The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s audience has embraced conductor Michael Sanderling. After a previous visit, Helsingin Sanomat reported that Sanderling conducted so passionately that the audience erupted in enthusiastic cheers at the end of the performance.
Pianist Andreas Haefliger plays with power, elegance and poetry – a combination that is perfect for Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Schumann composed it for his wife Clara, who had urged him to write more than just songs and music for solo piano: “Don’t take it amiss if I tell you that I’ve been seized by the desire to encourage you to write for orchestra. Your imagination and your spirit are too great for the weak piano.”
French composer Lili Boulanger (1893–1918) was born into a musical family. Her sister Nadia (1887–1979) became a celebrated teacher and also a composer. Lili studied the organ and music theory at the Conservatoire de Paris while also taking lessons in voice, violin, cello and harp. In 1913, she became the first woman to win the distinguished Prix de Rome with her cantata Faust et Hélène.
Boulanger’s life was fraught with illness and came to an early end. Her death at the age of only 24 is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Western classical music. While her output remained limited, it demonstrates that she was unarguably a highly talented and original composer.
In 1917, already very frail, Boulanger wrote two pieces intended as a diptych: D’un matin du printemps and D’un soir triste. She completed three versions of both the ‘spring morning’ and ‘sad evening’: for duo, for piano trio and for orchestra. The orchestral version of D’un matin de printemps was the last piece that Boulanger completed before her death in 1918. The music understandably has a melancholic tinge, but also a measure of elevated spirit and humour. The piece was premiered in Paris in March 1921.
Of all the composers of the Romantic period, Robert Schumann is possibly the most romantic. Like many of his contemporaries, he was fascinated by love and death, doppelgangers, ghosts, nocturnal moods and nature mysticism. But his life was overshadowed by periods of manic depression alternating with bursts of frenzied activity: in one year alone he composed no fewer than 138 solo songs.
The emphasis in his compositions is clearly on his inner voices, not outward displays of virtuosity – a feature reflected in his three concertos, for piano, cello and violin. The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 was based on the Fantasia in A minor for piano and orchestra of 1841. Though his pianist wife Clara Wieck was impressed when she tried it out with an orchestra, his publisher rejected it. In 1845 he added two movements – an Intermezzo and a Finale – and the three-movement concerto was premiered in Leipzig the following year. Intimate and melodic by nature, it avoids grand gestures even in the cadenza.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) had a skill for combining Romantic expressiveness with traditional forms and strict counterpoint. This had a major influence on the music and thinking of Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951), so much so that Schönberg penned an essay describing Brahms as progressive, as opposed to him usually being described as a conservative composer. Schönberg also orchestrated Brahms’s Piano Quartet no. 1 in G minor op. 25.
Brahms’s Quartet was premiered in Hamburg in 1861. It is a beautiful example of his chamber music, which despite being absolute music is always melodic and emotionally appealing. The best known of the four movements of this work is the rollicking rondo finale.
Schönberg orchestrated the Piano Quartet in 1937, having fled the Nazi regime to the United States. He explained in a letter: “It is always very badly played, because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you hear nothing from the strings. I wanted once to hear everything, and this I achieved.”
This arrangement could be dismissed as a curiosity if it did not so obviously show a deep respect and love for the original. There are instruments in the orchestra that Brahms would never have used, such as a xylophone, but this just serves to emphasise the underlying philosophy of the arrangement: Brahms is a composer for all ages. Schönberg’s arrangement, sometimes referred to as ‘Brahms’s Fifth Symphony’, was premiered under Otto Klemperer in Los Angeles in 1938.
Michael Sanderling has served as Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra since 2021. His appointment followed a long-standing, successful collaboration, with the shared aim of further developing the orchestra’s focus on late Romantic repertoire, including works by Bruckner, Mahler, and Strauss.
As a guest conductor, Michael Sanderling leads renowned orchestras worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. From 2011 to 2019, he was Chief Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic. Prior to this, he served as Chief Conductor of the Kammerakademie Potsdam from 2006 to 2011.
Michael Sanderling is deeply committed to nurturing young musical talent. He teaches at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and collaborates regularly with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. From 2003 to 2013, he was Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie.
”Andreas Haefliger is an astounding pianist”, wrote Helsingin Sanomat when the Swiss artist appeared as a soloist with the HPO in 2019. On that occasion, the Finnish premiere of Dieter Ammann’s piano concerto was given; the HPO and Haefliger also performed the work on tour at the Lucerne and Edinburgh festivals under the baton of Susanna Mälkki. Haefliger, the HPO, and Mälkki recorded Ammann’s concerto alongside the concerti of Ravel and Bartók.
Having finished his studies at the Juilliard School, Haefliger soon thereafter performed with the major American and European orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In 2023 Haefliger and his wife the distinguished flautist Marina Piccinini inaugurated their new Zauberklang Festival, inviting special guests including Hilary Hahn, with whom Haefliger has also performed Beethoven and Brahms sonatas in London, Vienna, Tokyo, Seoul and Chicago.
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.
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