Summer Music online concerts

“Freaky music” themed Suvisoitto XXXVI kicks off next week in Porvoo! After a long wait, it will be possible to listen to the fantastic HK Gruber-designed festival programme live at the concert venues. Avanti! wants to bring the festival atmosphere to home auditoriums as well.

We broadcast live online concerts on YouTube:

  • Thursday 1.7. at 19, Frankenstein!! concert
    • HK Gruber, conductor & chansonnier
    • Eriikka Maalismaa, violin
    • Programme:
      Bernd Richard Deutsch: Dr. Futurity
      Jouni Hirvelä: Rakka (premiere)
      media
      HK Gruber: Frankenstein!! Pan-demonium for singer and orchestra to poems by H. C. Artmann

You can watch the concert here:

  • Sunday 4.7. at 18, Closing concert
    • John Storgårds, conductor
    • HK Gruber, baritone
    • Pipoka Trio:
      Veli Kujala, accordion
      Jarmo Julkunen, guitar & banjo
      Petri Keskitalo, tuba
    • Programme:
      Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 27
      Markus Fagerudd: Stream & River Motion
      väliaika
      HK Gruber: Manhattan Broadcasts
      Kurt Schwertsik: Starckdeutsche Lieder und Tänze

Links to the webcasts will be published in this newsletter and on the individual concert pages.

Welcome to join us!

More tickets to Suvisoittoon – Mera biljetter till Sommarmusik

The audience capacity for all Avant Garda Summer Festival concerts has been increased thanks to the favourable situation. More tickets will go on sale tomorrow Friday 18.6. at 12 noon In the Lippupiste online store.

Please note that we will continue to follow the general guidelines on safety distances and hygiene. We recommend the use of a face mask.

* We have managed to increase the audience capacity of the concerts and more tickets will be on sale on friday 18.6 kl. 12. For sale via Lippupistes webbutik.

Please note that we follow the general instructions on safety and hygiene. Vi rekommenderar att använda munskydd.

AUF orchestras together again in a concert conducted by Taavi Oramo

The capital’s independent orchestras Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) will join forces again in an AUF collaboration. The September concert “Music for All – Three Orchestras Together Again” will break boundaries but combine different eras and styles. Together and separately, the orchestras will play works that combine old and new, light and serious. The concert will be conducted by Taavi Oramo, a multi-instrumentalist.

The crowning glory of the concert will be Sampo Kasurinen’s new premiere work, tailored for the AUF orchestras’ unique line-up. The composer promises a work that incorporates influences from jazz music, the baroque tradition and contemporary music: “My aim is to find a compositional whole that would bring the orchestras together rather than create stylistic contrasts.”

Baroque and jazz also collide in Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Alongside original versions performed by the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, you can hear how Baroque dances are turned into jazz by UMO Helsinki. The jazz arrangements are by Austrian composer Ursula Reicher.

The Avanti! quartet will take up Helena Winkelman’s string quartet Papa Haydn’s Parrot, which explores the themes of Haydn’s “Bird” quartet from an original and contemporary perspective. The musicians, drawn together from the ranks of the AUF orchestras, will also perform Arvo Pärt’s enchanting composition Fratres and Michael Torke’s Adjustable Wrench, in which instrumental combinations and energy are adjusted as if by turning a wrench.

“Music for All – Three Orchestras Together Again” in the Concert Hall of the Helsinki Music Centre on Tuesday 14 September at 19.00. Tickets go on sale on 16 June at 9.00 with limited quantities subject to security and safety at: https://www.ticketmaster.fi/event/295483

Chamber Orchestra Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO), AUF Orchestras have been collaborating since 2017.

 

AUF Day concert Accordion Expanded postponed to September

Veli Kujala

Avant’s Accordion Expanded concert is postponed to September. The new date is 23.9.2021 at 13.00. Tickets already purchased (for the previous concert on 10.6.) are automatically transferred to the new concert date. If the new concert date is not suitable, tickets can be returned until 30.6.2021, and returns will be handled by Ticketmaster. Instructions for returning tickets can be found here. All ticket purchasers who have provided their email address at the time of purchase have also been sent an email with instructions.

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Chamber orchestra Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) continue their AUF collaboration with a series of day concerts in the Paavo Hall of the Helsinki Music Centre. The Avant Accordion Expanded concert will take place on 23.9.2021 at 13.00.

The concert will feature works in which the accordion plays many roles, performed by the Avant String Quartet and accordionist Veli Kujala.

Adios Nonino, one of the most famous works by Astor Piazzolla, who celebrated his 100th birthday in March, will open the programme of concerts spanning eras and genres. Piazzolla composed the piece as a funeral piece for his father in 1959. Adios Nonino is written for bandoneon, as is Lotta Wennäkoski’s Amorti, the accordion version of which will be premiered at the concert.

Contemporary works include Hans Abrahamsen’s Nocturnes, the fourth movement of Wolfgang Rihm’s “patchwork” series Fetzen 4 and Georg Katzer’s snappy duo SaitenZungenspiel. Veli Kujala’s own composition, MiXi, is scored for harmonica and string quartet. The work will be performed as the closing number of the concert.

Antonín Dvořák’s bagatelles weld the concert programme together. The harmonic parts of the bagatelles will be played on the accordion, which belongs to the same family of free-form keyboard instruments as the harmonica.

The concert will be seated in a secure queue, tickets will be sold as non-numbered tickets and only a limited number of tickets will be available. To see the concert programme and buy tickets, please visit: https://musiikkitalo.fi/tapahtumat/auf-avanti-accordion-expanded/

The Music Hall group sales office is open Mon-Fri 10-14 on tel. 020 707 0426 and by email [email protected].

