“I would like to take this opportunity to recommend that Mr. Kajanus, who is so vigilant in leading Helsinki's music life, include Bruckner's work in a concert programme.” (Päivälehti, 9 February 1894) The recommendation of the author, who reported on Berlin's concert life, bore fruit in November 1896, when Robert Kajanus and his orchestra presented their first Bruckner to the Helsinki audience, just a month after the composer’s death. This evening’s concert is also an exciting premiere, as Ingo Metzmacher, star of music centres throughout Europe, will be conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time.
Ingo Metzmacher
German conductor Ingo Metzmacher (b. 1957) has, in particular, left his mark on both the contemporary music scene and as a champion of symphonic and operatic repertoire. He has conducted first and premiere performances at such illustrious venues as the Vienna State Opera, has collaborated with celebrated orchestras and operas across Europe and in the USA, and has written two books in German: Don’t Be Afraid of New Sounds and Curtain Up! Discovering and Experiencing Opera. Metzmacher discovered his musical home at an early age as pianist with the Frankfurt Ensemble Modern but made his conducting breakthrough in 1988 on stepping in for another conductor at La Monnaie in Brussels. Metzmacher is Artistic Director of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover, the city where he was born. In recent years he has conducted the Bruckner symphonies in Paris, Vienna and Sweden and in 2011 conducted the last concert given by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki. Tonight marks his debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic.
Lotta Wennäkoski: Hava
Music, says Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski (b. 1970), can handle a topic just like a novel, from different angles and in different lights. An extra-musical impulse can afford extra potential. The word Hava, is derived from the Hungarian word hó meaning snow. In order to fall, something must first rise, and the idea of rising and falling, both in volume and intensity, recurs as the piece proceeds. In two sections, a fast and a slow, Hava was commissioned by the Tapiola Sinfonietta for its 20th anniversary and Jean-Jacques Kantorow conducted the premiere in 2008. The chief motif gradually takes shape out of quick chromatic patterns in the opening section and is thereafter subjected to mutation in diverse timbres.
The music of Wennäkoski has been described as lyrical yet also playful. Her orchestral Flounce, commissioned by the BBC, was premiered on the last night of the London Proms in 2017. The HPO then performed it in Helsinki in 2019 and on tour in Central Europe. Works by her are nowadays regularly heard both in Finland and abroad.
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 3
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) had a tendency to keep ‘improving’ his scores, and to let others do so, too. No wonder, therefore, that his third symphony exists in no fewer than seven versions. He dedicated it to his idol Richard Wagner, and the symphony’s Wagnerian orchestration has some brilliant tone painting. The premiere in 1878 was catastrophic. Bruckner conducted it, the original candidate having just died; the orchestra did not want to play it and the audience began to leave until almost no one was left in the hall. The young Mahler and his friends tried in vain to console him.
Composed in memory of his mother, the symphony bears some allusions to other of his works: the Miserere from the Mass in D Minor and quotations from the main theme of the second symphony. The idea for the finale occurred to him as he was out walking in Vienna. The coffin of a recently-departed architect lay in one house while a rowdy dance was being held in the house next door. The polka and chorale in the finale reflect life’s contradictions: humour and joy versus grief and suffering.
Yes, but only before or after the concert. During the concert we just want you to enjoy the music. This way you won’t disturb the musicians or other audience members.
Only the orchestra has a dress code. You can dress as you like.
You can give the ticket to a friend or donate it to a music student by calling 09-3102 2700 or sending an e-mail to helsinki.philharmonic@hel.fi by 3pm on the day of the concert.
