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HIGHLIGHTS 4/2017

NEWSLET TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN

Sound samples , video clips and other material are available at

www.gehrmans.se/highlights

Cover photos: Paavo Heininen (Saara Vuorjoki/Music

Finland), Håkan Hardenberger and Pernilla August in

Stern’s The Princess’ Tale (Ralph Bretzer)

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 2017

H I G H L I G H T S 4 / 2 0 1 7

Tubin’s ballet on DVD Estonian Record Pro-ductions has released a DVD of Marina Kes-sler’s staging of Edu-ard Tubin’s ballet Kratt (Th e Goblin). Eduard Tubin and his librettist and wife Erika worked on the ballet for more than 20 years. During a performance at the Estonia Th eatre in March 1944, Tallinn was bombed and costumed dancers ran for shelter when the theatre took a direct hit. Fifteen years later Tubin reconstructed the ballet from the remaining instrumental parts. What be-gan as a folkloristic rendering of old rural myths has been transformed by Kessler into a visually stunning timeless play on themes of greed and love. Even the history of the ballet fl ashes by when the Devil pushes the air raid alert. Th e DVD can be ordered from ylle.veerg@opera.ee and will soon be available from international distributors.

Hakola, Lindberg, Tuomela: 3 x 60Kimmo Hakola, Magnus Lindberg and Tapio Tuomela will each be 60 next year: Lindberg on 27 June, and one month later Hakola, who is planning a double concerto for Lauri Sallinen (clarinet) and Henrik Sandås (bandoneon). Tuomela’s birthday is on 11 October, and a date in October has been proposed for a concert of his works. He is also writing a choral work for Musi-catreize and the Helsinki Chamber Choir as part of the Tenso Network project.

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Schnelzer works on tourEvelyn Glennie and O/Modernt String Quartet are touring with Albert Schnel-zer´s new version of Apollonian Dances, for percussion and string quartet. Performances will take place in Klaipeda and Vilnius, Lith-uania in December, at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam in February and at Kings Place, London in March. A Freak in Burbank is to be performed by the Monte Carlo Philhar-monic in December, and in April of next year the piece will go on tour with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Th omas Dausgaard to Brugge, Belgium and Rosenheim, Germany.

Högberg’s new solo concertosTwo new solo con-certos by Fredrik Högberg will be pre-miered in the spring of 2018. Absent Il-lusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses is a multimedia concerto for violin/viola and orchestra with cine-matic features, written for Isabelle van Keulen. She will give the premiere on 16 March with the Düsseldorf Symphony orchestra/Alexandre Bloch. Th e concerto is jointly commissioned with the symphony orchestras in Odense, Norr-köping and Malmö. Swedish Radio P2 has, together with the Gothenburg Symphony and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, commissioned a Bassoon Concerto for Sebastian Stevensson, winner of the Swedish Soloist Prize 2016. Th e work will receive its premiere on 9 May in Gothenburg under the baton of Tung-Chieh Chuang.

New transcriptions for wind bandTh e Nordic countries share a strong wind band tradition – including band transcriptions of sym-phonic works. Fennica Gehrman has published three new transcriptions for full-sized wind band including Einar Englund’s Th e Great Wall of China – a landmark in Finnish theatre mu-sic. Uuno Klami’s Sea Pictures is faithful to the original orchestral work, bringing the essence of his colourful style onto the band platform. Also included is Jean Sibelius’s Overture in F minor transcribed for band by Robert Ambrose.

Martinsson premieresDecember 17th will see the Austrian pre-miere of Rolf Mar-tinsson’s song cycle Garden of Devotion

at the Wiener Konzerthaus. So-prano Lisa Larsson is the soloist with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Stefan

Vladar. Th e new concert opener Shimmering Islands will be premiered in Norway by the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra on 18 Janu-ary next year, and Ole Edvard Antonsen will be the soloist in the Polish premiere of the trumpet concerto Bridge with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice on 1 Febru-ary.

Rolf Martinsson

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Evelyn Glennie

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H I G H L I G H T S 4 / 2 0 1 7

P R E M I E R E SDecember 2017 – March 2018

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Wennäkoski at the Turku

Cello CompetitionA work for the Turku Cello Com-petition beginning on 16 February has been commissioned from Lotta Wennäkoski. Called Foliage, it exists in versions for cello and piano and for orchestra and will be the compulsory work for the six competition fi nalists. Th e Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä will ac-company the cellists in the fi nals on 22–23 February.

Aho’s 17th symphonyKalevi Aho has been asked to write his 17th symphony for 2019 as a joint commission by several orchestras. Th e world premiere is scheduled for spring 2019 by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Th e work will be long – 63 minutes – but the move-ments can also be performed as independent symphonic poems. Aho will be 70 years old on 9 March 2019. Gramophone magazine raved in 2013 that Aho has a strong claim to the title of greatest living symphonist.

