Monthly Archives: January 2024

Hannu Lintu to become the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s artistic partner

Hannu Lintu photo
Hannu Lintu
[Photo by Veikko Kähkönen (source: http://www.hannulintu.fi/)]

In the autumn of 2025, conductor Hannu Lintu will become the artistic partner of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. The contract will be valid until further notice, and Lintu will conduct four concert weeks a year in Lahti. He will also serve as artistic director of the International Sibelius Festival.

Maija Kylkilahti, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s general manager, is delighted with the appointment. ‘There is an obvious rapport between Hannu, the orchestra and the audience, which can be seen and heard in the end result. We are delighted that he would like to work more closely with us.’

Hannu Lintu remarks: ‘I have been working with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra for more than two decades. Each concert has convinced me afresh that the orchestra is exceptionally talented and ambitious. At this stage, a closer relationship seems natural. I am particularly excited about the opportunity to work on the Sibelius Festival programme.’

Hannu Lintu will next appear with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in October. Among the other orchestras he will conduct this year are the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This summer he will conduct a new production of Debussy’s Pélleas and Mélisande at the Bavarian State Opera.

The current principal conductor Dalia Stasevska’s term will end in the spring of 2025. Hannu Lintu will not be a direct replacement for her, and the orchestra will aim to find a new principal conductor in the near future.

 

 

Lahti International Sibelius Festival 2024

Lahti Sibelius Festival 2024 artwork

A complete symphony cycle is the theme of the Lahti Sibelius Festival in its 25th anniversary year.

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s 25th Sibelius Festival will be held at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti from 29 to 31 August 2024, with Dalia Stasevska, chief conductor of the orchestra, as its artistic director. The festival will include a guest appearance by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra will open the festival with Symphonies Nos 1 and 2, while the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s guest concert will include Symphonies Nos 3 and 5 and Luonnotar, with Golda Schultz as soloist. The final concert on Saturday 31 August will feature Symphonies Nos 4, 6 and 7. There will also be a chamber music concert on Saturday afternoon.

The visual aspect of the festival is designed by Klaus Haapaniemi, one of Finland’s most internationally renowned designers.

Further information about the Festival and Sibelius One’s group booking: click here.

New Book about Sibelius’s Songs

The Songs of Jean Sibelius: Poetry, Music, Performance is a new book by Gustav Djupsjöbacka, published by Boydell & Brewer.

To quote from the publisher’s website: ‘This is the first book to discuss the complete solo art songs of Jean Sibelius and to locate them in their musical, literary and artistic context. The book is organized around the poets Sibelius set to music and the literary themes associated with them, thus providing invaluable information for the scholar, student and performer. The musical and aesthetic contextualisation of the songs will help to enable new interpretations on the performance stage.’

Gustav Djupsjöbacka is a pianist, teacher, lecturer, music critic, broadcaster and former rector of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He completed his doctorate in music at the Sibelius Academy in 2006 with a thesis on Toivo Kuula’s solo song production. In November 2006 he was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Lion of Finland, and he was awarded the title of Professor by the Sibelus Academy in 2012.

436 pages, hardback, ISBN: 9781783277810, Price: £85.00
Ebook, pdf: 9781805431060, Price: £24.99
To purchase via the publisher’s website: click here.

January 2024 magazine coming soon

The January 2024 issue of Sibelius One’s magazine is now in the final stages of preparation.
Included in this issue:

  • A Day in Turku  Folke Gräsbeck
  • The Fifth  poem by Kornel Kossuth
  • ‘Fresh, colourful and utterly Finnish’ – The 1894 version of Karelia  Andrew Barnett
  • Many on the sea of life – Sibelius’s Op. 23 songs  Sheahan Virgin

Subscribers will be sent their copies of  the magazine as soon as it arrives from the printers. For more information, or to add the magazine to your subscrciption, please click here.