Category: News

The 35th Summer Sounds festival of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra is to be postponed for one year to 2021, when it will be held in Porvoo from June 30 to July 4. The decision was made by the Avanti! Board at its meeting on Monday, April 27.

“It’s a regrettable situation for everyone,” says the orchestra’s Acting Executive Director Jussi Rauvola. “Although some of the Summer Sounds events will not exceed the limit of 500 participants imposed by the Finnish government, postponing the entire festival is, in the present circumstances, the most responsible course of action in order to ensure the health and safety of both audience and performers.”

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, Summer Sounds will not therefore be held in 2020, but there will still be a chance to enjoy music in this exceptional summer. Avanti! will be announcing this summer’s alternative programme and its execution over the next two months. Again, it will be strictly observing all the official orders and directions.

The programme for the 2021 festival will be planned by Austrian composer-singer-conductor HK Gruber, with a varied menu that includes works by Austrian postmodernists, Finnish premieres and other seldom-heard gems of contemporary music. Gruber will be appearing in person at the festival, in the triple role of composer, conductor and vocalist.

The names of the other visiting soloists and conductors for the 2021 Summer Sounds festival will be announced and tickets will go on sale in autumn 2020.

XXXIII SUMMER MUSIC – SOMMARMUSIK – SUMMER SOUNDS 27.6.-1.7.2018

Tickets: Tickets on sale

KESKIVIIKKO/ Onsdag/Wednesday 27.6.

19.00 Pernajan kirkko/Pernå kyrka/Pernaja Church

In Agricola’s home turf

Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano/soprano/soprano

Jukka Rautasalo, treble viol and leading/diskantgamba och musikledning/Treble viol and leading

Anthony Marini, tenor viola/tenor viola/tenor viol

Louna Hosia, bass viol and bowed lyre/basgamba och stråkharpa/Bass viol and Karelian bowed lyre

Ilkka Heinonen, horn and violone/stråkharpa och violone/Karelian bowed lyre and violone

Matias Häkkinen, harpsichord and organ/cembalo och orgel/harpsichord and organ

 

 

Programme/programme:

Feodor Pratsu/Lauri Pulakka: Song

Piae cantiones:

In vernali tempore

Sum in aliena provincia

Simon Lohet: Fuga seconda

Ludwig Senfl:

In May you can hear the Hanen kreen

Carmen in la

I feel like going to the Musica

Johannes Brahms: Of a noble kind

Ludwig Senfl:

Oh, Elslein

It sits before the forest

Olli Virtaperko:

Ananiaan’s Complaint (From the Land Satisfaction series to the Discordant Gambas)

Reposen Heikki’s jig (from the Folk Music Gambaa series)

The Gods of Hämälä for soprano and gambaconsort (Mikael Agricola) Wed, commissioned by Jukka Rautasalo

Heinrich Isaac: Innsbruck I must leave you

Balthasar Resinarius: Ise meiden (Mikael Agricola)

Johann Walter: Lasche now thy servant (Mikael Agricola)

Melchior Franck: For Him No is God (by Mikael Agricola)

Balthasar Resinarius: Come, Holy Spirit of the Lord (Mikael Agricola)

Martti Luther/Johann Walter: Wår Gudh Är oss een wäldigh borgh

Feodor Pratsu: Exile

Trad./Feodor Pratšu:

Kakkunashi/Omnis mundus jucundetur

Parvulus nobis nascitur/Jacques Obrecht: Rompeltier

Piae Cantiones:

Personent hodie

Gaudete

Puer natus in Bethlehem

The concert lasts about 2,5 h, with an intermission. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 32/27/15 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

TORSTAI/Torsdag/Thursday 28.6.

19.00 Avanti Hall /Avanti-salen/Avanti Hall

Like a mirror

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor/conductor

Eero Saunamäki, recorder/block flute/recorder

 

Programme:

J.S. Bach-A. Webern: Ricercare

Magnus Lindberg: Ritratto

Joonas Kokkonen: …through a mirror…

Tape: Mesolithic flute, 7000 BC.