Avanti! conducted by Tuomas Hannikainen resurrects Sibelius work dormant for 120 years

A Concert Overture discovered among the manuscripts of works by Finland’s national composer Jean Sibelius has been premiered after a wait of 120 years. A piece referred to in the press as the overture to his opera The Maiden in the Tower was first heard at the Turku Fire Brigade Hall on 7 April 1900, with the composer himself conducting, and it was soon forgotten.

Conductor and Sibelius expert Tuomas Hannikainen found the 12-minute work among the collection of Sibelius manuscripts. It is, he says, “based on the music for Sibelius’s stage work The Maiden in the Tower and was, as it were, hiding among the original parts for this. The characteristic ingenuousness and optimism do therefore not come as a surprise.”

Now, more than 120 years later, the Concert Overture has been woken from its enchanted slumber, edited by Hannikainen and published. A remarkable composition, it has been slotted into the Masked Musicians concert reflecting the Covid era. Avanti! is also performing Sibelius’s melodrama The Countess’s Portrait and movements from the incidental music to Belshazzar’s Feast.

The well-known short story The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe has inspired artists from the visual arts to music. One example is the tone poem Conte Fantastique by the French composer André Caplet now to be heard in an arrangement for narrator, harp (played by Laura Hynninen) and string orchestra.

Conductor Tuomas Hannikainen has masterminded a production combining music, theatre and heraldic art, the texts to be narrated by actor Timo Torikka.

“The ongoing social isolation has set me wondering what purpose the arts might serve in the new world order,” says Conductor Hannikainen. “How can we use classical music, living so strongly in tradition, to mirror the present times and to draw creative strength from contemporary phenomena? Masked Musicians is one attempt to answer such questions.”

Click here for the recording of the sound broadcast on Yle Radio 1.

A video recording of the concert will be posted on the orchestra’s YouTube channel at 19:00 on 30 May. To watch the recording of Sibelius’s Concert Overture click here or watch below.

Avanti! brings to life a work by Sibelius that was forgotten for 120 years

The Concert Concerto, found in the manuscripts of our national composer Jean Sibelius, will be premiered after 120 years. The orchestral piece, referred to in the newspapers as the “Neito tornissa” (Maiden in the Tower), was premiered at the Turku Fire Brigade Hall on 7 April 1900 by the composer himself, after which it was soon forgotten.

Conductor and Sibelius scholar Tuomas Hannikainen found this 12-minute composition in Sibelius’ manuscript collection. According to Hannikainen, “the work is based on the music of Sibelius’s stage work Jungfrun i tornet and was found hidden, as it were, in its original scores. Against this background, the original innocence and lightness of the work are not surprising”.

Now, more than 120 years later, Hannikainen’s edited Concert Concerto is awakened from its Sleeping Beauty sleep and made part of Sibelius’s published output. The unique work is woven into a performance of Masked Musicians, reflecting the Corona period, recorded in the majestic Knights “Hall without an audience. Avanti! will perform Sibelius” works in addition to the Concert Concerto, the melodrama Portrait of the Countess and parts of the music for the play The Feasts of Belshazzar.

Edgar Allan Poe’s famous short story The Masque of the Red Death, about a desperate escape from a plague to a knight’s castle, has inspired artists from visual arts to music. These include French composer André Caplet‘s poem Conte Fantastique, which will be heard arranged for narrator, harp and string orchestra. The harp part will be played by Laura Hynninen.

Conductor Tuomas Hannikainen has designed, arranged, directed and dramatised an ensemble that combines music, theatre and coat of arms. The texts are interpreted by actor Timo Torikka.

“The period of social isolation has made me wonder what the role of art could be in the new world. How can we use classical music, so strongly rooted in tradition, to mirror our own time and draw creativity from the phenomena of our time?” says conductor Hannikainen. “Masked Musicians is one attempt to answer such questions.”

The radio broadcast was heard on Wednesday 26 May at 19:00 on Radio 1 and on Yle Arena, where it will be available for 30 days. You can watch the video recording of the concert below. A video recording of the entire concert will be available on Sunday 30 May at 19:00 on the orchestra’s YouTube channel.

Summer Concert Series envelops Porvoo

Avanti! is this year greatly multiplying its musical offering in Porvoo with a series of summer concerts in addition to its familiar Summer Sounds festival. This unique concert series will be enveloping the whole town and spreading out into its nearby villages for chamber recitals performed by small ensembles. Summer Sounds tickets will go on sale at 12 noon on Friday May 21, when it will also be possible to book seats for the free concerts.

Players to plan summer concert programmes

Avanti! is this year putting on a unique series of free concerts spread across the town, at manor houses and concert halls and in town squares. Avanti!’s Artistic Director Kari Kriikku promises programmes that are fun, serious, absurd and surprising, each in its planners’ own image. “The keen Avanti! guys have been the driving force behind these concerts. We’re so thrilled to have found such impressive venues for the concerts with the help of our friends in Porvoo.”

The series begins in the first week of June at Bosgård Manor, where promising young Bengi Canatan will be conjuring magical timbres from the harp. The next concert, at the Villa Albert, will be testing the limits of the accordion in the hands of Veli Kujala with the Avanti! Quartet. Finland’s local council elections will also be noted with music on polling day (June 13) as the Duo Matalata welcome voters on tuba and bass clarinet near a couple of polling stations. Also scheduled for June are some French Baroque, and music from the Middle Ages to the present day on various instrumental line-ups.

After the festival, in July, early Baroque hits will be paired with premieres of works by young Finnish composers in Näsimäki Chapel. The programme for July and August will further feature a selection of concerts each creating a world of its own. The summer concert series will culminate at the end of August with a Disklavier spectacle full of surprises.