2013 Nordic Highlights No. 2

NORDIC
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
NEWSLETTER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN
Daniel Börtz at 70
Photo: Saara Vuorjoki
NEWS
Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams (Photo: Filmikamari)
Cantus arcticus in new
Terrence Malick film
Large choral commission
for Hakola
Anders Eliasson (1947–2013)
When Anders Eliasson died on 20 May, one
of the most personal voices in Swedish music
fell silent. He will be dearly missed.
Eliasson lived through his music and always went his own way, irrespective of trends
and traditions. He wrote more than 100
works: symphonies, oratorios, solo concertos
and chamber music, but emphasised that he
did not `compose´. He spoke of an “angel of
music” and saw himself as a receiver, as one
who sensitively listened in, wrote down and
conveyed. Yet one palpably feels Eliasson’s
strong presence in his music: the restlessness, the melancholy, the pain, the harshness,
the beauty and the warmth. An expressiveness that touches the depths of the souls.
The Chorus Sanctae Ceciliae (Ceciliakören) has
commissioned Kimmo Hakola to write a largescale choral work to celebrate its 60th anniversary in November 2013. One of the basic missions
of the choir founded by Harald Andersén has,
from the very beginning, been to commission
and perform new works. De kaspiska tigrarnas
Gud, the work commissioned from Hakola, is
based on texts by Stella Parland. About an hour
long, it will be premiered at the Helsinki Music
Centre on 22 November.
Nordic Music Days 2013
Music by four of Gehrmans’ composers will be
performed during the Nordic Music Days in
Helsinki this October: Benjamin Staern’s symphonic prelude Jubilate, Mirjam Tally’s Birds and
Shadows for violin and string orchestra, Jörgen
Dafgård’s Mahler Revisited for flute, violin, cello and piano, and Anders Eliasson’s Trio for
Marimba, Violin and Piano. Choral works by
Veli-Matti Puumala (Halkeama) and Olli Kortekangas (De profundis) represent the Fennica
Gehrman catalogue in the NMD program.
NORDIC
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
Sound samples
, video clips
and other material are available at
2/2013
Photo: Pål Solbakk
www.gehrmans.se/highlights
Cover photos: A Dream Play in Weimar (Photo:
Matthias Horn), Daniel Börtz (Photo: Jurek Holzer/SVD/
Scanpix), Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in Malick’s
film To the Wonder (Photo: Filmikamari)
Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf
Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll
Design: Tenhelp Oy/Tenho Järvinen
ISSN 2000-2742 (Print), ISSN 2000-2750 (Online)
Printed in Sweden by TMG Sthlm, Bromma 2013
Trio La Rue to play music
by Nieminen
Works by Kai Nieminen can be heard at several
concerts this year, in addition to being recorded
on the Toccata Classics and Pilfink labels. Nieminen is also the focus composer of the Sääksmäki
soi festival, at which Patrick Kleemola will give
the Finnish premiere of his guitar sonata A Walk
to the Mysterious Woods... and the Trio La Rue
will perform works by him on 3 July. Also in the
Trio’s repertoire is Nieminen’s Reflecting Landscapes,
to be heard at two of its concerts in
Italy – in Rome and Naples in October 2013.
New agreement with
Mihkel Kerem
NEWSLE T TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN
HIGHLIGHTS
Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus arcticus
features at a major turn in the plot
in the new Terrence Malick film To the
Wonder. The third movement, Swans Migrating, is played by the Royal Scottish
National Orchestra. The score of Malick’s film is a veritable anthology of classical and modern music, making the film
a breath-taking, rapturous musical and
visual experience.
Fennica Gehrman has signed a publishing
agreement with Mihkel Kerem for 7 orchestral and 9 instrumental/chamber works.
Kerem (born in 1981 in Tallinn) studied the
violin and composition at the Royal College
of Music. He lives in London and is active as
a violinist, composer and arranger.