Jukka Tiensuu: Appo

Johannes Brahms: Meditations on Haydn’s Theme op. 56/a

The concert lasts about 2,5 h, with an intermission. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 39/32/20 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

21.30 Tehdassali/Fabrikssalen/Factory Hall

Bach CCCXXXIII

Matias Häkkinen, harpsichord/harpsichord

Audio tapes/ljudband/audiotapes

 

Programme:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Inventio No 1 in C major BWV 772

Ton de Leeuw: Study

Johann Sebastian Bach: Adagio and Fugue from Sonata for Violin in G minor BWV 1001 (arr. Gustav Leonhardt)

Erkki Kurenniemi: Inventory/Outventory

Johann Sebastian Bach: Inventio No 15 in B minor BWV 786

Juhani Nuorvala: Enharmonic series

Concert duration approx. 1 h, no intermission. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 30/25/15 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

FRIDAY/Friday 29.6.


12.00 Cathedral/Domkyrkan/Porvoo Cathedral

A summer song rises from the ashes

 

Programme:

Jukka Tiensuu: Festival fanfare 2018

Michel Corrette: Le Phenix

Hugh Le Caine: Dripsody

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Meeting

C.Ph.E. Bach: Trio Sonata in E major, H. 580, Wq 162

Duration of the concert approx. 1 h. Free entry/ Fri entré/ Free entry

15.00 Little Church/Lilla kyrkan/The Little Church

Composition workshop

Programme:

Sipoon Music Technology Group*: Random, ke./uruppf./fp

Erika and Iris Härö: Suite for String Quintet in E minor, ke./uruppf./fp

Composition Workshop 2018: new works

* Pihla Junnila, Daniel Kuivalainen, Elviira Lehtonen, Daniel Pesonen

Duration of the concert approx. 1 h. Free entry/ Fri entré/ Free entry

18.00 Cathedral/Domkyrkan/Porvoo Cathedral

Poem

Sakari Oramo, conductor/conductor

Jean Schwiller, cello/cello (wax roll recording Edison Blue Amberol: 23016, 1910)

Marko Ylönen, cello/cello

 

Programme:

Usko Meriläinen: Concerto per 13

Auguste van Biene: The Broken Melody

Erkki Salmenhaara: Poem

Dmitri Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony op. 110a

Concert duration approx. 1 h. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 30/25/15 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges). Joint ticket for Poema and Sacred Concerts 50/45/25 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

19.30 Cathedral/Domkyrkan/Porvoo Cathedral

Sacred Concerts

Anu Komsi, soprano/soprano/soprano

Marzi Nyman, organ/organ/organ

 

Programme:

Duke Ellington: Sacred Concerts

Concert duration approx. 1 h. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 30/25/15 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges). Joint ticket for Poema and Sacred Concerts 50/45/25 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

LAUANTAI/Lördag/Saturday 30.6.

12.00 Tehdassali/Fabrikssalen/Factory hall

Original air date on

Eriikka Maalismaa, violin/violin

Frank Skog, statement/recitering/reciting

 

Jarkko Hartikainen: EMBODIED, Wed. Eriikka Maalismaa commissioned/uruppf./fp. Eriikka Maalismaa/beställning/commission

Bohuslav Martinů: Promenades

Georg Philipp Telemann: Ancient and modern peoples/J.L.Runeberg: Vårt land

Duration of the concert approx. 1 h. Free entry/ Fri entré/ Free entry

13.00 Avanti Hall/Avanti Hall/Avanti Hall

Young soloists – old music

Emmi Vesterinen, piano

Ilona Liiman, piano

Singers from Cantores Minores choir/sångare från Cantores Minores/singers from the Cantores Minores Choir

 

Programme/programme:

Leoš Janáček: Mládí

Karlheinz Stockhausen:Song of the younglings

Johann Sebastian Bach: Magnificat: Suscepit Israel BWV 243

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat major K 595

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Nocturne op. 24

Concert duration approx. 1,5 h. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 30/27/15 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

