Destroy, erase, eliminate, forget. There are many such words in the biography of composer Nikolai Roslavets. For decades, the Soviet system tried to erase him and his works from card indexes, catalogues, archives, and concert repertoires – almost with success. The score of his first violin concerto was for a long time thought to have been lost, but it was eventually found in the Moscow archives in 1989. Violinist Simone Lamsma learned the concerto in ten days after receiving an unexpected invitation to perform. Her dedication paid off, and Roslavets’ concert has since remained in Lamsma’s repertoire.
Three puppet characters – Petrushka, Moor and Ballerina – have an adventure in Stravinsky’s trilogy, for which the composer collected material from street performances and folk tunes. The version for a giant orchestra, which premiered in Russia in 1913, received a chilling review from Stravinsky's friend Andrei Rimsky-Korsakov, who thought the work foreshadowed the emergence of musical futurism: “Petrushka glitters with an artificial assortment of bright rags and patches and clatters with ringing rattles.” The reference to the collage technique – albeit in a negative tone – was apt: at the same time, artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were using newspaper cuttings as material for their paintings.
Olari Elts
Olari Elts (b. 1971) comes from Estonia and first became famous in Finland on winning the International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in 2000. He began his tenure as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in the 2020/21 season and has been Artistic Advisor of the Kymi Sinfonietta since 2018. Elts has made a name for himself as a conductor of new music and a champion of contemporary Baltic composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür and Heino Eller, and he has also recorded a large volume of new works. With the NYYD Ensemble, a new music collective he founded in 1993, he has won great acclaim for his innovative programming. He has a close relationship with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, having guested with us many times and most recently last year, and he was our Principal Guest Conductor for the period 2011–2014.
Simone Lamsma
Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma made her solo debut when she was only 14 and has since appeared with leading orchestras around the world. At age 11 she moved to London, and in 2019 was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London; this is an honour limited to 300 former Academy students and awarded only to musicians who have distinguished themselves within the profession.
Despite having more than 60 concertos already in her repertoire, Simone did not get to know the extremely difficult Roslavets concerto until last spring, when she learnt it at top speed in order to step in for Alina Ibragimova, who had been obliged to cancel her appearance with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The conductor then, too, was Olari Elts.
Simone plays the “Mlynarski” Stradivarius (1718), on generous loan to her by an anonymous benefactor.
Justė Janulytė: Apnea
Justė Janulytė (b. 1982) comes from Lithuania and has won wide recognition for her music. She has had works performed at a number of international contemporary music festivals and teaches composition at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Her compositions are often based on, for example, the gradual variation of timbre and articulation and they tend to favour instruments with a similar sonority. By nature meditative, they emerge, as it were, out of nothing, slowly draw closer together and then vanish from sight once more.
Apnea for string orchestra was composed this year as a commission from Musica femina münchen e.V. and was premiered in Munich in June. The piece refers, says Janulytė, to the Covid pandemic that has given completely new, profound meaning to the act of breathing and its importance to human survival. The orchestra plays for fifteen minutes without a break, transporting both players and listeners on an existential journey.
Anatoly Lyadov: From the Apocalypse
Anatoly Lyadov (1855–1914) was not a prolific composer, though he was never short of ideas. He seemed to have difficulty concentrating for long, so it is not surprising that most of his compositions were miniatures for piano or orchestra. He studied the piano and violin in St. Petersburg, took composition lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov, and even taught composition and theory himself, with Prokofiev and Myaskovsky among his pupils.
In 1909 the Ballets Russes in Paris commissioned him to compose a ballet, but when nothing was forthcoming, they turned to the young Stravinsky instead. From the Apocalypse (1910–1912) is a good example of Lyadov’s phenomenal ability to create powerful music. It was premiered in St. Petersburg in 1912, but Lyadov was not satisfied with the end half and debated whether to rewrite it. He never did.
Nikolai Roslavets: Violin Concerto No. 1
At home in the Soviet Union, Nikolai Roslavets (1881–1944) was still almost as famous as Prokofiev and Shostakovich in the 1920s. He liked experimenting with the idea of “synthetic chords” that pushed out the borders of tonality. But everything changed in 1929. The regime condemned experimental music and he was declared an enemy of the people. He had to make a living as best he could, his name and manuscripts were obliterated from Russian music, and his grave was not located until 1990. A few of his works have, however, been found since the collapse of the Soviet Union, among them two violin concertos. For decades, Violin Concerto No. 1 of 1925 existed only as a piano score, until the orchestral score was discovered in Moscow in 1989. A colourful, distinctive work, it is more akin to a complex symphonic poem than to a traditional solo concerto.
Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947)
The premiere in Paris in 1911 of the ballet Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) was an absolute sensation in every way: music, choreography, staging and singing. He had composed it as a commission from the director of the Ballets Russes in Paris, Sergei Diaghilev, and based it on a piece for piano and orchestra he was already working on. He later arranged both piano and orchestral suites of the music and made a new version for orchestra in 1947.
Petrushka is a puppet who comes to life and the ballet is set in a Shrovetide Fair. Stall-holders are shouting their wares, people are laughing, someone is playing a barrel organ, and a merry-go-round can be heard. A magician begins his performance and the crowd cries out in delight at the three dancing puppets: Petrushka, a Ballerina and a Moor. Petrushka is hopelessly in love with the Ballerina, who cares not a bit for him. When the Moor and the Ballerina dance cheek-to-cheek, Petrushka flies into a jealous rage and gets into a fight with the Moor, who kills him with his scimitar. Maybe they are only puppets, but Petrushka’s ghost is spotted on the roof.
I Laskiainen / Fastlagsfest / The Shrovetide Fair
Venäläinen tanssi / Rysk dans / Dance russe
II Petruška / Petrusjka / Petrushka
III Mauri / Moren / The Blackamoor
Valssi / Vals / Valse
IV Laskiaismarkkinat / Fastlagsmarknad / The Shrovetide Fair
Imettäjien tanssi / Ammornas dans / Wet nurse's dance
Talonpoika ja karhu / Bonden och björnen / Peasant with bear
Mustalaiset ja kulkukauppias / Zigenarna och gårdfarihandlaren / Gypsies and a rake vendor
Ajurien tanssi / Kuskarnas dans / Dance of the coachmen
Naamiot / Maskerna / Masqueraders
Maurin ja Petruškan tappelu / Morens och Petrusjkas slagsmål / The scuffle: Blackamoor and Petrushka
Petruškan kuolema / Petrusjkas död / Death of Petrushka
Poliisi ja jonglööri / Polisen och jonglören / Police and the juggler
Petruškan haamu / Petrusjkas välnad / Apparition of Petrushka's double
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Only the orchestra has a dress code. You can dress as you like.
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