Mihkel Kerem has composed more than
100 works, including three symphonies, a
double cello concerto, nine string quartets,
three violin sonatas and two wind quintets.
He has had several concerts dedicated to his
music and has been the focus composer at
the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and
the Aurora Chamber Music Festival. Kerem
is also the leader of the Brandenburg Sinfonia and the section principal of the Camerata Nordica. He also performs as a recitalist
and soloist. Toccata Classics has released two
CDs of Kerem’s compositions.
New commissions
PREMIERES
The Trio ZPR has commissioned music from Tommie Haglund and Anders Eliasson for
the concert series “Finally Monday 2013-2014”. Eliasson’s string trio Ahnungen became his
very last work. It will be premiered in Stockholm on 10 February 2014.
Fredrik Högberg has been commissioned to write a Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra
for virtuoso Jörgen Sundeqvist and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, to be premiered in
2014. The NCO has also commissioned a 10-minute concert-opener by Marie Samuelsson
for the 2015/16 season.
Summer 2013
Rolf Martinsson
Tour de Force
Gothenburg SO/Nikolaj Znaider
15.5. Gothenburg, Sweden
Till skuggan av en verklighet
Lisa Larsson, soprano, Kreutzer Quartet
4.7. Karlskrona, Sweden (Lyckå Chamber Music Festival)
Nils Lindberg
Om dagen vid mitt arbete
Swedish Radio Choir/Peter Dijkstra
18.5. Stockholm, Sweden
Sven-David Sandström
Three Pieces for Two Violins
Trio ZPR (Photo: Goldberg)
Anders Lagerqvist, Per Öman
8.6. Borlänge, Sweden
Five Pieces for String Quintet
Uppsala Chamber Soloists
8.9. Uppsala, Sweden
Jyrki Linjama
Suomalainen Stabat Mater (Finnish Stabat Mater)
Kari Tikka has made orchestral arrangements of his popular Five
Biblical Songs cycle. It also includes the work by him most often performed: Song of Grace (Armolaulu). The Lohja City Orchestra premiered three songs from the cycle last summer with Jyrki Anttila,
Hannu Jurmu and Aki Alamikkotervo as the soloists. Tikka is also
planning an orchestral version of his Seven Spiritual Songs.
Martinsson residency in
Amsterdam
On 11 June composer and pianist Nils Lindberg
will celebrate his 80th birthday. During six decades he has composed and arranged music for big
bands, choirs, symphony orchestras and various
types of ensembles. He has refused to be categorised and has remained a border-transcending
personality in Swedish musical life. His musical
roots are to be found in Swedish folk music as
well as in jazz and art music, a golden trinity that
has become Lindberg’s successful hallmark. His
latest work is a commission for the Swedish Radio Choir, Om dagen vid mitt arbete, which was
premiered under the direction of Peter Dijkstra
on 18 May in Stockholm. Also read about Lindberg’s Requiem under repertoire tips.
Das Licht der fließenden Gottheit
(Jumaluuden virtaava valo)
Essi Luttinen, mezzo-soprano, Ilmo Ranta, piano
9.7. Kemiö, Finland (Kemiö Music Festival)
Kai Nieminen
Ritorno... ( delle città invisibili)
Jyväskylä University SO/Huba Holloköi
24.8 Jyväskylä, Finland
Kalevi Aho
EAREGBERG for 4 cellos, ERA for 4 cellos
Martti Rousi etc.
5.7. Sysmä, Finland (Sysmä Summer Sounds)
Albert Schnelzer
You Cried for the Moon
Staffan Mårtensson, clarinet, Love Derwinger, piano
14.8. Linköping, Sweden (Östergötland Music Days) Daniel Börtz
Speglande Medea (Reflecting Medea)
Michala Petri, recorder
30.8. Suså, Denmark (Suså Festival)
Festival composers this summer
The Lyckå Chamber Music Festival will present a portrait concert of
works by Rolf Martinsson on 4 July. The programme comprises the
world premiere of Till skuggan av en verklighet (To the Shadow of a Reality), for soprano and string quartet to texts by Karin Boye, Songs on Poems
by Emily Dickinson in a version for soprano and piano, Landscape for violin solo, Duo for violin and cello, and three piano pieces from The Zodiac.
