Watch the Little Summer Orchestra’s FOG concert conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at 19:00 live from your home sofa.
See the programme here.
ZENG – Lotta Wennäkoski’s 50th anniversary concert
Avanti! celebrates Lotta Wennäkoski’s 50th birthday with a concert of her chamber orchestra works from over the years. During the programme, Wennäkoski herself will also take to the stage to perform Hungarian folk music.
Sat 8.2.2020 at 19.00
ZENG – Lotta Wennäkoski’s 50th anniversary concert
Ballroom G18 (Yrjönkatu 18, Helsinki)
József Hárs, conductor
Virpi Räisänen, mezzo-soprano
Eero Saunamäki, recorder
Heikki Nikula, bass clarinet
Ville Syrjäläinen, percussion
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!
Lotta Wennäkoski:
I stället för vingar (2014-16)
Hele (2018)
Kuule II (2007)
Zeng (2018-19)
and Hungarian folk songs
Tickets:
New collaboration Amos Rex & Avanti! – From notes to canvas 16.11.
The first-ever concert in the exhibition space of the Amos Rex Museum will explore the relationship between paintings and music by artist Birger Carlstedt. The Avant Chamber Orchestra will feature soprano Mari Palo as soloist. The Birger Carlstedt retrospective exhibition opens on 11 October.
The “From notes to canvas” concert is a collaboration between the museum and the Avant Chamber Orchestra. Opening at Amos Rex in October, the exhibition presents Birger Carlstedt (1907-1975), one of the most important pioneers of modern Finnish visual art, for whom Paris in the 1920s and the music of the time were central. Experimenting with Expressionist, Cubist and Surrealist elements, the artist’s musical influences are evident in his works and can be seen in the titles of paintings such as Debussy’s Sunken Cathedral and Ravel’s Noctuelles. Carlstedt was also familiar with the jazz that took over Paris in the early decades of the last century.
Carlstedt married the Danish-born pianist France Ellegaard, known for her interpretations of Chopin, in 1949, a marriage that helped strengthen the link between music and Carlstedt’s art. He brought the Parisian atmosphere to Finland, for example, when he designed the interior of Le Chat Doré, a restaurant owned by his mother on Unionkatu in Helsinki in 1929.
In the Avant Chamber Orchestra concert, fashionable and avant-garde Paris will be played not only by Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky, but also by Jean Barraqué’s electronic Étude and Sidney Bechet’s jazz. A post-jazz American flavour will be added by Buck Ram and The Three Suns inTwilight time. There is also a place for Aarre Merikanto, whose modernism was treated as badly as Carlstedt’s by the domestic media. Avant’s soloist is the multi-talented soprano Mari Palo.
Mari Palo is a versatile singer who takes a down-to-earth approach to everything she does. She started her vocal studies at the Central Ostrobothnia Conservatory and graduated with a Master of Music from the Sibelius Academy.
Mari Palo is a regular guest at productions of Finnish regional operas and free companies and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. As a Lied singer and orchestral soloist, she has performed all over the world. He has been a regular guest at the Finnish National Opera since 1999.
In addition to her full concert calendar, Mari Palo also passes on her knowledge to future colleagues. She works as a singing teacher at Kokkola University of Applied Sciences
Avanti! Rex: From notes to canvas
16.11.2019 at 14.00
Avanti! & soprano Mari Palo
Amos Rex museum Studio Rex
Concert ends at 15.15, no intermission
Tickets: 25€/15€
PROGRAMME:
Frédéric Chopin: Valssi in C sharp minor op. 64 (1847)
Igor Stravinsky: Three pieces for string quartet (1914)
Jean Barraqué: Étude (1954)
Roger Sinclair – Henri Bataille: La Boîte à musique, chanson française (1940)
Igor Stravinsky: Serenata from the ballet Pulcinella (1920)
Maurice Ravel: Noctuelles from the piano suite Miroirs (1905)
Aarre Merikanto: Piano Trio (1917), parts II Andante and III Vivace
Buck Ram, Artie Dunn, Al & Morty Nevins: Twilight time (1944)
Sidney Bechet: Petite fleur (1952)
Claude Debussy: La cathédrale engloutie, 1. Prelude (1910)
Avanti! Classics of All Time concert in Mäntsälä 22.9.2019
Sun 22.9.2019 at 18.00
Mäntsälä Church (Old Porvoontie, Mäntsälä)
Avanti! will play classics from the baroque, romantic, jazz and folk music genres at Mäntsälä Church on 22 September at 6 pm. The concert will conclude with a steak dinner featuring György Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1.