18.00 Avanti Hall/Avanti Hall/Avanti Hall

O dröm

Anu Komsi, soprano/soprano/soprano

Frank Skog, statement/recitering/reciting

Kari Kriikku, basset clarinet/basset clarinet

Eero Manninen, piano

Sakari Oramo, violin/violin

Jukka Rautasalo, cello/cello

Avanti! quartet/Avanti! Quartet/Avanti! Quartet

 

Programme:

W.A.Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major K.581

Jean Sibelius: Melodram ur Svartsjukans nätter, JS 125

Heinz-Juhani Hoffmann: Four songs to texts by Jussi Kylätasku Wed, commissioned by Anu Koms/urppf./fp. Anu Komsi/beställning/commission

Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 2 op.10

Concert duration approx. 2 h, with an intermission. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 32/27/15 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

SUNDAY/Sunday 1.7.

12.00 Factory hall/Fabrikssalen/Factory Hall

Children’s concert

József Hárs, conductor

Petri Bäckström, tenor/tenor

Krista Jäänsola, violin/violin

Sampo Lassila, double bass/contrabass/double bass

Programme:

Clara Clara, Jazz Whisky and a lost common tune

Lotta Wennäkoski: Spotted spider mice

Concert duration approx. 1 h. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 15 €, family ticket/Familj-biljetten (4 persons/personer/persons) 50 €. (+ Lippupiste delivery charges)

18.00 Avanti Hall/Avanti-salen/Avanti Hall

Final concert

Sakari Oramo, conductor/conductor

Anu Komsi, soprano /soprano/soprano

Ilkka Heinonen, horn/stråkharpa/Karelian bowed lyre

Marko Ylönen, cello/cello

 

Programme:

Iánnis Xenákis: Orient occident

Jouni Hirvelä: The mountain

Pehr-Henrik Nordgren: HATE – LOVE for cello and string orchestra op. 71

Claude Vivier: Bouchara

Trad./Feodor Pratšu: Trepatška

Jean Sibelius: Luonnotar op. 70

Robert Schumann: Sinfonia no 2 C op. 61

The concert lasts about 3 hours, with 2 intermissions. Tickets/biljetter/tickets 39/32/20 € (+ Lippupiste delivery charges).

 

This year’s Summer Sounds will see Avanti! Launched last year to great success, the concerts are intimate and accessible titbits from the festival programme. 100% Avanti! quality easily accessible to all Porvoo city-dwellers! Some picks from this year’s free programme include Polish sung poetry by duo Agata Zubel-Joonas Ahonen, the energetic and intense trio Süle-Lahti-Nikula, and the fruits of young composers’ labour, prepared at the festival workshops. The free concerts will take place at the Art Factory, The Little Church, Cultural House Grand and Haaga-Helia. Check all the free concerts here and the whole festival programme here.

 

XXXII Edition of Avanti’s Summer Sounds:“Chantefables – Songs and Sagas”
Wed 28 Jun – Sun 2 Jul, Porvoo and Loviisa

Sonatas, juggling, free concerts and criticism of consumerism – Avanti’s Summer Sounds 2017 offer all this and a lot more!

Avanti’s 32nd Summer Sounds Festival will be spanning five days in late June and early July. An already-traditional head start on the festival will be made on 28 June at Pernaja Church, while the rest of the festival concerts take place in Porvoo on 29 June – 2 July. There will be 14 concerts in total, and the tickets are already available for purchase with some great offers. This year, composer Lotta Wennäkoski coordinates the festival programme.

Programmes Planned by Composer Lotta Wennäkoski

“It has been an absolute joy putting the programme together, not least because I have followed Avanti! as a fan and listener since the 1980s. Later, I had the privilege to collaborate with this unique bunch of artists on a piece of my own, and now it happens that I am in charge of a whole festival programme,” says composer Lotta Wennäkoski, the Artistic Director of this year’s Summer Sounds.

