A concert evening full of virtuosity, poetry, tones and depth.

Chamber music concert online

In the middle of March 2020, concert halls around the world closed their doors due to restrictions imposed to counter the coronavirus pandemic. Like thousands of colleagues, the musicians of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra decided to keep the music playing by organising a series of live-streamed chamber music concerts. What is the situation for Helsinki, Finns and humanity a year later? 

Viktoria Mullova invites audiences in with true gems of concert repertoire; Arvo Pärt’s three pieces, which exude quiet, simple beauty. Jean Sibelius's diary entries about his Fifth Symphony reveal the ecstasy of composing: “I have a lovely theme. An adagio for the symphony – earth, worms and misery, fortissimo and sordinos [mutes], lots of sordinos. And the melodies are divine!!”

Conductor André de Ridder is the founder of the s t a r g a z e musical collective and a curious and innovative concert curator. The artistic director of the Musica nova Helsinki-festival brings works that require electricity and video screens. Anna Meredith's piece sheds light on the moments between yesterday and tomorrow. Composer Simon-Steen Andersen dropped a grand piano from an eight metres height onto a concrete floor, recorded and filmed this, and used it as the big bang and material for his piano concerto. 

The visual concert “Moon fallen into water” will be released on Wednesday 27 January at 7pm on the YouTube channel of the Eloa Culture Company and on the HKO Screen mobile app and website.

The phenomenal trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger brings us Betsy Jolas’ new work. The evening’s programme also features Steve Reich’s latest orchestral work, which Susanna Mälkki premiered in Los Angeles. 

Completed a year before his First Symphony, Sibelius’s Suite from King Christian II made Sibelius internationally known as an orchestral composer and paved the way for his symphonic career.

HKO Screen web concert for the whole family

October is wrapped up with the sounds of big symphonic composers. The HPO Sinfonietta takes on the rich Adagio-part of Mahler’s unfinished tenth symphony, pays tribute to Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with the composer’s first symphony, and interprets Sibelius the Lover-suite with its rich sounding string section. Iannis Xenakis’ hypnotic solopiece for percussion transforms two art forms into a duet, when HPO percussion section leader Xavi Castelló Aràndiga takes the stage with Tero Saarinen Company dancer Oskari Kymäläinen. 

This concert, led by Pekka Kuusisto, sets off with New York composer Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers. Islandic Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s dark shimmering soundscapes, Mozart’s fast-paced Divertimento, Sándor Veress’ Transylvanian dances and Magnus Lindberg’s first violin concerto all wrap up in a concert that speaks to the current times.

In the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra's Mindful Music concert mindfulness exercises are combined with the pieces performed by the HPO musicians.

Beethoven, Bottesini & Mustonen - Chamber music - live broadcast from Musiikkitalo

Helsingin kaupunginorkesterin perinteinen Vappumatinea HKO Screen -lähetyksenä

The programme for this Friday’s chamber music concert presents music by Johannes Brahms, Luciano Berio, Robert Schumann and Aulis Sallinen, who is also celebrating his 85th birthday at the beginning of April.

Falling in love can cause sleeplessness and weight loss – or the Symphonie fantastique. Tormented by the waves of passion, the Artist comes to life as Lélio in a piece that Berlioz composed as a sequel to his Symphonie fantastique. This is the first time that the two pieces, which the composer intended as a pair, will be performed together in Finland.

The Beethoven concerts recorded by conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic attracted a record 1.4 million downloads in the space of just one week back in 2005. Noseda has a reputation as a conductor whose radical interpretations force listeners to reassess familiar classics both spiritually and emotionally. The programme for his concert in Helsinki is certainly enticing, as he will be making his Bruckner debut. The concert begins with Luigi Dallapiccola’s breakthrough Partita, the setting for which is a medieval Latin lullaby.

The cornerstone of Gemma New's debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, a bright song of praise to a free and happy person.

What connects the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and local music students? Junior Concert, of course! This year there is even more cause for celebration, as it marks the 10th time this fun concert takes place.

No grand gestures or competitive glory, just quiet power, dignity and clean piano playing. Nelson Freire made his debut in 1944 at the age of just four and is one of the greatest pianists of his generation. The premiere of a new piece by Lotta Wennäkoski will also have audience members listening intently. The work is the first in a series of Helsinki Variations commissioned for the Finland 100 centenary year, in which six composers were invited to choose a Finnish composition from before 1945 as a source of inspiration.