Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone at the Helsinki Music Centre

The staged ensemble version of composer Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone will be performed for the first time in Helsinki, at the Helsinki Music Centre’s Concert Hall, at Easter 2020.For audiences who might traditionally head to church and passions at Easter, the work offers an opportunity for a new kind of Easter experience. Through its philosophical ideas, the work will also appeal to a younger audience.

The Paris-based musical theatre group La Chambre aux échos commissioned a chamber orchestra version of La Passion de Simone and premiered it on 14 November 2013 at the Melos-Ethos festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. The production has since travelled to festivals (Saint-Denis, Bergen, Njord, Lublin), New York, Paris, Copenhagen and various opera houses in France.

In addition to La Chambre aux échos, the Finnish chamber orchestra Avanti! The conductor is Saariaho specialist Clément Mao-Takacs. The stage director is Aleksi Barrière.

 

Sun 12.4.2020, at 19:00

Mon 13.4.2020, at 16:00

 

Kaija Saariaho
composition

Amin Maalouf
libretto

Clément Mao-Takacs
conductor

Aleksi Barrière
steering

Chamber Orchestra Avanti!

Sayuri Araida
soprano soloist

Isabelle Seleskovitch
actress

Sandra Darcel (soprano)
vocal quartet

Marianne Seleskovitch (mezzo-soprano)
vocal quartet

Johan Viau (tenor)
vocal quartet

Romain Dayez (bass baritone)
vocal quartet

 

music house.fi

AUF: With pleasure Avanti! – Feeling Free

Sat 28.3.2020 at 13:00

Music House, Helsinki

Guitarist Marzi Nyman, vibraphonist Arttu Takalo and French horn player Tero Toivonen join forces again with the Avant String Quartet. The concert’s repertoire, consisting mostly of compositions by the soloist trio, is a juicy fusion of jazz, classical and popular music. As has been said before about this septet: nothing is what it seems, but everything is what it sounds.

The concert is part of the AUF concert series by Avant, UMO and FiBO, produced in collaboration with Musiikkitalo. Top orchestras from different genres will invite listeners to discover a wide range of musical delicacies at the daytime concerts.

 

Marzi Nyman, guitar

Arttu Takalo, vibraphone

Tero Toivonen, French horn

Maija Linkola, violin

Mikaela Palmu, violin

Tuula Riisalo, viola

Iida Vilhelmiina Sinivalo, cello

 

Tickets:

https://www.musiikkitalo.fi/fi/tapahtumat/2020-03-28/auf-ilolla-avanti

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:

https://www.lippu.fi/artist/avanti/

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)

Pekka Haapanen appointed as Avant’s new producer

Avant’s office staff got a new member with the arrival of producer Pekka Haapanen. He has gained experience in classical music administration, for example as a substitute for the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra’s publicist and producer. She has become acquainted with the festival scene as a spokesperson for the Crusell Week in Uusikaupunki.

Originally from Loimaa, Haapanen initially studied general literature at the University of Turku, but later changed his major to musicology. Haapanen, who describes himself as a “happy avant-garde person”, will move to Helsinki with his new job in August.

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

 

Avant’s XXXIV Summer Play set Porvoo alight with musical colour – thanks to the audience, artists, supporters and all Avant’s friends!

The last notes of the Avant Garde Summer Festival 2019 played on Sunday evening, when Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony closed the great festival. Designed by Swiss conductor Baldur Brönnimann, the festival featured fourteen concerts, large and small, in Pernaja and Porvoo. The concerts were attended by a large number of music lovers: this year’s Suvisoitto attracted around 2 500 listeners.

Avantin 34. Music from the 16th century to the present day was performed by the festival’s international guests Wu Wei (sheng) and Jennifer Koh (violin), as well as by soprano cellist Piia Koms, folk artist Maija Kauhanen, tenor Taavi Oramo and the wonderful musicians of Avant. On Saturday evening, the atmosphere in the Avanti Hall was set off by bass Matti Salminen and artistic multi-talent M.A. Numminen. Concerts were held in the medieval stone church of Pernaja, in the Avanti Hall of the Art Factory, in Porvoo’s cafés, at Borgå Gymnasium and around the Town Hall Square.

The summer concert was seen and heard in the media

The festival was featured in numerous media outlets in the Eastern Uusimaa region. Uusimaa magazine gave a spectacular coverage of the whole festival week. Helsingin Sanomat noted Wu Wei’s Finnish premiere of Jukka Tiensuu’s work Teoton at the festival’s opening concert on Thursday. “Wu Wei is a truly charismatic soloist,” Helsingin Sanomat wrote of the wonderful opening concert. The concert will be recorded by YLE: Yle Arena will be broadcasting the concert until the end of July, with interviews with conductor Baldur Brönnimann, sheng artist Wu Wei and composer Jukka Tiensuu.

Avant’s Summer Play will be back in 2020

The artistic content of the upcoming festival will be created by HK Gruber, an Austrian conductor, composer, singer, double bassist and now also the artistic director of the 2020 Avant Garde Summer Festival.

 

HK Gruber will be familiar to Avant fans from last autumn’s Frankenstein concert, where he was not only the composer but also the singer and conductor. HK Gruber studied composition at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts and has played double bass with the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Gruber is also a singer-actor and founding member of the MOB-art & tone-ART artist collective. HK Gruber is also an internationally renowned and acclaimed composer.

A warm thank you on behalf of Avant! We hope you will join us again next summer!

Photos by Heikki Tuuli