“To me, Avanti! has always stood for supreme skill, high artistic quality, explosive energy and fearless impulsiveness. Versatility and multiformity have always gone hand in hand with these elements, and I think that it has been especially at the Summer Sounds where Avanti! has always come to the fore at their most daring. This year, we will travel from the late Renaissance to today – a temporal journey of 400 years! – Welcome to the world of butterflies, crickets, songs and stories that open to a variety of dimensions,” Wennäkoski describes.

Lotta Wennäkoski was the artistic co-ordinator of The Tampere Biennale Festival in 2008-2010 and the composer-in-residence for Tapiola Sinfonietta during the season 2010-2011. Her music has been performed widely in Finnish and international concert halls and festivals, including The Helsinki Festival, Musica Nova, Märzmusik Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and The Other Minds Festival. She has also composed a number of commissioned works for the likes of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Versatile and Multiform

This year’s programme comes not only in different styles but in different shapes as well: in addition to more conventional solo instruments, Avanti! will be fronted by some more unusual soloists – including a juggler and a Foley artist. Perhaps the most notable names to join the orchestra this summer are Polish soprano composer Agata Zubel and Kersten McCall, German flutist for the prestigious Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The whole programme is now available on www.avantimusic.fi/en/suvisoiton-ohjelma-2/.

The festival will start on Wednesday 28 June at the atmospheric Pernaja Church, a perfect venue for intimate chamber music. In addition to Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, three contemporary pieces will be heard in the concert – all in arrangements by Avanti! Quartet and John Storgårds.

The opening concert at Porvoo Art Factory’s Avanti Hall on Thursday 29 June will witness the collision of “the screeching and squirming” violin concerto, written by Agata Zubel and interpreted by John Storgårds, and the percussive thunder of the orchestra. Composer Ville Raasakka‘s anti-consumerist“Hypermarket and Hypercommodity” is a concerto for material items, piano and chamber orchestra. Targeting hyperconsumerism, the piece draws sonic elements from the various material items used in transporting, packing and purchasing goods, such as plastic bags, shopping baskets and banknotes. Pianist Emil Holmström will be the soloist. The other half of the concert is composed of György Ligeti’s“Ramifications“, a classic of micropolyphony, and Stravinsky’s“Pulcinella Suite“, a fresh expedition into love, respect and the past. Avanti! will be conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk.

The festival Thursday will close at the Factory Hall of the Porvoo Art Factory. In a late-night piano recital, Joonas Ahonen will focus on American music through both intense and meditative examples.

What will happen when Avanti!, conducted by John Storgård, will be joined by a soprano, a juggler and a sound-magician? That we will find out on Friday 30 June at the Porvoo Art Factory. Georges Aperghis‘s“La Nuit en tête” is a brooding nocturne for soprano Agata Zubel and chamber orchestra, while“Jong” by Lotta Wennäkoski limelights juggler Sakari Männistö as a soloist. The concert will also see a premiere from Sami Klemola with Foley artist Heikki Kossi fronting Avanti! Kossi is a sound wizard who specialises in conjuring up sounds of footsteps and creaking doors for film.

The Friday night will be finished off with folk sounds at restaurant Zum Beispiel. The Artistic Director Lotta Wennäkoski, who proclaims herself a friend of Hungarian folk music, will host the evening and has also promised to grab her violin and take the stage.

On Saturday 1 July, the Cultural House Grand will host a children’s concert with Mimmit – an irrepressible orchestra led by two siblings and known from children’s TV. A medley of music, dance and visual elements, this concert has a 100% feel-good guarantee.

Composer-soprano Agata Zubel is both the star and the originator of the piece“Not I”. Inspired by a Samuel Becket monologue and opening the festival Saturday at the Avanti Hall, the composition stages a struggle with the self with its writer tossing and turning both as a singer and a mouthpiece of Becket’s words.“Soie” by Wennäkoski is a flute concerto that draws its textures – sometimes as soft as silk, sometimes as coarse as linen – from the world of textiles. Flutist Kersten McCall will be heard as a soloist.

