As the evenings grow cooler, the HPO invites you to warm up in front of the glow of Slavic music. Jonathan Roozeman, the Finnish-Dutch cellist who has been described as a virtuoso on the pages of the New York Times, enjoys romantic music. In his hands, the atmospheric little pearls of cello music become even brighter!
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the newly appointed Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory, felt frustrated in the spring of 1866. Teaching took too much time away from composing, as he was working on an ambitious project: his first symphony. During his summer break, Tchaikovsky joined his family at their dacha on the outskirts of St. Petersburg and focused on composing. He wrestled day after day with his symphony, smoked too much, and eventually suffered a nervous breakdown. But the resulting symphony was captivating, full of strong Russian elements, charming melodies and nuanced orchestration. Despite the pain-filled process of creation, Tchaikovsky was very attached to his symphonic first-born and lovingly referred to it as “a sin of my sweet youth”.
Michael Sanderling
Michael Sanderling (b. 1967) made his HPO debut in 1998, but as the cello soloist with his father, Kurt Sanderling, conducting. Solo engagements with a host of leading orchestras followed, and before long he was returning to them as their conductor. He conducted the Kammerakademie Potsdam from 2006 to 2010, was Principal Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic 2011–2019 and this autumn took over as Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. He likes working with young musicians, is conductor of the German Youth Orchestra and the Young Philharmonic Orchestra Jerusalem Weimar, and teaches at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. His step-brother Thomas and brother Stefan are also highly-acclaimed conductors, and his mother, Barbara, plays double bass in the Berlin Philharmonic.
Jonathan Roozeman
He might become a busker or a great soloist, Jonathan Roozeman (b. 1997) reckoned a decade or so ago. Or anything in between. The son of a violinist mother and a pianist father, he had all the makings of a first-class musician, and soon found himself on a steep upwards soloist curve. From 2012 onwards he began taking top prizes in international competitions (2nd prize in the Netherlands Cello Competition and a finalist in the 2015 Tchaikovsky), and has recently starred with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, under Esa-Pekka Salonen in New York, and Dalia Stasevska with the BBC Symphony. He last appeared as the soloist with the HPO when Osmo Vänskä conducted the Barber Cello Concerto in February 2019.
Antonín Dvořák: Carnival, Overture Op. 92
Along with the fresh and generally optimistic undercurrent of his music, the combination of the folk music of his native Bohemia and the Classicism of Central Europe made Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) a composer popular with audiences far and wide. In the early 1890s, he wrote three overtures for orchestra under the same opus number and conducted the premiere of all three at a concert in Prague in 1892. The middle overture was originally titled Life (Carnival), which would suggest that it describes not only boisterous revels but also his view of life as a series of colourful, positive events. There is also a touch of romance. One of the melodic episodes, he said, depicted a pair of lovers who sneak away from the crowd in order to spend time together. Carnival is the most popular of the three overtures: virtuosic and entertaining.
Aleksandr Glazunov: Mélodie and Sérénade espagnole for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 20
Aleksandr Glazunov (1865–1936) spent most of his working life as a Professor and later director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, in addition to conducting and composing. After the Russian Revolution, he settled in Paris. His music was a mixture of National-Romanticism, Classicism with an awareness of tradition, and colourful instrumentation. He was greatly admired in his lifetime, but by the time he died, his music had more or less gone out of fashion and was soon forgotten. His Melody (1887) and Spanish Serenade (1888) dedicated to Alexander Verzhbilovich the cellist are, however, good examples of his vast output of miniatures, orchestral pieces, ballets, songs, chamber and piano works. The Melody is melancholic in romantic vein, and the dance-like Serenade is thought to reflect a visit he made to Spain in 1884.
Antonín Dvořák: Waldesruhe, Op. 68 & Rondo in G Minor, Op. 94
Many of Dvořák’s friends were Czech musicians. One of them was the cellist Hanuš Wihan, for whom he wrote and dedicated three works, the greatest being the Cello Concerto in B Minor. The other two were smaller ones, Waldesruhe (Silent Woods, 1891) and the Rondo in G Minor. The former was originally scored for piano four hands and published in a collection From the Bohemian Forest, but before sailing to America in 1892, Dvořák arranged a concert tour in which one of the pieces was an arrangement for cello and piano. This was such a hit that the following year he made yet another arrangement, for cello and orchestra. Also on the tour programme was the Rondo in G Minor. Said Johannes Brahms of his friend and colleague Dvořák: “That fellow has more ideas than all the rest of us. Even what he tosses into the trash could serve as a main theme for anyone else.”
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13 “Winter Dreams”
Composing never came easy to Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893), but his first symphony was a great trial even by his standards. His former teachers had not a good word to say for the first version, so he kept revising it, and movements two and three were first performed before the premiere of the whole symphony in Moscow in 1868. “No other work cost him such effort and suffering…Despite painstaking and arduous work, its composition was fraught with difficulty,” recalled his younger brother Modest. Yet Pyotr was always fond of his symphony and regarded it as “a sin of my sweet youth”. He called it “Winter Dreams” and titled the first two movements Daydreams of a Winter Journey and Land of Gloom, Land of Mist. The other two have no names. Along the way, Tchaikovsky seems to have abandoned the idea of some sort of programme; the music speaks for itself.
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.
