The trio of designers of the summer concert, long-time Avant-gardists Timo Ahtinen, Hanna Juutilainen and Jukka Rautasalo, have cultivated an Avant-garde approach that covers music from as wide a time span as possible, with old and new running strongly side by side. Pernaja and Porvoo are also present in the choice of works. The subtitle of the festival is Är det här nytt, Avanti? Early Music Summer Play.
From the 1400s to the premières
The traditional summer festival is held in the medieval church of Pernaja. The programme includes music from the 15th century to the present day, most recently three works by Olli Virtaperko, including the premiere of The Gods of Hämälä commissioned by Jukka Rautasalo.
The rich programme commemorates Mikael Agricola (c. 1510-1557), born into a peasant family in Torsby, Pernaja, who was sent from his home village to the Vyborg Latin School in the late 1510s. There he adopted his Latin surname Agricola, meaning farmer. The works in the Pernaja church concert include several of Agricola’s texts.
The official opening concert of the Summer Concert on Thursday 28 June at 19:00 will be conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk. Recorder artist Eero Saunamäki will be the soloist.
The festival fanfare composed by Jukka Tiensuu for this year’s Suvisoito will resound in Porvoo’s Tuomiokirko on Friday at 12.All Friday concerts will be played on the Church Hill, in Tuomiokirko and in Pikkukirko, where compositions by children from Porvoo will be heard. Friday evening will end with Duke Ellington tunes in Tuomiokirko, with Anu Koms and Marzi Nyman.
Saturday’s programme includes two premieres, Jarkko Hartikainen’s EMBODIED for solo violin and Heinz-Juhani Hofmann’s Kylätasku songs. Hartikainen’s work will be played by violinist Eriikka Maalismaa, who also commissioned the work. Jussi Kylätasku, who died in 2005, lived and worked in Porvoo for many years. The song cycle based on his texts was commissioned by soprano Anu Koms.
As always, Suvisoito also has a programme for children. On Sunday 1 July, the Klasariklaara and the Jazz Pisk will be performing at the Art Workshop, along with Lotta Wennäkoski ‘s Spider-Mic, sung by Petri Bäckström. The concert will be conducted by József Hárs.
33. The closing concert of the Summer Concert will include Pehr-Henrik Nordgren’s HATE – LOVE for cello and string orchestra op. 71. Soloist is cellist Marko Ylönen . The opening piece of the concert is Orient occident by Iánnis Xenákis. The other soloists in the concert conducted by Sakari Oramo are string artist Ilkka Heinonen and soprano Anu Komsi.
The programme, performers, ticket prices and festival bus timetable for the Summer Music Festival can be found here.