Saturday evening sees singer Emma Salokoski tackle Eva Dahlgren songs from album“Jag vill se min älskade komma från det vilda” – Dahlgren’s 1995 collaborative work with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, arranger Anders Hillborg and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. A number of Salokoski’s own pieces will also be heard in Finnish orchestral arrangements. The concert will be conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing.

The final concert, conducted by John Storgårds, will be held at the Porvoo Art Factory on 2 July. In Tristan Murail‘s“L’esprit des dunes“, electronical winds sweep through the Gobi Desert and the Tibetan mountains. Lotta Wennäkoski’s“Verdigris“, written in honour of Jean Sibelius’s 150th anniversary, nods to the great composer’s symphonic poem“En saga (A Fairytale)“. The cherry on the cake will be Symphony no. 4 by Brahms.

Free Urban Concerts for Everyone

This year’s Summer Sounds will see Avanti! Launched last year to great success, the concerts are intimate and accessible titbits from the festival programme. 100% Avanti! quality easily accessible to all Porvoo city-dwellers! Some picks from this year’s free programme include Polish sung poetry by duo Agata Zubel-Joonas Ahonen, the energetic and intense trio Süle-Lahti-Nikula, and the fruits of young composers’ labour, prepared at the festival workshops. The free concerts will take place at the Art Factory, The Little Church, Cultural House Grand and Haaga-Helia.

Born in 1986? Welcome to the Festival for Free!

Founded in 1986, the Summer Sounds Festival invites everyone born the same year (1986) to the festival for free.
“We want to offer people living the hectic life of a thirty-something a free moment from the hamster wheel. If you were born in 1986 you will receive a free ticket to a concert of your choice by sending an email to our office, [email protected],” encourages Maati Rehor, Avanti’s Executive Director.

For early birds, tickets to Porvoo Art Factory concerts are available at a 32% discount until 20 March. Use code AIKALAISET at Lippupiste ticket shops.

Further information on the campaign at www.avantimusic.fi/tickets

Tickets sales start on 14 Feb

More info on www.avantimusic.fi/tickets. Tickets available online at www.lippu.fi.

 

Festival buses

Festival buses run from Helsinki straight to Porvoo Art Factory and back. More info on www.avantimusic.fi/en/festaribussi-2/

 

Chamber Orchestra Avanti!

Formed in 1983, Chamber Orchestra Avanti! is the brainchild of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, flutist Olli Pohjola and conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Since the beginning, Avanti!’s core philosophy has been aiming at an outstanding artistic level in an outstanding company. Open-minded and open-armed, Avanti! has, over the years, performed music that would never have reached Finnish concert halls under other circumstances. The orchestra’s Artistic Director is clarinettist Kari Kriikku.

Avanti! offers music to the broad-minded and takes the listener to new spheres: what used to sound familiar soon sounds fresh and new; what at first sounded new now sounds uncannily familiar. Avanti! moves across musical periods and genres in different incarnations, always as devoted to artistic quality.

Summer Sounds

Avanti’s annual Summer Sounds Festival was founded in 1986. The festival offers a cross-section in the orchestra’s role: in the centre of the festival is, of course, Avanti! itself in different line-ups. Even though there is perhaps some emphasis on new music, Baroque music will be heard alongside premiering pieces. The city of Porvoo has also forged an intimate connection with the festival. Over the years, the festival has seen a number of prestigious Artistic Directors from violinist Pekka Kuusisto to conductor Hannu Lintu and composer Kaija Saariaho. The festival is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the City of Porvoo and The Finnish Cultural Foundation.

 

In spring 2017, Chamber Orchestra Avanti! treats the audience to a colourful selection of classical and contemporary music – without forgetting choice Baroque-era hits. The highlight of the season will be concert Kevään lumous (The Spell of Spring), with the dramatic soprano Karita Mattila dazzling in the lead. A premiere of a new orchestral piece by Lauri Kilpiö will open the concert.