The All Time Classics concert is part of a joint AUF series by Avant, UMO and FiBO, which will be performed in Porvoo, Mäntsälä and Askola during 2019. Top orchestras from different genres will invite listeners to experience a wide range of musical delicacies.
Performers:
Eriikka Maalismaa, violin
Terhi Paldanius, violin
Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma, viola
Mikko Ivars, cello
Kari Kriikku, clarinet
Jouko Laivuori, piano
Programme:
A mix of Beethoven and contemporary music:
Jukka Tiensuu: Tombeau de Beethoven
A romantic classic:
Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-flat major op. 47, Part II:
In moto d’una marchia, un poco largamente
A folk music classic:
Béla Bartók’s duos for two violins and Finnish folk music
A baroque classic:
Carlo Farina: Capriccio stravagante
A jazz classic:
Duke Ellington: Mood Indigo
sov. Seppo Kantonen
A new music classic:
György Ligeti: String Quartet No 1, “Métamorphoses nocturnes ”
Tickets: 15€, children’s ticket 10€ (<18 years)
More information about tickets on the Mäntsälä Cultural Services website.
Avanti! Ensemble BarokkiKuopio 18.7.
On the trail of Agricola
Thu 18.7.2019 at 20.00
Kuopio Cathedral, Vuorikatu 17, Kuopio
A gambajouhiconsort ensemble with virtuoso soprano Tuuli Lindeberg, who will samba the worlds of Avant-garde improvisation to early music, will take us on Agricola’s epic journey to Europe, which brought the Reformation and the translation of the Bible to Finland. The evening’s works have their roots in Reform Germany and the brightest gems of the Piae Cantiones hymnbook.
Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Avanti! Ensemble:
Jukka Rautasalo, tambourine and music direction
Anthony Marini, tenor viola
Louna Hosia, bassogamba
Ilkka Heinonen, violone
Matias Häkkinen, harpsichord
Programme:
Pratsu – Senfl – Brahms – Resinarius – Walter – Franck
Songs from the Piae cantiones collection
The concert is part of the Kuopio Tuomiokirkko parish’s summer concert series.
Free admission, programmes 10/7e at the door 45min before the concert.
More information on the BarokkiKuopio website.
Avanti! Ensemble at the Kemiönsaari Music Festival in July
Avanti! Ensemble will perform at the Kemiönsaari Music Festival in July 2019. Ensemble’s various concert dates. More information about the festival and tickets on the Kemiönsaari Music Festival website.
A MAD SONG
MUSIC FROM 17TH CENTURY LONDON
Fri 12.7.2019
18.00 Café Vivan, Söderlångvik
Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Avanti! Ensemble:
Jukka Rautasalo, gamba & music director
Anthony Marini, violin & tenor viola
Ilkka Heinonen, horn & violone
Matias Häkkinen, harpsichord
William Brade: Satyr’s Dance
John Eccles: I burn, I burn!
Thomas d’Urfey’s play The Comical History of Don Quixote
Olli Virtaperko: Fantasia (2010/16)
Henry Purcell: Bess of Bedlam “From silent shades”Z370
Anon.: Mad Maudlin’s Search for her Tom of Bedlam(aka Bedlam Boys), from the collection Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vol. 4 by melodic variationist Thomas d’Urfey (ed.)
_________________
Robert Johnson: Come away, Hecate (to Thomas Middleton’s play The Witch 1613)
Olli Virtaperko: Reposen Heikki’s jig from the series Folk music gambas (2013)
Trad. Irish ballad: Grim King of the Ghosts (aka The Lunatick Lover)
Johann Christoph Pepusch’s arrangement in an anonymous 17th century sheet music collection
(from the satirical opera The Beggar’s opera?)
