THE SPELL OF SPRING 27.5.2017

Sat May 27th 2017 at 7 pm
Musiikkitalo, concert hall

Olari Elts, conductor
Karita Mattila, soprano

Karita Mattila was catapulted to international attention when she won the singing contest Cardiff Singer of the World in 1983. As chance would have it, Avanti! was founded the same year, and the paths of these two veritable phenomena of Finnish music have crossed later, too. In May, Mattila and Avanti! conducted by Olari Elts join forces in an end-of-season concert that will also see the premiere of a new orchestral work by composer Lauri Kilpiö. The piece has been commissioned by Pro Musica Foundation, which also supports the concert.

“The driving sonic forces of my upcoming orchestral piece are mostly timbres and textures, some of which are formed by noises of an indefinite pitch. Irrespective of this, my piece is not sound art but motive-driven music. What this means is that it is composed of a limited amount of musical entities that recur, develop, change and become juxtaposed in the course of the piece. Equally important to me is that my music has long arcs, intensity and moments of climax. All these are basically symphonic qualities. Indeed, one could say that I aim at composing music that is symphonic in nature but without melodic themes.

Is my piece, then, a symphony? I do not know yet; we shall have to wait and see. But does this question even matter that much?” – Lauri Kilpiö.

The pieces to be performed by Mattila portrait 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, then again, shines through Robert Schumann’s symphony “Spring”: for the that time newly-wedded composer the season is swarming with signs of romance.

 

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

PROGRAM:

Lauri Kilpiö: new work

Henri Duparc:
L’invitation au voyage (Charles Baudelaire)
Chanson triste (Jean Lahore)
Phidylé (Leconte de Lisle)

Jean Sibelius:
På verandan vid havet op. 38/2 (Viktor Rydberg)
Flickan kom från sin älsklings mote op. 37/5 (Johan Ludvig Runeberg)
Våren flyktar hastigt op. 13/4 (Johan Ludvig Runeberg)

Robert Schumann: Symphony no 1 B flat major ”Spring” Op. 38
Andante un poco maestoso – Allegro molto vivace
Larghetto
Scherzo (Molto vivace)
Allegro animato e grazioso

 

The concert is produced with the support of Pro Musica Foundation.

 

Tickets 59,00 – 22,50 € from www.ticketmaster.fi or 55 – 20 € from Musiikkitalo’s ticket office