“After the musicians of the New York Philharmonic finished Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto on Thursday night, they did something they don’t usually do: They applauded the soloist.” (New York Times, 5.5.2023) Leonidas Kavakos first conquered Finnish audiences and then the rest of the world. This spring marks 40 years since his success in the Sibelius Violin Competition. “Free but happy – frei aber froh” was the motto of the young Johannes Brahms, which he returned to at the age of 50 in the first notes of his Third Symphony, F-A♭-F.
For Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), the symphony, and above all the symphonies of Beethoven, represented the height of perfection in terms of form and classical beauty. He was so daunted by his “giant” predecessor that he was hesitant about trying his hand at the genre, and it is rather ironic that his first symphony was dubbed “Beethoven’s Tenth”, his second “The Pastoral” and his third “Brahms’s Eroica”! The Brahms and Beethoven symphonies nevertheless have virtually nothing in common.
The third is the shortest and most compact of the four Brahms symphonies. The whole work is, as it were, summarised in the first four bars: the motto F–A-flat–F (frei aber froh – free but happy) followed by a quotation from Schumann’s own third symphony, the Rhenish. Brahms then develops his motto in a superb demonstration of development technique lasting around half an hour and causing Clara Schumann to exclaim that the whole symphony was like “one beat of the heart”.
The most striking feature of the symphony is the juxtaposition of major and minor. The second and third movements are lyrical interludes before the impassioned finale in which sharp-eared listeners may catch echoes of Beethoven’s most famous theme. The movements all die away at the end – something no one, not even Beethoven, had ever tried before.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation. Born in Finland in 1956, he began his career as a violinist. Today, he is renowned as an artist of exceptional versatility and breadth.
Saraste has previously held principal conductorships at the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and has served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he appears with major orchestras worldwide, including the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Coaching and mentoring young musicians is of great importance to Saraste. He is a founding member of the LEAD! Foundation, a mentorship programme for young conductors and soloists.
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.