__________________
Trad. English ballad: As Oyster Nan Stood by her Tub from the collection Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vol. 5
Trad. finnish: Minä minä poiga nuori (by Ilkka Heinonen)
A. O. Väisänen recorded by Feodor Pratšu, a horn player, in the village of Koirinoja in Impilahti, Ladoga Karelia, summer 1916
Trad. in Irish: My Thing Is My Own (aka Trap, or the Young Lass / Lillibullero), version from the collection Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vol. 4
AT THE TIME OF AGRICOLA
Sat 13.7.2019
20.30 Västanfjärd’s new church
Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Avanti! ensemble:
Jukka Rautasalo, treble viola & music director
Anthony Marini, tenor viola
Louna Hosia, bass viola & horn
Ilkka Heinonen, horn & violone
Matias Häkkinen, harpsichord
Feodor Pratsu / Lauri Pulakka: Song
Ludwig Senfl: In May you can hear the Hanen kreen
Carmen in la
I’ve had a desire to Musica
Johannes Brahms: Of a noble kind WoO34/1
Ludwig Senfl: Ach Elslein
It sits before the forest
Henry Isaac: I must leave you
Balthasar Resinarius: Ise meiden (translated by Mikael Agricola) (Vater unser)
Johann Walter: Lasche now thy servant (with Fried and Freud)
Melchior Franck: Sille Nein on Jumala (Engl. Mikael Agricola) (So God loved the world)
Balthasar Resinarius: Come, God Creator, Holy Spirit (Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist)
Martti Luther / Stephanus Mahu: Wår Gudh Är oss een wäldigh borgh
Trad. / Feodor Pratsu: Kakkunašši / Omnis mundus jucundetur
Parvulus nobis nascitur / Jacques Obrecht: Rompeltier
Piae Cantiones: Personent hodie
Gaudete
Puer natus in Bethlehem
CANDLELIGHT CONCERT
Sat 13.7.2019
~22.00 Västanfjärd old church
Piae cantiones: Sum in aliena provincia & In vernali tempore
Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Ilkka Heinonen, horn player
Gregorio Huwet: Fantasia
Petri Kumela, guitar
Konstantia Gourzi: “Evening at the window” op. 75
Henry Vieuxtemps: Capriccio “Hommage à Paganini” in C minor op. 55
Diyang Mei, viola
Maria Theresia von Paradis: Sicilienne
Diyang Mei, viola
Petri Kumela, guitar
Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
Hanna Juutilainen, flute
Petri Kumela, guitar
Robert Schumann: Mondnacht
Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Petri Kumela, guitar
14.9.2019 Music of All Ages – three orchestras together at the Helsinki Music Centre
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) and soprano Helena Juntunen perform Vivaldi, Ellington and John Adams on 14 September 2019 at the Helsinki Music Centre.
Three top orchestras – Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) – join forces in a unique joint concert with soprano Helena Juntunen. The concert will feature a delicious selection of the best of each orchestra, and the evening will culminate in a joint performance by the versatile musicians of John Adams and a Buster Keaton video installation. You’ve never experienced anything like this before! The concert is part of the AUF collaboration between Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra since autumn 2017.
Composition workshop turns hundred-year-old films into visual music
The composition course Composition Workshop for professional composers is held annually at the same time as Avant’s Summer Music Festival. This year, seven composers from Europe, Asia and America are taking part. The course will be taught by composers Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räisänen.
As an important part of the course, each participant has been given the task of composing a new work during the spring, which will be performed by the chamber orchestra Avanti! at a concert in connection with the Summer Play on Friday 28 June at 16.00 under the baton of conductor József Hárs in the Factory Hall of the Art Factory in Porvoo. The concert is free of charge.
“The task is different every year, but it always aims to force the composers out of their comfort zone and create something they’ve tended to avoid before,” says Jukka Tiensuu, one of the course’s co-teachers. “Through this new kind of challenge, the hope is that composers will discover a new kind of creativity lurking within themselves – to the delight of us all.”
This year’s task was to compose a musical response to an abstract film from a hundred years ago, which itself represents abstract “visual music”. The identity of the films chosen by the students was not revealed, so as not to be influenced by their authors or other historical documentation.
The ideal is for the composition alone to produce an experience similar to that of the original moving image. In the concert, these films will be presented in sync with the musical counterparts created for them.
The first composition course was held in 1987. Over the years the course has been taught by Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen, Jukka Tiensuu, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Tomi Räisänen. The Composition Workshop Association was founded in 2006 to support the organisation of the course.
This year’s participants can be found on the Composition Workshop website.
Composition workshop: fresh sound music for a century of visual music
Time: Friday 28.6.2019 16.00 (free entry)
Place: Tehdassali, Taidetehdas, Porvoo
József Hárs, conductor
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!
Photos from the 2018 Composition Workshop by Heikki Tuuli
Jukka Tiensuu’s Theoton gets its Finnish premiere in Porvoo with sheng virtuoso Wu Wei
The leading sheng virtuoso of our time, Wu Wei, will perform at the opening concert of the Porvoo Summer Festival, which will feature the Finnish premiere of Jukka Tiensuu’s Theoton, a concerto for sheng and orchestra. The concert will be conducted by conductor and artistic director of the festival Baldur Brönnimann.
