Networks, hierarchies, organisms, rituals, ecosystems, trust, dependency relationships. The Musica nova Helsinki festival explores everything that can happen between individuals – for example, in a symphony orchestra, a community where musicians together create a richly resonant musical world. The composers featured in this concert each approach the layers of the orchestra, instrument groups, timbres, textures and intonations in their own way.
In 2017, Rebecca Saunders (born in London in 1967) came third in a poll launched by the Italian magazine Classic Voice asking over 100 professionals to name the best composer on the contemporary scene. Of her music she says, “For me, what’s really important is enabling the listener to feel the magical physicality of sound, the timbre, the colour, the mass, the weight, of sound. That’s what I feel I’m working with, almost like a sculptor works with different materials.”
Still (2011) was commissioned jointly by the Bonn Beethoven Festival and BBC Radio 3. It sketches a single situation, she says. “Turning the head towards the setting sun, the unknown protagonist watches night fall, darkness gathering; then head placed slowly and carefully in hands, waiting, as darkness unfolds, for a sound. As if in eternity, a timeless melancholy, curtly and brutally honest, yet imbued with a humanness, a softness. A statis; the human body waiting, trembling.”
Piyawat Louilarpprasert was born in Bangkok in 1993 and now teaches composition at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Major models for him have included Olga Neuwirth and Claude Debussy. The key word in his music is, he says, sound. “Everything has vibrations, can make a noise, every body sounds. I debate whether to write a piece for glass, or violins that could sound like glass. Then I do some research. I find out what is possible and what isn’t… and try to make the impossible possible.” Louilarpprasert readily expands his range of instruments with everyday objects or parts of domestic appliances and does not hesitate to use unconventional instrumental techniques. Some of his works combine music with multimedia, and he has also written for traditional Asian instruments.
Ptera (2023) – a commission from the Dresden Festival of Contemporary Music – is scored for orchestra and sound-producing objects. The title is a word-ending denoting wings or winglike parts.
The title – Aarre – of this piece for organ and symphony orchestra by Finnish composer Olli Virtaperko is a play on words. Not only does ‘aarre’ mean ‘treasure’ in Finnish; it is also a Finnish boy’s name. In the former case it here alludes to the brand-new organ at the Helsinki Music Centre, and in the latter to an earlier Finnish composer, Aarre Merikanto (1893–1958) and his Konzertstück for cello and chamber orchestra of 1926, the main theme of which makes fleeting appearances in the organ part of Virtaperko’s work.
In the virtual absence of any models, Virtaperko faced the challenge of making the organ a natural member of the orchestra, of enriching the diversity of timbres and expanding the world of harmony with microtonal elements. In this he was helped by organist Susanne Kujala. The organ makes widespread use of the organ’s upper partials, the instrument’s Flexible Wind option and a chord consisting in various ways of the intervals of a third, seventh and ninth (the ‘379 chord’). There are also solos for the bassoon, cor anglais, clarinet, horn and harp.
Violinist Carolin Widmann (born 1976, Munich) is famous for her explorative and infectious approach to contemporary music, and her activities span the great classical concerti, chamber music, period instrument performances, solo recitals, and conducting from the violin.
In the 2024–2025 season, Widmann’s debuts include the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She also performs with the Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and the SWR Symphonieorchester.
Widmann has been professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig since 2006. She is artist-in-residence at the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in 2024–2025. Widmann was named Artist of the Year at the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. According to the ICMA website, she has become ”one of the outstanding – and most uncompromising – musical personalities of our age”.
Susanne Kujala is a Finland-based German concert organist. She performs as a soloist, a chamber musician and an improviser and her repertoire ranges from the earliest organ music to music of the 21st century. Collaboration with composers is an essential part of her musical work. Kujala has premiered over 60 works including four concertos and works for microtonal organ.
From 1996–99 she studied at Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin classical accordion and instrumental coaching. In 1998 she moved to Finland and studied at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki classical accordion and organ gaining her Master of Music in 2006. In 2013 she gained her artistic Doctor of Music -degree 2013 at the University of the Arts / Sibelius Academy focusing on “Organ – an Instrument for Contemporary Music”.
Kujala teaches organ performance, chamber music and the history of organ art at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki since 2009. She is also a jury member of the International Kaija Saariaho Organ Composition Competition.
| Violin 1 Pekka Kauppinen Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä Katariina Jämsä Sanna Kokko Kati Kuusava Helmi Kuusi Elina Lehto Kari Olamaa Petri Päivärinne Kalinka Pirinen Harry Rayner Satu Savioja Anna-Maria Huohvanainen Alexis Mauritz Violin 2 Anna-Leena Haikola Teija Kivinen Teppo Ali-Mattila Eva Ballaz Heini Eklund Serguei Gonzalez Pavlova Dhyani Gylling Siiri Rasta Krista Rosenberg Angeles Salas Salas Virpi Taskila Kaisa Laurila Viola Atte Kilpeläinen Lotta Poijärvi Petteri Poijärvi Aida Hadzajlic Kaarina Ikonen Tiila Kangas Liisa Orava Mariette Reefman Markus Sallinen Hanna Semper Cello Beata Antikainen Jaani Helander Veli-Matti Iljin Fransien Paananen Saara Särkimäki Tommi Wesslund Joanna Hanhikoski Pekka Smolander Bass Ville Väätäinen Tuomo Matero Paul Aksman Oskari Hänninen Eero Ignatius Adrian Rigopulos | Flute Janette Leván Elina Raijas Jenny Villanen Malla Vivolin Oboe Paula Malmivaara Nils Rõõmussaar Ella York Clarinet Christoffer Sundqvist Anna-Maija Korsimaa Heikki Nikula Hyesoo Kim Bassoon Mikko-Pekka Svala Erkki Suomalainen Vertti Tapanainen Horn Joonas Seppelin Mika Paajanen Sam Parkkonen Satu Huuskonen Trumpet Thomas Bugnot Pasi Pirinen Mika Tuomisalo Mikko Mikkola Trombone Victor Álvarez Alegria Valtteri Malmivirta Jussi Vuorinen Gabriel Ferreira Tuba Ilkka Marttila Timpani Tomi Wikström Percussion Xavi Castelló Aràndiga Pasi Suomalainen Sampo Kuusisto Elmeri Uusikorpi Harp Anni Kuusimäki Katilyne Roels Keyboard Satu Elijärvi Susanne Kujala Accordion Veli Kujala |
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