Albert Schnelzer is Composer-in-Focus at the Östergötland Music
Days/Linköping Chamber Music Festival on 10–17 August. No less
than 12 of his works will be performed, among these the festival commission You Cried for the Moon for clarinet and piano, Requiem for soprano
and piano, Emperor Akbar for string orchestra and Azraeel Suite for symphonic wind band.
Rolf Martinsson
Photo: Hans Lindén
Lindberg turns 80
Rolf Martinsson will be Composer-in-Residence
with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra/
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam during the 2014/2015
season. His residency will feature a sequence of
Dutch premieres ranging from orchestral works
to chamber pieces, such as the concert opener
Open Mind and A. S. in Memoriam for strings.
The Netherlands PO also co-commissioned
New Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, featuring
Lisa Larsson.
Soli Deo Gloria/Juhani Lamminmäki, sol. Piia Komsi, soprano,
Ulla Raiskio, alto, Ritva Koistinen, kantele
29.6. Kokkola, Finland
Photo: Mats Bäcker
Orchestral version of Kari Tikka songs
Albert Schnelzer
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
questions for
Photo: Johanna Oksanen-Lyytikäinen
Pasi Lyytikäinen
1.The Kuopio Symphony Orchestra commissioned a symphony from you and premiered it
in 2008. Could you describe the composition
process – before that, you had mostly written
chamber music and works for the stage.
The idea of composing a symphony came to me
very early on. I did the first sketches for it when
I was about twenty. But when I began composing it again ten years later, I did not return to
these sketches and instead planned the musical
material on a different footing. The main reason
was that while I was composing chamber music,
I had acquired masses of ideas for an orchestra.
Then again, I had concentrated a lot on vocal
music, so there was strong pressure to compose
an orchestral work.
2. You have composed chamber music for very
different line-ups, and also solo works. Can
you tell us more about these?
Par for piano four hands won the Tong Piano
Duet chamber music competition in London
and it was premiered in Tokyo in autumn 2002.
I wrote it as a sort of triumphant shout and
aimed at boisterous, light and action-packed
expression. Coma for solo piano, premiered in
Berlin, combines methodical German harmony
thinking with the impressionistic ethereality of
French expression.
I’ve also had the fortune to receive a wide
range of chamber music commissions. The most
important of these are, for me, the trio Zephyr
and the string quartet La Spada del sole. And
there is also the solo accordion suite Vuo.
3. Though your own instrument is the flute,
you haven’t written all that much flute music,
even though your list of works does include
some for winds; such as Necto, premiered by
the Guards Band in 2010. Is there any special
reason for this?
This may sound odd, but I hardly write anything for the flute precisely because it’s my own
instrument. I do, it’s true, dream of doing a flute
concerto sometime, but that project can wait for
another few years. But I have written a big suite
for solo recorder, Minimalto.
4. The chamber opera To Helsinki is considered your breakthrough work. Tell us a bit
about it.
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
It marked the culmination of the musical thinking of my youthful years. In 1997, after I had
moved to Helsinki to study composition, I happened to come across Juhani Aho’s novella To
Helsinki. The book is about a young student and
the first time he travels far from home. It’s ostensibly a genial story about a journey, but under
the surface is a powerful tale about how a person
changes, and under the influence of the people
around him.
5. And what about the Seven Songs for soprano
and orchestra, settings of poems by Saila Susiluoto, which you composed after completing
the opera?
The Seven Songs were, apart from the solo accordion suite Vuo, the first work in which I started
to seek out musical avenues I hadn’t already explored. Whereas the expression in my chamber
opera relies on spiky tragicomedy, the orchestral
songs are clearly lyrical and serious. I’m still really pleased with the orchestra of the Seven Songs.