Jukka Tiensuu’s Teoton was composed for Wu Wei in 2015. The work was premiered in Seoul by Ilan Volkov conducting the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. The work will now be performed for the first time in Finland at the opening concert of the Porvoo Summer Festival on Thursday 27 June 2019 at 19.00 in Avanti Hall. After the concert, we will enjoy improvisations by sound designer and musician Tuomas Norvio and Wu Wei. Avanti! Lounge is free of charge.
Wu Wei will also perform in Pernaja Church on Wednesday 26 June at the concert King Henry VIII meets Emperor Jiajing. The concert will feature songs from 16th and 17th century Europe performed by the Avant gambay ensemble and tenor Taavi Oramo.
The world’s leading sheng master
The sheng is a Chinese or Korean mouth organ made of bamboo, with a sound similar to a harmonica, and belongs to the ancestors of the accordion. According to legend, the sound of the instrument is reminiscent of the cry of a Phoenix bird. Written records of the sheng date back to the 13th century BC.
Sheng has been a player for both the people and the courts. It has been heard at the Beijing Opera and Buddhist ceremonies, as an ensemble and solo instrument. A kind of solemn archaicism characterises the sheng’s character and sound; it is at once a living relic of the past and a strange visitor from the future.
Wu Wei has played a pivotal role in the new role of the sheng as a musical instrument in contemporary Western music. He has premiered over 400 works, including more than 20 concerts. Wu Wei has also composed for his instrument. Wu Wei has brought a new sound to contemporary music that is also thousands of years old. In his hands, the sheng has become a musical instrument that unites East and West, combining traditions.
Programme
Opening concert of the Summer Music Festival: Drakar och danser
Thursday 27.6.2019 at 19.00, Avanti Hall
Johannes Schöllhorn: Anamorphoses, Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugues by
Frank Martin: Petite Symphonie Concertante (Adagio – Allegro con moto – Adagio – Allegretto alla marcia)
Jukka Tiensuu: Theoton, concerto for sheng and orchestra (Fever, Adrift, Game, Bliss)
Tickets and festival bus
Tickets for the summer concert are on sale on Lippupiste’s website www.lippu.fi/avanti and by calling 0600 900 900 (1,98€/min. + pvm). Festival pass enquiries directly from Avant’s office (contact details below). As usual, the festival bus will take you directly from Kiasma to the Art Factory and back after the concert. Bus tickets are also sold by Lippupiste. Bus timetables can be found here.
More information:
Avant’s office, tel. 050 581 0409
Photo by Sanne Donders
American violinist Jennifer Koh to star at Porvoo Summer Music Festival
Violinist Jennifer Koh will be the star of the Porvoo Summer Festival this summer. She will perform György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto at the Avanti Hall concert on Friday 28 June. Composed in 1990, the Violin Concerto is a lyrical work at its core. The harmony is blurred by natural-sounding French horns and four ocarinas reminiscent of flutes, with the addition of two flutes and a wide range of percussion. The result is an intimate but explosive soundscape of chamber music.
Friday’s concert will also feature Richard Strauss’ Introduction to the opera Capriccio and Franz Schreker’s Chamber Symphony for 23 solo instruments. The concert will be conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, conductor and artistic director of the Suvisoitto Festival.
After the concert Avanti! Lounge with Jennifer Koh offers the audience the opportunity to meet the evening’s soloist in the warmth of the Art Factory, as Koh performs solo vocal works by Kaija Saariaho and Missy Mazzoli, among others, before dark. On Saturday 29 June from 14-16, Koh will perform in Porvoo’s cafés, where he will play commissioned solo vocal works in intimate mini-concerts.
An uncompromising interpreter of new music
Jennifer Koh is known as an open-minded and versatile artist and an uncompromising performer of new music. She has premiered over 70 works during her career, with compositions by Kaija Saariaho and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Koh has studied Finnish music extensively and has also recorded Uuno Klam’s Violin Concerto (BIS).
The latest issue of Rondo Classic (5/2019) features a review of the latest Saariaho x Koh album: “American violinist Jennifer Koh, who will be a guest at Porvoo’s Suvisoito next summer, makes the sensual profile of Saariaho’s music glow, at times delicate and at times demonic.” The music of Saariaho, interpreted by Koh, will be enjoyed at Suvisoito.
Tickets and festival bus
Tickets for the summer concert are on sale on Lippupiste’s website www.lippu.fi/avanti and by calling 0600 900 900 (1,98€/min. + pvm). Festival pass enquiries directly from Avant’s office.
As usual, the festival bus will take you from Helsinki to Porvoo and back after the concert. Bus tickets are also sold by Lippupiste.
Photos by Jürgen Frank