Avanti!’s spring season comprises three concerts: in February Avanti! caps the festival Musica Nova by paying homage to György Ligeti; March will see the orchestra revisit the acclaimed concert Rite at Porvoo Cathedral; and the season will be wrapped up in May by casting the Spell of Spring.

 

The Spell of Spring

 

On the last Saturday of May, Helsinki Music Centre will play host to Avanti!’s anticipated end-of-season concert with the brilliant Karita Mattila. Mattila was catapulted to international attention in 1983 when she won the singing contest Cardiff Singer of the World. As chance would have it, Avanti! was founded the same year, and now the paths of these two veritable phenomena of Finnish music cross again with love and its many hues – longing, romance and joy – being unleashed in the late May evening.

The concert will open with the premiere of a new orchestral work by composer Lauri Kilpiö, one of the most interesting voices of his generation. The piece has been commissioned by Pro Musica Foundation, which also supports the concert.

The pieces to be performed by Mattila portray the feelings of love and longing in the lightness of spring. French composer Henri Duparc’s songs are filled with elegant saudade and sensuality. The damsel in Jean Sibelius’s song “Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte” falls victim to an infidel lover. In Rydberg’s “På verandan vid havet” the pregnant silence expresses omnipresent longing, whereas in “Våren flyktar hastigt” by Runeberg the mere memory of spring encourages to love.

Contentment of the heart shines through Robert Schumann’s symphony “Spring”, too: for the that time newly-wedded composer the season is swarming with tokens of romance.

Conductor Olari Elts.

NOTE: The concert program has changed. The information is updated on Jan 23rd 2017.

Opening the Season in the Spirit of Ligeti

The first concert of the season will spotlight Hungarian-born avant-garde composer György Ligeti and his musical heritage. The public will remember Ligeti’s music especially from the Stanley Kubrick films 2001: Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. The concert In the Spirit of Ligeti closes the festival Musica Nova and delves into the pervasive Ligetiian influence in the works of his son and major students.

Lukas Ligeti’s piece “Curtain” marries European modernism and African rhythms. Inspired by visual arts, the piece applies the technique of layering to music in a way that justifies comparisons to animation artist William Kentdrige. Ligeti paints on the melodic and harmonic canvas provided by the string quartet, creating an intriguing tension between the quartet and the larger ensemble.

“Thall” (Mask), the last part of Unsuk Chin’s cosmigimmicks, is a tribute to György Ligeti. In the centre of this musical pantomime is the guitar. Using only of a few repetitive microtones, the guitar plays a pseudo melody that changes according to the harmonies of other instruments – just like the expression on a mime artist’s face.

Benedict Mason, another important student of Ligeti’s, too, nods to his mentor in his piece “Hinterstoissener traverse”. By restricting itself to the use of only one note, g, this extremely minimalistic piece manages to direct its attention fully to the exploration of rhythm and dynamic.

The concert is a part of the festival Musica Nova and it will be conducted by Clement Power.

 

Avanti! Revisits the acclaimed Rite at Porvoo Cathedral

First performed in Helsinki’s Temppeliaukio church in April 2016, the much-lauded concert phenomenon Riitti (Rite) returns this spring. This time, Avanti! takes the theme concert to the atmospheric Porvoo Cathedral on 14 March. Rite brings together old and new music and takes advantage of the solemn space and peculiar acoustics of the church milieu.

Of well-known Baroque-era names the programme includes Henry Purcell’s “The Queen’s Funeral March” and Marin Marais’s piece “Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont de Paris”, familiar from the biopic All the Mornings of the World.

Here the title “rite” does not only refer to and describe the programme but the form of the whole concert, as well. From to the flamboyance of the Baroque and its well-known pearls, the concert takes us to the futuristic atmospheres of the 1900s, along with a number of rarely performed pieces from the 1950s. Rite will culminate in concerto “Tarinaoopperabaletti” (Story Opera Ballet) for electronic cello, commissioned from Jukka Tiensuu by soloist Juho Laitinen.

The concert is a part of the concert series Taidetehtaan Klassikot and it will be conducted by Lauri Ahokas.