DVD deserves a wide audience. The Classical Reviewer March 2014 Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 9 CD: Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg (BIS 2038)
Kimmo Hakola: Clarinet Concerto Norrköpings SO/Anna-Maria Helsing, sol. Christoffer Sundqvist, 15.5.2014, Norrköping, Sweden
Barbara von Tisenhusen
1973, dur: 130’, sol: 6S, Mz, A, 4T, 6Bar, 5B, speaking part, 2222-4221-11-1-pf-str Libretto: Leif Söderström (Sw/Eng)
Pettersson’s longest symphony becomes a focused 70-minute rollercoaster in Lindberg’s hands. BBC Music Magazine April 2014
Our ears were offered goodies, and we sat there hoping they would never end… the word magical sprang to mind. This genre-straddling music and its perfect performance turned out to be the evening’s big gladsome shock. Norrköpings Tidningar 16.5.
EDUARD TUBIN
LARSJOHAN WERLE
This disc is a revelation… The Swedish master [Allan Pettersson] has found his champion [Christian Lindberg] at last. Gramophone April 2014
A gladsome musical shock
Based on Aristophanes´ comedy about Lysistrata, who, together with the women of Athens and Sparta, initiates a sex strike and takes over the government finances in order to put an end to the Peloponnesian War. This is a witty and entertaining opera in which the music is overflowing with fleeting associations to styles and genres – everything from lofty polyphonic hymns and musical expressionism to musicals and popular music.
Tintomara
Staern has formed his song cycle into a series of more or less dramatically charged scenes in which the vocal part stands out and the words are mostly set in relief against the colourful orchestral texture… Written for contralto Anna Larsson “Sånger om bländvit kärlek” has a dark intensity…The unique lustre of her voice often has a hypnotic effect in combination with Karin Boye´s poems, which are so rich in variety of expression. Helsingborgs Dagblad 10.4.
Superb Pettersson recording
1997-98, dur: 90’, sol: 4S, Mz, A, 2T, Bar, B, 1010-1110-04-sax-egtr-synth-str(22211) Libretto: Magnus Carlbring (Sw)
The story by Aino Kallas is set in 16th century Estonia. The protagonist is a girl of noble birth who defies her social class when she flees with a scribe. As a punishment for violating the honour of her family she is condemned to death, and is drowned by her own three brothers in a hole in the ice. Tubin’s music is palpably vocal and accompanies the course of events. It begins with happy wedding music in a dancing mood, and ends with icy chords that radiate the chill of death.
Dramatic setting of poems by Boye
Benjamin Staern: Sånger om bländvit kärlek (Songs of Dazzingly White Love) World premiere: Helsingborg SO/Stefan Solyom, Anna Larsson, 6.4.2014 Helsingborg, Sweden
Purge (Puhdistus)
Photo: Mats Bäcker
dramatic music makes this opera a powerful and hypnotic experience. The folk music that bursts out from time to time is also an important element of the opera.
Hypnotic effects Tantalising paradoxes… Nuorvala, who began as a lecturer in composition at the Sibelius Academy some years ago, takes two basic pillars of pitch-based composition, harmony and melody, and leads them to opposite extremes. The first minutes of Septimalia sounded quite piquant…the thing that stuck in the mind was the fine falling gesture at the end, in which the microtonal motifs came close to glissandos. Helsingin Sanomat 18.5.
Captivating Rautavaara
Juhani Nuorvala: Septimalia World premiere: Finnish RSO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, 16.6.2014 Helsinki, Finland
His [Andrew Kohn] excellent playing skills captivated the whole audience in the hall, especially when the bow hit the string quietly but dramatically, making the audience hold their breaths and listen to the mysterious music moment. In the final movement the audience was shown the angel ascending back into the heavens, as it could be heard or “seen” by the faint, wispy sounds from the last moment before the music faded. The Daily Athenanaeum 5.3.
Brilliance in Eliasson’s Double Concerto
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Angel of Dusk WVU Symphony Orchestra/ Mitchell Arnold, sol. Andrew Kohn, double bass, 27.2.2014 Morgantown, USA
There is a driving energy here that seems unrestrainable, but the frantic intensity that at times appears in Eliasson´s works is here replaced by an affirmative brilliance, especially when it is performed with Wallin´s stringency and Pöntinen´s forceful clarity of vision. Svenska Dagbladet 18.3. Anders Eliasson: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra Royal Stockholm PO/Alexander Shelley, sol. Ulf Wallin, violin, Roland Pöntinen, piano, 14.3.2014 Stockholm, Sweden
Magnificent Madetoja The romantic idiom of the Madetoja symphonies may be overwhelmingly Tchaikovskian one minute and coolly arctic the next… The Okon Fuoko suite has some showy gestures that sound magnificent, and this applies to both the interpretation and the recording. Helsingin Sanomat 30.4. Leevi Madetoja: Symphonies Nos. 1-3, Okon Fuoko Suite CD: Helsinki PO/John Storgårds (Ondine 1211-2)
Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Quite ingenious St. Matthew Passion It is like one long comforting caress… the scene with St. Peter is a climax with an exquisitely beautiful “Erbarme dich” that bursts into blossom like a nocturnal flower. But the one who stands out in the greatest intimacy is the figure of Christ… a portrait that is among the most moving he [Sandström] has ever composed. Dagens Nyheter 19.4. This is a brilliant work that can bring one to tears as well as a sincere commitment. Hopefully, it will become a classic in the musical repertoire of Passiontide! Uppsala Nya Tidning 22.4. Sven-David Sandström: St. Matthew Passion Swedish premieres: Philharmonischer Chor Berlin, Uppsala Academy Chamber Choir, Gävle SO/Stefan Parkman 16-17.4.2014 Stockholm and Uppsala, Sweden Photo: Markus Henttonen
1995/99, dur: 130’, sol: S, M, A, T, 2Bar, B, 2 boys, 11.asax.heckelphone. 22-2111-01-1-str Libretto: composer (Fin/Ger)
REVIEWS Photo: Saara Vuorjoki/Music Finland
KALEVI AHO Before We All Are Drowned
Operas with female focus
Photo: Marco Feklistoff
R E PER TOIR E TIPS
Aho CD – highly recommended I can imagine even relatively inexperienced listeners being pulled into Minea’s increasingly mad vortex… The [Double Bass] Concerto is darkly magical, and often very exciting, in an obsessive way...The disc is highly recommended! International Record Review, March 2014 Kalevi Aho: Minea, Double Bass Concerto, Symphony No. 15 CD: Lahti SO/Vänskä, Kuusisto, Slobodeniouk, sol. Eero Munter (BIS-SACD 1866)
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2014