Sibelius’s incidental music to Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande (Op. 46, 1905) has always drawn audiences with its sharp characterization, rich melodies, elegant orchestral writing and exquisite proportions. In the closing months of 2015, the music is being performed worldwide, for example at the following locations:
New York (USA)
16th October 2015at 8 pm
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
3 W 65th St, New York, NY 10023 Tickets: click here
Still: Troubled Island Suite (world première of Suite) Coleridge-Taylor: Romance for Violin and Orchestra * Coleridge-Taylor: Keep Me From Sinking Down * (East Coast première) Sibelius: Pelléas et Mélisande
On 11th September 2015 Posti released a new set of stamps featuring Jean Sibelius.
A miniature sheet of three stamps commemorates Finland’s best-known composer. The Jean Sibelius 150 years sheet is designed by graphic artist Pekka Loiri, a classical music lover and Sibelius enthusiast.
Loiri’s stamp designs are inspired by three different stages in Jean Sibelius’s life, each created using different artistic techniques. Loiri has created a black-and-white inked-in drawing depicting Sibelius in the late 1800s as a passionate young artist living the Bohemian life. A richly coloured watercolor profile shows Sibelius as a symphonist in the early 1900s during the most prolific period of his career. A lithographic chalk drawing depicts Sibelius in the 1930s as an aging composer, matching the mental image that most Finns have of Sibelius.
Posti started out as a national postal company in Finland. Through continued investments and systematic R&D, Posti advanced into new growth areas such as communications, logistics and e-invoicing. In the 2000s, Posti has joined forces with leading growth companies in Europe and Russia.
The stamps form part of a series of music-themed stamp releases, with others in the autumn of 2015 portaying hard rock themes.
The Sibelius Society of Finland has awarded the prestigious Sibelius Medal to the Estonian Paavo Järvi, musical director and chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris.
The Sibelius Medal was presented to Paavo Järvi in Paris by the Finnish Ambassador to France, Mr Risto Piipponen, at the opening concert of the new season of the Orchestre de Paris on 9th September, on which occasion the orchestra and Paavo Järvi performed Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5.
The Sibelius Society of Finland commented: ‘Paavo Järvi has promoted the music of Sibelius with great talent in concerts which he has conducted throughout the world and particularly in France. With his passion and drive he is making history by recording the complete Sibelius symphony cycle with the Orchestre de Paris – a project so far never undertaken by any other French orchestra. His existing discography includes important Sibelius recordings which have gained international critical acclaim.’
This is the second time the Sibelius Medal is awarded to a conductor during the Sibelius 150th anniversary year. Sir Simon Rattle, chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, received the medal in May in Berlin.
The medal was designed by Eila Hiltunen (1922–2003), who was also responsible for creating the Sibelius Monument in Helsinki.
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s 17th International Sibelius Festival will take place at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti on 8th–11th September 2016. The three orchestral concerts will be conducted by the orchestra’s chief conductor and the festival’s new artistic director, Dima Slobodeniouk. The full programme for the festival – including chamber music concerts and other Sibelius-themed events – will be published later.
Programmes for the 2016 Sibelius Festival’s orchestral concerts
Thursday 8th September 2016 Pohjola’s Daughter
Tapiola
Symphony No. 1
Friday 9th September 2016 The Dryad
The Tempest, concert suite
Symphony No. 4
Saturday 10th September 2016 Pan and Echo
Pelléas et Mélisande
Symphony No. 3
Slobodeniouk: ‘Not everything in music can be – or needs to be – explained’
The conductor Dima Slobodeniouk believes in music in its own right, and in its power as an absolute art form. ‘In my opinion Sibelius’s works prove that not everything in music can be – or needs to be – explained. Of course historical facts can deepen our understanding, but the music itself remains the primus motor’, says Slobodeniouk. ‘For the orchestral concerts at the 2016 Sibelius Festival I have chosen works from different periods that, I feel, speak to each other. One of the programmes consists of works that Sibelius composed in successive years: Pelléas et Mélisande in 1905, Pan and Echo in 1906 and the Third Symphony in 1907. I feel that there is such a clear thread that unites them all that I could not fail to play them in proximity to each other. In the other orchestral programmes I have aimed both for contrasts and for musical affinities.’
Sibelius One will be organizing a group booking for the 2016 Sibelius Festival. Details will be announced in due course.
The renowned British pianist Joseph Tong will perform a selection of Sibelius’s piano works, including the composer’s own transcription of Finlandia, in three recitals at prominent venues in Finland in early September. The works also feature on his from his new CD on the Quartz label.
Joseph Tong studied at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music in London, making his Wigmore Hall début in 1997 as a winner of the Maisie Lewis Young Artists Award.
