Monthly Archives: September 2018

Sibelius in Killing Eve

Keen Sibelians watching the hit BBC thriller Killing Eve will no doubt have spotted that music by Sibelius featured in Episode 5, ‘I have at thing about bathrooms’. To accompany the scene where the assassin Villanelle is talking about death while preparing to kill Frank, the opening of Valse triste (slowed-down and stylized) is heard in the background.

Hear it for yourself here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06kcg94/killing-eve-series-1-5-i-have-a-thing-about-bathrooms
The extract from Valse triste is heard at approx. 33’54 until 36’11.

Sibelius Première in Lahti

Luukas Hiltunen outside the Sibelius Hall in Lahti. Photo: © Sibelius One

The world première performance of a new arrangement by Lahti music student Luukas Hiltunen of Sibelius’s Intrada for organ, Op. 111a (1925), was given as an encore on the last night of the 2018 Sibelius Festival in Lahti (8 September 2018).

This sonorous and well-received arrangement was scored for full symphony orchestra (without percussion), and is dedicated to its performers, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk.

Luukas Hiltunen has also made an arrangement of the companion organ piece, Surusoitto (Funeral Music).

Further information will be published in the January 2019 issue of Sibelius One’s magazine.

New curator at Ainola

Ainola (photo: © SIbelius One)

At a meeting on Saturday 8 September 2018, the Ainola Foundation decided to invite Julia Donner to become the new curator at Jean Sibelius’s home, Ainola. She will start work on Monday 8 October 2018. Her predecessor, Hanne Selkokari, will become an amanuensis at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, starting on 15 October 2018.

Julia Donner is an art historian who has specialized in garden art and landscape architecture. Since 2012 she has taught and undertaken research at the Aalto University; she has written many books and articles. With specific reference to Ainola she has written ‘Oi terve tarhurineito…’: Aino Sibeliuksen puutarha (2006) and contributed to the book Ainola – The Home of Jean and Aino Sibelius (ed. Esko Häkli & Severi Blomstedt; Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 2015)

Ainola’s summer season ends on Sunday 30 September 2018.

Source: Ainola Foundation press release

 

Lahti Sibelius Festival 2018 ends

Banner for the 2018 Festival in the Metsähalli, Sibelius Hall

Sibelius One’s visit to the 2018 Lahti Sibelius Festival has just ended (posted on 10 September 2018). All events were well attended and enthusiastically received.

Highlights included:

Wednesday 5 September: trip to Hämeenlinna; reception hosted by Erkki Korhonen and the Hämeenlinna Sibelius Society at the Town Hall; visit to the new Sibelius Forest national park.

Thursday 6 September: trip to Ainola; Sibelius One’s AGM in Hesan kamari at Ainola (minutes and accounts will be made available soon); concert by the Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk with Baiba Skride, violin (Overture in A minor; Violin Concerto; Swanwhite); concert by the Wellamo Trio (‘Hafträsk’ Trio). Review of the concerts (Bachtrack): click here.

Members of Sibelius One at Ainola, 6 September 2018

Friday 7 September: concert by the Estonian National SO/Neeme Järvi (Romance in C; Scene with Cranes & Valse triste; Symphonies 3 & 4); reception hosted by the Sibelius Society of Finland at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti.

Saturday 8 September: concert by Meta4 string quartet (Voces intimae); concert by the Lahti SO/Dima Slobodeniouk with Baiba Skride, violin (In memoriam; Six Humoresques; Symphonies 6+7); world première [encore] performance of a new orchestration by Lahti music student Luukas Hiltunen of the Intrada, Op. 111a;  group meal at El Toro restaurant

Sunday 9 September: performance of the Five Piano Pieces (‘The Trees’), Op. 75 and of the Violin Concerto with additional choreography (Minna Pensola / Heini Kärkkäinen)

Provisional dates for the 2019 festival: 5–8 September. More details will be posted later.