Through it I found a lot of new expression, both
vocal and orchestral. I later did a version of the
cycle for soprano and piano at singers’ request.
6. Last November you were a guest composer
at the Moscow Autumn festival. This spring
you’ve been a tutor on the Very Young Composers project.
Some of my chamber music was played at the
Moscow Autumn festival, and my new Chamber
Vocalise for soprano and chamber ensemble was
also premiered there. Music by me was also performed by the GamEnsemble on its Russian tour.
I went along, too, lecturing about my music at the
Glinka Conservatory. The festival also brought
me lots more performances both for Russia and
elsewhere in Europe. The virtuoso accordionist
Sergej Tchirkov, for example, has performed Vuo
this spring in Venice, Poland and elsewhere.
Working as a tutor on the Very Young Composers project with composer Minna Leinonen
was a pleasure and broadened my mind. The
concept of the project developed by Jon Deak is
quite unique. In it, youngsters composed while
vocational music students converted their ideas
into musical notation – as authentically as possible. The new works were premiered by a chamber
ensemble of players from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic and
the Finnish National Opera. Added to which, the
youngsters did animations and sculptures.
7. What are you working on right now and
what sorts of inspiring works do you expect to
do in the future?
I’ve just finished a new work in the Everyday
Opera series. Over the summer I’m going to
compose a virtuoso accordion work for Mika
Väyrynen. Sometime in the near future I also
intend to complete my doctoral studies at the
Sibelius Academy. I’ve got a fine opportunity to
take part in this doctoral programme in which
eight artists from different fields will be working
on their degrees and at the same time developing
methods for artistic research.
My aim is to amass as wide a range of resources as possible for my career as a composer.
Working with different arts has been fantastic,
especially as regards my works for the stage. It’s
been interesting to note that the majority of the
questions about making art are the same regardless of genre.
Henna Salmela
Pasi Lyytikäinen (b. 1975) studied composition at the Sibelius Academy and in masterclasses with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Tristan
Murail, Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg
and others. His interests as a composer are
wide-spread: solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal
music, and opera. As a composer he has been
described as a lyrical modernist. His music is
characterised by compact, often softly dissonant
harmony, the idea of varying motifs and a classical, polyphonic mode of writing. Some of his
most recent works also have theatrical elements.
Photo: Jurek Holzer/SVD/Scanpix
Daniel Börtz at 70
Daniel Börtz turns 70 in August, but he has hardly slowed his pace. He will
soon be in the limelight with two new large-scale works – his twelfth symphony and his sixth opera Medea.
We meet at a café in Stockholm, just a stone’s
throw from the Royal Opera. It was here that he
in 1991 had his famous breakthrough with Backanterna (The Bacchae) in a production by Ingmar Bergman, and this is where he will return
with a new opera. After the complex of problems
relating to honour killing in Svall (Surge, 2006)
and the conditions of the artist in Goya (2009),
it is now time for another drama from classical
antiquity: Euripides’ Medea.
Producer, conductor, singers and the premiere
date are still hush-hush – the production lies
a couple of seasons ahead – but the first act of
the opera is finished. He had been toying with
the subject for quite a while, but it was not until
Daniel Börtz had read the play in a more recent
Swedish translation that he found inspiration.
– Medea had been in the back of my mind
for years, ever since The Bacchae. It was the
kind of drama that I really wanted to take on at
some point in time. And then when I reread it
– and above all came to read the newly revised
translation by Jan Stolpe and Agneta Pleijel –
everything fell into place.
He has undertaken to do the libretto this time
and made quite a few cuts and rearrangements
in the text – with the consent of Jan Stolpe and
Agneta Pleijel, of course. About once every six
months he meets with them both to get the goahead for his adaptation:
– Then we read and I draw and tell and talk
about what I am thinking. I have made quite a
lot of changes above all to what happens in the
chorus, but so far they haven’t berated me, Dan-
iel Börtz points out. He adds that he has a great
time relating to this sounding board and not being entirely alone.
