The Tempest, arranged for chamber ensemble

Miranda – The Tempest (J.W. Waterhouse, 1916). Public domain

Luukas Hiltunen has been commissioned to arrange for chamber music ensemble selected movements from Sibelius’s The Tempest (1925–26) for the Ruovesi Summer Music Festival:

1. The Oak Tree, from Op. 109 No. 2
2. The Harvesters, from Op. 109 No. 2
3. Berceuse, from Op. 109,No. 2
4. Chorus of the Winds, Op. 109 No. 3
5. Dance of the Nymphs, from Op. 109 No. 3
6. Prospero, from Op. 109 No. 3
7. Miranda, from Op. 109 No. 3
8. The Naiads, from Op. 109 No. 3

These movements are ideally suited for performance by a smaller-scale instrumental forces. The suite will be published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen, which has already issued Hiltunen’s arrangement for string quartet of Sibelius’s Scène d’amour (WH33255). Wilhelm Hansen has also published Jouni Kaipainen’s reduced version of Sibelius’s incidental music to The Tempest (2008, WH32914).

The new arrangements will be premiered at a concert on Sunday 2 July 2023 at 4 pm at Sofia Magdalena Church, Ruovesi, Finland. The performers will be Anna Aminoff, flute; Eeva Mäenluoma, clarinet; Kasmir Uusitupa, Otto Antikainen and Tami Pohjola, violins; Aida Hadzajlic and Riina Piirilä, violas; Beata Antikainen and Sirja Nironen, cellos; Jarkko Uimonen, double bass and Jan Michiels, piano. The concert also features songs by Sibelius (Johanna Isokoski, soprano) and music by Debussy and Josef Krogulski.
Tickets are on sale from Friday 10 March 2023 via http://www.lippu.fi.
More details (in Finnish): http://www.musiikkiaruovesi.fi/

Luukas Hiltunen