Three Octobers in the life of composer-pianist Ernst Mielck: Born in Vyborg in October 1877; performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in October 1897 as soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; died in Locarno, Switzerland, in October two years later, a couple of days before his 22nd birthday.
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra offers a unique opportunity to witness world-class conductor training. Sakari Oramo, Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, shares the podium with students of his “baton class”.
Sakari Oramo
Sakari Oramo (born in 1965) is Chief Conductor of BBC Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of Royal Stockholm Philharmonic after thirteen years of leading the orchestra as their Chief Conductor. A guest conductor at the highest international level and a prolific recording artist, his performances combine structural cohesion with authority, elegance and passionate delivery.
Guest engagements during the 2022/23 season include returns to the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Engagements in the past season have included appearances with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Berliner Philharmoniker and NDR Elbhilharmonie Orchester.
In January 2020 Oramo started his five-year tenure as the Professor of Orchestra Education and Conducting Studies at Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki, and as the Artistic Director of Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra.
Joonas Ahonen
Pianist Joonas Ahonen’s (born in 1984) musical interests take him from late 18th-century fortepiano repertoire to giving world premieres of the music of our time. He is a member of Klangforum Wien, one of today’s leading ensembles for contemporary music, and a founding member of the Rödberg Trio specialising in Classical and Romantic repertoire on period instruments.
Recent concert highlights include Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto with the Basel Sinfonietta, his debut with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado, Philipp Maintz’s Piano Concerto with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, the world premiere of Bernhard Gander’s Piano Concerto with the SWR Symphony Orchestra; and recitals at the Diaghilev Festival in Perm, Casa della Musica in Parma and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
He regurarly collaborates with the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, with whom he has appeared at the Lockenhaus, Edinburgh and Gstaad festivals, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Danish Radio Concert Hall, La Scala, Milan, and Barbican Centre, London.
Conducting studies at the Sibelius Academy
The conducting programme at Uniarts Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy is one of Finland’s most well-known areas of excellence and a source of international admiration. The training programme’s fame and uniqueness come from the fact that students are able to practice orchestral conducting with a real orchestra every week. The conductor class has produced several internationally renowned conductors, such as Sakari Oramo, Susanna Mälkki, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hannu Lintu.
Anders Hillborg: Through Lost Landscapes
Anders Hillborg (b. 1954) is one of the most celebrated contemporary Nordic composers. The 12-minute Through Lost Landscapes (2019) was commissioned jointly by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, BBC Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic and is his most massive-sounding composition to date. It begins with three huge chords that mark the beginning of a hectic journey through landscapes at times jazzy, at others ethereal and shimmering or again chaotic. In this it reflects Hillborg’s characteristic love of mixing genres and styles, often piling one on top of another, but always with an unfailing inner logic. Images of climate change inevitably spring to mind in these lost landscapes in which ghostly echoes of birdcalls and the cries of wildlife serve as a poignant reminder of the verdant forests and colourful jungles teeming with life that are now a thing of the past.
Jouni Kaipainen: Piano Concerto, Op. 55
Jouni Kaipainen (1956–2015) was for decades a leading figure in Finnish music: composer, teacher and writer. The 12 concertos he wrote from 1990 onwards constitute the backbone of his output and expressed what may be called his ideal of sensuality that became increasingly clear at around the turn of the century. Sometimes, it may be difficult to find traces of his more radical, 1980s modernist style in their softer world of sound. His Piano Concerto erupted during one of his ‘volcanic’ moments in 1997, in tandem with a Viola Concerto for the Helsinki Biennale, when they were premiered within a couple of days of each other. But whereas the Viola Concerto is clearly more intimate and chamber music-like, the athletic Piano Concerto carries the great weight of history on its shoulders, with romantic effects and a traditional three-movement format. In defending his chosen course, Kaipainen claimed it would be mad to imagine that he was not in the least influenced by such greats as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Scriabin, Ravel and Prokofiev, but his solutions were his and his alone.
Ernst Mielck: Symphony in F Minor
Ernst Mielck (1877–1899) was a Finnish composer and pianist whose promising career was cut short by consumption, and he was buried on what would have been his 22nd birthday. He had, however, by then composed a couple of dozen works, almost half of them for orchestra, the rest songs or chamber music. He had a fine command of orchestral handling and form, and he wrote in a style that called to mind the early Romantic works of such composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms; for this he was criticised as being old-fashioned.
Mielck wrote his Symphony in F minor, regarded as the first Finnish symphony, in 1897 and it was premiered in the same year. In four movements and lasting 40 minutes, it could be mistaken for a work by Schumann and bears no sign of ‘Finnish’, ‘Sibelian’ traits. It is sometimes known as the Fairy Tale Symphony, its second movement maybe reflecting The Ice Maiden story by H.C. Andersen. The third movement is a song without words and the last one reverts to the mood of the first, only this time twice as heroic.
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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.
