Light and Power

Aulis Sallinen: Symphony No. 1

Ninety this year, Aulis Sallinen is best known as the composer of operas and orchestral works, but by no means to the exclusion of all else. He wrote his Symphony No. 1, Op. 24 for a competition held by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for new works to be performed at the opening concert of Helsinki’s new Alvar Aalto-designed Finlandia Hall. The symphony won and was premiered by the HPO conducted by Jorma Panula in 1971. Many at the time considered it far too radical; music, they said, should carry a social message, and the symphony as a genre was a thing of the past. Sallinen cared not in the least for what others said, writing purely abstract music often using a mosaic technique of his own invention. He went on to write seven more symphonies, each inhabiting a world of its own but all characterised by colourful harmonies, a resourceful combination of melancholy and sharp irony, and above all an unshakeable belief in the endless potential of tonality.

Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85

The last great work by Edward Elgar (1857–1934), his Cello Concerto, dates from 1919. The premiere was a fiasco, the conductor having left too little time for its rehearsal, and audiences found the music too old-fashioned. Ernest Newman, a leading critic, nevertheless wrote that “The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar’s music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity.” Elgar conducted a recording of the concerto in the 1920s, and it later found a lasting place in the repertoire in the 1960s, thanks to Jacqueline du Pré.

Elgar also seems to have felt there was no place for his music in a world that had by that time abandoned tonality and melody, and at the end of the score he wrote: “Finis. R.I.P.”

The music of this four-movement concerto is so nostalgic and heart-breaking that many have tried to give it a ‘programme’. Elgar wrote it just after the end of the First World War, and some may hear it as an elegy for the world and culture destroyed by the war. Elgar also seems to have felt there was no place for his music in a world that had by that time abandoned tonality and melody, and at the end of the score he wrote: “Finis. R.I.P.”

Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2

As a student, Charles Ives (1874–1954) was obliged to master the classical European tradition when he would have preferred radical experiment and seeking a ‘true’ American idiom. His second Symphony (1902) caused him quite a headache. He withheld the score and it was not actually premiered until 1951. Listening to it on the radio, he was annoyed to hear that the conductor (Leonard Bernstein) had made some changes, but by that time he had lost interest in the whole work, claiming that it now sounded too “soft”.

The result? One of the oddest yet most entertaining works in symphonic literature.

There are five movements instead of the traditional four and the melodies contain references to ones familiar to US audiences, such as Turkey in the Straw, Camptown Races, and Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. The Symphony also slips in some allusions to symphonies by Beethoven and Brahms, a Bach Invention and Wagner’s Tristan; Ives wished to demonstrate that combining European tradition with popular American tunes was more than possible. The result? One of the oddest yet most entertaining works in symphonic literature.

Luka Coetzee

Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee (b. 2004) won First Prize in 2023 at the 7th International Paulo Cello Competition, performing Penderecki’s Second Cello Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2022, she won First Prize at the Pablo Casals International Award and the Johansen International Competition in Washington, DC.

Coetzee began cello studies at age one and graduated from advanced programs in Calgary, Canada. She currently studies with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Kronberg Academy, Germany. Solo appearances include Lahti Symphony, Cape Town Philharmonic, Hradec Králové Philharmonic, and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.

As a member of the LGT Young Soloists, she has performed worldwide at venues such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, and Tonhalle Zürich. Coetzee features on their Naxos recording of Beethoven’s A Major Cello Sonata arranged for cello and strings. She plays a rare Giuseppe Guarneri “filius Andrea” cello (c. 1712–15).

Osmo Vänskä

Osmo Vänskä (b. 1953) is one of Finland’s most internationally respected and renowned conductors. He began his career as a clarinetist in the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, later occupying the co-principal chair of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Vänskä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy in 1977 in Jorma Panula’s class. His first position as principal conductor abroad was with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, after which he was appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Osmo Vänskä served as chief conductor (and presently as conductor laureate) of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra 1988–2008, raising it to world fame through its tours and recordings – notably, the extensive Sibelius recordings with BIS Records.

Osmo Vänskä is currently Conductor Laureate of the Minnesota Orchestra. He served as the orchestra’s music director for 19 years and toured with it in Europe, Cuba and South Africa. From 2020 to 2023, Vänskä also led the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.