What captivated him the most from the beginning, and what has become the fundamental
theme, was Medea’s situation as a fugitive. How a
human being can end up in such a desperate situation that she totally loses her foothold. About
the same time that he started on the work, a
tragic event occurred in a nearby town: a woman
drowned her two children. Daniel Börtz doubts
whether one can draw any sweeping or direct parallels, but nevertheless finds certain similarities:
– You can’t really make any comparisons, this
is of course a play that was written four-hundred years before Christ, but humans have not
changed essentially throughout that time. What
it deals with is basically this: humans can be
stressed to a point where they lose all good judgment, says Daniel Börtz.
He describes the music as a stylistic continuation of how he composed Goya, a great deal of
interplay between tonality and atonality, and all
the nuances in between. In the role of the wet
nurse one can also find certain similarities to
Cassandra in the oratorio His Name Was Orestes. In Euripides the nurse’s role is restricted to
the beginning of the play, but Börtz has expanded her part. Like Cassandra’s, it is written for a
warm contralto.
– I individualise the chorus; I have them as
a female mass, but I individualise often so that
they become soloist roles. And the nurse, she is
in some way a participant in this, she becomes
that Cassandra type – the one who suffers, who
feels compassion.
As usual – one is tempted to say – when Daniel
Börtz is working on an opera there is likely to be a
musical spillover. In connection with The Bacchae
came Kithairon for oboe, Goya’s Face was a digression from Goya, and at the Danish Suså Festival
this August there will be a premiere performance
of Reflecting Medea, five short solo pieces written
for the recorder virtuoso Michala Petri.
– It is a kind of characterisation of Medea, you
might say, but there is also a concrete sequence of
intervals that is important in the opera.
But for the whole opera Medea we will have
to wait a while longer. Daniel Börtz’s twelfth symphony, however, can be heard at a much earlier
date: it will be premiered by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Blendulf on 15 February 2014. The score is
ready and lies in the windowsill beside our table.
We page through it and discuss motoric drive, a
suddenly emerging dream sequence, gongs and
glockenspiel sonorities, and an ending in a C
major that bursts into pieces. But when we talk
about how the work starts out, it is once again
a concrete little musical element that proves to
be central.
– It has one of those building stones, an irritating detail that calls for me to “do something
with this”, and it is the very first chords B minor
and G minor. When you start toying with those
two chords you discover a great many possibilities that open up. I can’t stop doing this, that’s
just the way it is, says Börtz.
It is now forty years since his first symphony was given its premiere in Gothenburg – the
compact building blocks of the 1970s have long
since been replaced by a form that is leaner –
and No. 12 is the first symphony for full symphony orchestra in twenty years, consisting of
four movements and with a duration of approximately forty minutes. There is even room for a
baritone soloist in the slow movement, in which
Börtz has set a poem by Kjell Espmark. And although the orchestra is large, the symphony has
an aura of chamber music about it.
– Indeed, I like to have a palette with a wealth
of colours, to be able to play around and work
with it. Then at times there won’t be so many
tones in certain instruments, but where they do
come in, they are immensely important. Sometimes it is very useful to force oneself not to have
so many possibilities, simply to be able to sharpen one’s pencil and one’s wits, says Daniel Börtz.
Sara Norling
HIGHLIGHTS
2/2013
REPER TOIR E TIPS
Choral works with orchestra
REVIEWS
ANDERS ELIASSON
NILS LINDBERG
Homage to vocal beauty
Dante Anarca (1998) Dur: 80’
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’
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.
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”.
TIMOJUHANI KYLLÖNEN
Missa Festiva (2008) Dur: 31’
SVENDAVID 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
Photo: Heikki Tuuli
Seven Songs for Planet Earth (2011)
Dur: 40’
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.