Sunday 6th September, Helsinki Music Centre, Camerata Hall, 7.00pmhttp://www.musiikkitalo.fi/en/content/sibelius-150th-anniversary-piano-recital Sibelius:
Kyllikki, Op. 41
Five Pieces ‘The Trees’, Op. 75
Five Pieces ‘The Flowers’, Op. 85
Five Romantic Pieces, Op. 101 Juha T. Koskinen: Piccarda on the Moon Sibelius:
Sonatina in F sharp minor, Op. 67 No. 1
Five Esquisses, Op. 114
Two Rondinos, Op. 68
Finlandia, Op. 26
Tuesday 8th September, Ainola, Järvenpää, 6.00pm A Sibelius piano recital on the composer’s Steinway at Ainola http://www.ainola.fi/eng_index.php Sibelius:
Kyllikki, Op. 41
Five Pieces ‘The Trees’, Op. 75
Five Pieces ‘The Flowers’, Op. 85
Five Romantic Pieces, Op. 101
Sonatina in F sharp minor, Op. 67 No. 1
Five Esquisses, Op. 114
Two Rondinos, Op. 68
Finlandia, Op. 26
Wednesday 9th September, Hämeenlinna Town Hall, 7.00pm
Programme same as 8th September
Just in time for the International Sibelius Festival in Lahti, Okko Kamu’s cycle of Sibelius symphonies with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra for BIS Records has been released on 3 SACDs (special price): BIS-2076. Martin Nagorni’s video interview with Okko Kamu about the recording can be seen here:
són– Southampton’s new professional orchestra – is presenting its official launch concert with an all-Sibelius programme on at 3 pm on Sunday 29th November 2015 at Turner Sims, Southampton.
són(an old-English word meaning ‘sound’) is the name for a brand new classical music project. At its heart, són is a fresh and dynamic chamber orchestra – professional, versatile, inspiring. It is the first and only professional orchestra in Southampton – one of the UK’s most richly diverse and culturally flourishing cities. Until now, Southampton was the largest city in the UK without a resident professional orchestra. són’s concerts are planned to be a little different – yet always engaging, and tying in with other areas of the orchestra’s work – són | education and són | masterclass.
Programme: Sibelius
Impromptu for strings (including original piano version)
Valse triste, Op. 44 No. 1
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 46
Andante festivo, JS 34b
Dima Slobodeniouk has been appointed as principal conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, starting in the autumn of 2016. Slobodeniouk will also be artistic director of the orchestra’s annual Sibelius Festival. The City Board of the Lahti Municipality Association made the appointment at a meeting on 17th August 2015. Slobodeniouk’s contract will run until the spring season of 2019.
Slobodeniouk remarks: ‘When people ask me whether I have always wanted to be a conductor, more and more often my answer is: No, I have not. Despite me, growing up in a family of orchestra musicians, I simply had no idea what it is like to be a conductor. Today, when the fact of me taking over a position of Music Director of Lahti Symphony Orchestra becomes a reality, I once again realise, that being a conductor is what I want and what I live for.’
Slobodeniouk sees the forthcoming collaboration as a wonderful chance to develop musical relationships with the orchestra and audiences both in Lahti and internationally. ‘I was lucky enough to be able to build and maintain a very open and fruitful relationship with Lahti Symphony Orchestra ever since I first conducted them in 2001 replacing Leif Segerstam. Today – this is a big honour and a challenge for me to create something new on the foundation of a great orchestra tradition in Lahti’, says Slobodeniouk. ‘I believe and hope, that with our music making we can influence people’s lives regardless of their age or social background. The unique thing about classical music is the fact that it does not have to be verbalised or explained. That way it can reach and touch anyone.’
Teemu Kirjonen, General Manager of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, says: ‘After the triumphant chief conductorships of Vänskä, Saraste and Kamu, we are looking forward to our time with Slobodeniouk with great enthusiasm. On the basis of what the orchestra has already achieved with him in the past few years, we may expect great things in the future.’ Slobodeniouk already enjoys a major international career and, Kirjonen believes, having him as chief conductor will be an excellent springboard for the further development of the orchestra’s artistic level, and for the continuation of its touring and recording activities.
Petri Komulainen, chairman of the committee representing the players in the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, says that he is very proud and excited at the new appointment, and describes the orchestra as being on the threshold of a new era. ‘Slobodeniouk has close ties to Finland, combined with an international career that is very much on the up. I’m convinced that he will manage to bring a new, energetic perspective to the orchestra’s work, and that his performances will appeal to an ever wider audience.’
Moscow-born Dima Slobodeniouk has made Finland his home for over two decades. A former student at Helsinki’s prestigious Sibelius Academy, he began his conducting studies in 1994 under the tutelage of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula. Currently music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, he is a regular guest conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras as well as London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Netherlands, RAI Turin and Stuttgart Radio Philharmonic Orchestras. Slobodeniouk collaborates with many of today’s composers, among them Kalevi Aho, Sebastian Fagerlund, Jörg Widmann and Lotta Wennäkoski.
Further information: Teemu Kirjonen / General Manager, Lahti Symphony Orchestra
tel. 00358 3 814 4452
