Anders Hillborg's Eleven Gates is touring international concert stages, leaving audiences wanting more. “This piece is so engaging, I was sorry to hear it end.” (Los Angeles Daily News)
Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou shines in Benjamin Britten's surreal song cycle and Laura Netzel's Fantasia, for which the composer commissioned the text from his friend King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway.
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris and New York's iconic Carnegie Hall have jointly commissioned a new work from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid. Body Cosmic is a tone poem about pregnancy and childbirth.
Finnish-born composer-pianist-conductor Laura Netzel (1839 – 1927) was especially proud of her Fantasia, (adaptation symphonique for reciter and orchestra), a setting of two poems (Fantasi över harpotoner and Drömmen) by the Swedish King Oscar II, with whom she was personally acquainted and to whom she dedicated the composition. At the premiere in a concert in aid of the Alliance française held in Stockholm in 1902 she herself played the harp – probably a claviharp –in one of the poems. She spent much of her life in Stockholm, but her long stays in Paris are well reflected in her music. Her French audiences nevertheless felt it represented the exotic mystery of the Northern mists and Scandinavian “melancholy”. The critics were frequently reminded of Grieg. The melodrama hovers between dream and the state of being awake, reality and fantasy, life and death. The text abounds in symbolistic elements and Nordic nature romanticism: radiant summer days, nocturnal lakes and coniferous forests, culminating in the moonlit capers of spirits and fairies.
Widely known for his operas such as Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and The Turn of the Screw, British composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) stretched the bounds of tonality and melody. Being an avid reader, he turned for his texts to such diverse poets as W.H. Auden, Michelangelo, Hölderlin, Po Chü-I and John Donne. He wrote Les Illuminations (1939) for soprano Sophie Wyss while living in the US but later recommended it be sung by a tenor, and many of his fifteen song cycles were designed specifically for the tenor Peter Pears. Les Illuminations consists of settings of prose poems by Artur Rimbaud (1854–1891), a precocious genius who revolutionised French poetry within a short period of time but then totally abandoned literary pursuits and died a store-keeper in Abyssinia. “Illumination” may be interpreted as meaning a revelation, insight, or sudden understanding – a moment when truth dawns brightly only to disappear just as quickly.
At home in the US, Ellen Reid (b. 1983) has a name for composing music described as innovative and magical: pop and choral works, film music, sound installations. Her opera p r i s m won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019 and her GPS-enabled SOUNDWALK (2020) produces sound for the public urban domain. She describes Body Cosmic for orchestra as “a meditation on the human body as it creates life and gives birth. The first movement, Awe | she forms herself unspools a melody against the pulse of an ostinato, reflecting the surreality of creating new life, so common and yet so astonishing. Dissonance | her light and its shadow explores the conundrum of bringing new life into the simultaneously beautiful and crumbling world, moving between big splashes of smearing brass and tumultuous percussion and moments of warmth and blazing beauty. This piece was written in response to my own experience with pregnancy and childbirth.”
Swedish composer Anders Hillborg (b. 1954) has no qualms about exploiting the most varied means of expression. A commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Eleven Gates is a colourful, exciting plunge into both the history of music and the sound potential of a symphony orchestra, alluding to such works as Beethoven’s last piano sonata, the Webern variations Op. 27 and Donald Duck cartoons.
“I amused myself,” he says, “with giving each sound-world to which the Gates lead titles with a more or less surrealistic touch: Drifting into, Suddenly in the Room with Chattering Mirrors, Still Life. Confused Dialogues with Woodpecker, Suddenly in the Room with Floating Mirrors, Into the Great Wide Open, Meadow of Sadsongs, Toy Pianos on the Surface of the Sea, String Quartet Spiralling to the Seafloor, Seafloor Meditation (Whispering Mirrors at the Seafloor), and Waves, Pulse, and Elastic Seabirds.”
“Aphrodite Patoulidou’s elegance as both singer and actress put her in a class above,” wrote the LA Times. Born in Greece and a celebrated soprano, she received invitations from leading orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic after being one of the first artists to take part in Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists Initiative in 2018. She is an artist at home in genres ranging from folk and classical to opera and has been the lead singer on tour with the heavy metal band Igorrr. For her virtuosic performance of Britten’s Les Illuminations she created paintings inspired by the work’s ten movements, and for a performance of Sibelius’s Luonnotar, she exhibited a painting of that name at the concert hall. She enjoys doing special projects inspired by her passion for dark romantic themes, incorporating visual elements to generate dialogue between various genres, sometimes drawing on photography, painting, and her own poetry. Patoulidou studied folk singing, the piano and guitar, and may be heard colouring her performance with a nyckelharpa (keyed violin). She was also co-creator of the soundtrack of the video game Titan Quest 2.
Violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to repertoire. Kuusisto is Artistic Director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Co-Director of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony and Chief Conductor Designate of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra from April 2028.
He frequently appears as a soloist and guest conductor with major orchestras worldwide, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. An enthusiastic advocate for contemporary music and improvisation, he collaborates with artists from diverse backgrounds and engages in projects that blur conventional boundaries between genres.
Kuusisto performs on the Antonio Stradivarius violin, “ex-Sandars”, Cremona 1695, generously loaned by the Anders Sveaas' Charitable Foundation, ASAF.
| Violin 1 Pekka Kauppinen Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä Eija Hartikainen Helmi Kuusi Elina Lehto Ilkka Lehtonen Jani Lehtonen Kari Olamaa Petri Päivärinne Kalinka Pirinen Satu Savioja Elina Viitasaari Sanna Kokko Harry Rayner Anna-Maria Huohvanainen Tuuli Talvitie Violin 2 Anna-Leena Haikola Ángeles Salas Salas Teppo Ali-Mattila Heini Eklund Serguei Gonzalez Pavlova Dhyani Gylling Matilda Haavisto Linda Hedlund Susan Hwang Alexis Mauritz Virpi Taskila Júlia Mušáková Han Shi Pia Sundroos Viola Atte Kilpeläinen Torsten Tiebout Petteri Poijärvi Aulikki Haahti-Turunen Kaarina Ikonen Tiila Kangas Ulla Knuuttila Liisa Orava Iiro Rajakoski Mariette Reefman Hajnalka Standi-Pulakka Charlotta Westerback Cello Lauri Kankkunen Beata Antikainen Veli-Matti Iljin Jaakko Rajamäki Ilmo Saaristo Saara Särkimäki Hans Schröck Johannes Välja Swann Leclere Päivi Paajanen Bass Ville Väätäinen Johane Gonzalez Seijas Tuomo Matero Matiss Eisaks Eero Ignatius Teemu Kauppinen Joonas Korjus Venla Lahti | Flute Elina Raijas Päivi Korhonen Jenny Villanen Oboe Nils Rõõmussaar Jussi Jaatinen Paula Malmivaara Clarinet Samuel Buron-Mousseau Anna-Maija Korsimaa Heikki Nikula Marko Portin Bassoon Markus Tuukkanen Mikko-Pekka Svala Emil Fuchs Peder Ravn Jensen Horn Sam Parkkonen Miska Miettunen Mika Paajanen Joonas Seppelin Trumpet Xiang Guo Thomas Bugnot Obin Meurin Trombone Victor Álvarez Alegria Valtteri Malmivirta Anu Fagerström Wen Hong Low Tuba Ilkka Marttila Timpani Tomi Wikström Percussion Tuomas Siddall Mikael Sandström Vladimir Belov Lauri Pekkarinen Harp Anni Kuusimäki Minnaleena Jankko Keyboard Minna Koskimies |
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