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Rehnqvist and Staern awarded Th e Swedish Music Publishers’ Honorary Award 2017 has been awarded to Karin Rehnqvist for her signifi cant achievements in Swedish and interna-tional musical life. In the jury’s poetical citation she is described as ”the one who connects us with our heritage, our folk music and its singular voices, who fearlessly designs the music of the future with backwards fi gures, and attires it in just as much blinding light as smarting darkness”.

Also Benjamin Staern was awarded by the Swedish MPA for his Air-Spi-ral-Light, a concerto for guitar, seven instruments and electronics, in which he “mixes airy and quick sections and with his full-bodied art of orchestration paints in numerous colours”. Norrbotten NEO, guitar soloist Jacob Keller-mann and conductor Christian Karlsen will bring the work on tour of Swe-den and to the NJORD Biennale in Copenhagen in January.

50th anniversary of Pettersson’s 7thDaniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Or-chestra are observing the 50th anniversary of Allan Pet-tersson’s legendary Symphony No. 7 with two performanc-es on 1 and 2 December in Stockholm. On 10 June next year Pettersson’s Seventh will be performed for the fi rst time in Musikverein Vienna during the Norrköping Sym-phony Orchestra’s tour together with Christian Lindberg.

Profi le of Matthew WhittallAlba Records has released a disc of music by Mat-thew Whittall featuring Northlands for horn and strings, ad puram annihilationem meam for choir and narrator, and Th e return of light for choir and orchestra. Th e orchestras are the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Helsinki Chamber Choir sings the choral parts. Th e disc has already had an enthusiastic reception. Canadi-an-born Matthew Whittall is a an exciting composer name in Finland. His recent piano concerto Nameless Seas was premiered in Ottawa on 5 October, with Angela Hew-itt as the soloist. Risto-Matti Marin was the soloist in the Finnish premiere in November (see: Reviews).

Finland 100 jubileeFinland’s fi rst centu-ry as an independent republic has been celebrated this year in numerous musical

events and is gathering strength as 2017 draws to a close. Scheduled for Inde-pendence Day, December 6, are a record number of concerts, a lot of Finnish mu-sic, premieres of commissions and other highlights. Among them will be Uniin asti (Until the Dreams), a work by Lotta Wennäkoski for orchestra and male choir and Crossroads for orchestra by Tapio Tuomela (see: Premieres).

Lotta Wennäkoski, Rumon Gamba and Petri Kumela at the premiere of Wen-näkoski’s Guitar Concerto (See: Reviews)

MATTHEW WHITTALLLauantaisauna for mixed choir Sibelius Academy Choir/Jani Sivén2.12. Helsinki, Finland

Voice of the hidden waterfallHarri Mäki, clarinet, Irina Zahharenkova, piano 20.12. Helsinki, Finland

MIKKO HEINIÖAmen for male choirLaulu-Miehet/Matti Hyökki, 3.12. Helsinki, Finland

LOTTA WENNÄKOSKIUniin asti (Until the Dreams) for male choir and orchestra Finnish RSO, Polytech Choir/Hannu Lintu6.12. Helsinki, Finland

Foliage for cello and orchestraTurku PO/Klaus Mäkelä, sol. fi nalists of the Turku Cello Competition22.-23.2. Turku, Finland

TAPIO TUOMELACrossroads Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk, 6.12. Lahti, Finland

JONAS VALFRIDSSONSvanhamnen for bassoon and stringsMusica Vitae, sol. Sebastian Stevensson, bassoon 11.1. Växjö, Sweden

ROLF MARTINSSONShimmering Islands for orchestraKristiansand SO/Eivind Aadland 18.1. Kristiansand, Norway

TUOMAS TURRIAGOPer AsperaPekko Pulakka, violin, Elina Sipilä, cello, Jarmo Hyväkkö, clarinet, Tuomas Turriago, piano, 28.1. Tampere, Finland

OLLI KORTEKANGASVeljeni vartija (My Brother’s Keeper)Tampere Opera, Tampere PO/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, sol. Tuuli Takala, Ville Rusanen, Tuomas Katajala, Virpi Räisänen etc., 16.2. Tampere, Finland

MATS LARSSON GOTHEIn modo lidico (Ein Heiliger Dankgesang) for string quartetUppsala Chamber Soloists, 25.2. Uppsala, Sweden

FREDRIK HÖGBERGAbsent Illusions – A Hunt for the Eluded Muses for violin/viola and orchestraDüsseldorf SO/Alexandre Bloch, sol. Isabel van Keulen 16.3. Düsseldorf, Germany

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