LARSERIK LARSSON
Förklädd gud/A God Disguised
(1940) Dur: 30’
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
Oma Maa (My Own Land)
(1918) Dur: 11’
mixed choir and orchestra: 2222-4230-11-str
Text: Kallio (Fin/Swe)
Maan virsi (Hymn to the Earth)
(1920) Dur: 10’
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.
Joonatan Rautoila
Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Erica Othman
Stefan Solyom
in Gothenburg
(from video clip)
Freak out!
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.
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
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.
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.
Jyrki Linjama: Vanitas
World premiere: Finnish RSO & Dominante, Murtosointu choirs/Arvo
Volmer, 24.4. 2013 Helsinki, Finland
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.
Inspiring Dream Play in Weimar
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.
Jörgen Dafgård: Volo
Swedish Radio SO/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, 15.2.2013 Stockholm, Sweden
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.
Jörgen Dafgård: Clarinet Concerto
World premiere: Swedish Radio SO/Christian Eggen, 4.5.2013 Stockholm, Sweden
Poesis in San Francisco
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.
Ingvar Lidholm: Poesis
US premiere: San Francisco SO/Herbert Blomstedt,
11.4.2013 San Francisco, USA
Veli-Matti
Puumala
Intimate expression
Kimmo Hakola: Akseli, monologue opera
World premiere: Avanti!/Ville Matvejeff, sol. Jorma Hynninen,
28.2.2013 Helsinki, Finland
Dafgård – Composer of Spring
Mikko Heiniö: Sonata da chiesa
Finnish RSO/Arvo Volmer, 24.4.2013 Helsinki, Finland
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
New Hakola opera
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.
Photo: Matthias Horn
Jorma Hynninen
Powerful Vanitas premiere
N E W P U B L I C AT I O N S
CHAMBER & INSTRUMENTAL
DANIEL BÖRTZ
Träsnitt/Woodcut
Daniel Börtz
for solo percussion
›§œ—’Ĵ
Woodcut
GE 10599
for solo percussion
CHORAL & VOCAL
ORCHESTRAL
ULRIKA EMANUELSSON
PAAVO HEININEN
Väktarsång från Lund (Nightwatcher’s Song)
Autrefois - Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
for female choir a cappella
Text: Traditional nightwatcher’s calls (Swe)
FG 55011-131-8 (piano reduction)
GE 12239
FREDRIK HÖGBERG
SVEN HAGVIL
Silent Purpose
Concerto for clarinet, string orchestra and audioo track
JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD
Mahler Revisited
for flute, violin, cello and piano
i
Jörgen Dafgård
GE 12322 (score and parts)
Mahler Revisited
NILS LINDBERG
Vaggvisa/Lullaby
for mixed choir a cappella
Text: William Shakespeare (Eng)
Orpheus with his lute
Blandad kör/
Mixed choir a cappella
ALLAN PETTERSSON
Allan Pettersson
Concerto for String Orchestra No. 2
GE 12248
CONCERTO No. 2
GE 11981 (score)
Nils Lindberg
for String Orchestra
(1956)
PA R T I T U R /S C O R E
for violin and piano
GE 12244
GE 11204 (score), GE 11205 (solo part)
Orpheus with his Lute
BO HANSSON
Polska With
All My Love
SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM
Then I Heard the Singing
for violin and piano
Polska with All My Love
for violin and piano
GE 10929 (score), GE 10930 (solo part)
GE 12124 GE 12245
Five Fantasy Pieces
HANNU POHJANNORO
HANNU POHJANNOROO
GE 12118 (score)
Tre folkliga valser
för stråkorkester
for voice and piano
for guitar
LILLEBROR SÖDERLUNDH
FG 55011-144-8 (high version),
55011-145-5 (low version)
FG 55011-138-7
SVENDAVID SANDSTRÖM
PA R T I T U R /S C O R E
Tre folkliga valser/Three Popular Waltzes
NMS 4962 (score)
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
Dance I
MIRJAM TALLY
Ave Maria, gratia plena
for percussion quintet
for percussion solo
for mixed choir a cappella
Text: Latin
First edition of Rautavaara’s popular
male choir work in a version for SATB choir.
GE 12267
FG 55011-147-9
GE 12266
The Last Fight
Four Pieces for String Trio
for symphony orchestra
GE 12234 (score)
ALBERT SCHNELZER
Con Forza
for brass quintet
GE 12319 (score and parts)
PA R T I T U R /S C O R E
Density
for symphony orchestra
Jonas Valfridsson
PA R T I T U R /S C O R E
JONAS VALFRIDSSON
The Only Thing That You
Keep
Changing Is Your Name
K
The Only Thing that You Keep
Changing is Your Name
KARIN REHNQVIST
Four Pieces
for String Trio
Mirjam Tally
Density
Sven-David Sandström
GE 12192 (score and parts)
Lille Bror Söderlundh
for chamber ensemble
Valkoinen huone, Three Songs to
Texts by Johanna Venho
towards the orbit of the moon /
kuun kiertoa kohti
Score
A Desolate Wind - A Flighty Moment
Concerto for clarinet and orchestra
for mixed choir a cappella
Text: St. Bridget of Sweden (Eng)
D
(or instrument in B and piano)
GE 12260 (score)
Teile dich Nacht
for mixed choir a cappella
Text: Nelly Sachs (Ger)
Teile dich
Nacht
Mixed choir
GE 11834
JAN SANDSTRÖM
Vuojnha Biegga
Andens vind/Wind of the Spirit
Vuojnha biegga (Wind of the
he Spirit)
for male choir a cappella
Text: Johan Märak (Samic)
GE 10277
NEW CDs
Manskör/Male choir
a cappella
ANDERS ELIASSON
Ein schneller Blick…ein kurzes Aufscheinen,
Poem for Alto Saxophone and Piano,
Symphony No. 3 for Alto Saxophone
and Orchestra ‘Sinfonia Concertante’
JOHAN BODIN ERIKSSON
Arcos Orchestra/John-Edward Kelly,
Finnish Radio SO/Leif Segerstam,
John-Edward Kelly, alto saxophone, Bob Versteegh, piano
Pandora’s Box
NEOS 11301
Three pieces for flexible percussion
ensemble that can be played on
practically any percussion instrument:
drums, oil drums, steel tubes, cans –
shortly, on anything on which you could
beat a rhythm – by almost any number
of players: 4, 8, 12 etc. Each part can thus
advantageously be played by several
percussionists.
KIMMO HAKOLA
Guitar Concerto
Oulu SO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali,
sol. Timo Korhonen
Ondine ODE 1219-2
PAAVO HEININEN
Autrefois (Flute Concerto)
Saimaa Sinfonietta/Tibor Bogányi,
sol. Mikael Helasvuo
1. Steel , GE 12301, 2. In Chains, GE 12302,
3. Twine, GE 12303
Alba ABCD 350
For further information about our works or representatives worldwide check our web sites or contact us at:
Gehrmans Musikförlag AB
Fennica Gehrman Oy Ab
Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 8 610 06 00 • Fax +46 8 610 06 27
www.gehrmans.se • [email protected]
Hire: [email protected]
Web shop: www.gehrmans.se
Sales: [email protected]
PO Box 158, FI-00121 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358 10 3871 220 • Fax +358 10 3871 221
www.fennicagehrman.fi • [email protected]
Hire: [email protected]
Web shop: www.fennicagehrman.fi
Sales: [email protected] (dealers)
MIHKEL KEREM
Symphony No. 3, Lamento,
Sextet for Strings
Estonian National SO, Tallinn ChO,
Tallinn Ensemble/Mikk Murdvee
Toccata Classics TOCC0173
AARRE MERIKANTO
Ekho, Symphony No. 2
Turku PO/Petri Sakari,
sol. Anu Komsi, soprano
Alba ABCD 351
for orchestra
PA R T I T U R /S C O R E