Category Archives: News

Aeon Duo – A Window to the Finnish Mind – Photography Competition: ‘The Essence of Finland’

10/01/2015NewsAeon Duo, Eduardo Andrade, Essi Kiiski, Finnish Church, Photographysibelius

As previously noted on this site, the Aeon Duo (Essi Kiiski, violin and Eduardo Andrade) will give a concert focusing on Sibelius’s music for violin for piano, plus the world première of a work inspired by Sibelius composed by Eduardo Andrade, at the Finnish Church in London on Thursday 26th March 2015 at 7 pm. The concert will be part of the official Sibelius 150 schedule of events and will be an exciting and innovative combination of music, photography and taste sensations.

Sibelius One members receive concessionary prices for tickets to this concert. To obtain the promotional code, click here.

The pieces in the concert are going to be performed alongside the seven winning pictures in the Photography Competition ‘The Essence of Finland’. These can be photographs of anything related to Finland, e.g. the nature, landscape, buildings, people or pictures that somehow seem to capture the feeling of Finnish culture. Photos must be submitted under the title ‘The Essence of Finland’. The seven photographs will be selected by Aeon Duo and will be posted to Facebook for public voting. The three most liked pictures will receive a composition written specifically to the picture by composer Eduardo Andrade, who has twice composed for pictures exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery of London. The pieces will be recorded by Aeon Duo and sent to the winners privately in digital format.

Contest procedures:
The contest starts on 9th January 2015 at 5:00pm and will close on the 9th February 2015 at 5:00 pm.
Seven pictures will be selected considering two aspects:
– Quality of photography
– Relation to the title ‘The Essence of Finland’

How to submit a photo:
Pictures can be submitted to sibeliusphotography@outlook.com. The email should contain the following information:
– One single photograph to be considered to the competition (.jpeg format, preferably in high resolution)
– Short paragraph explaining the relation of the picture to the title
– Contact information: name, country/city and email address

By submitting you grant Aeon Duo the rights to project the picture during the concert and to post it on Aeon Duo’s Facebook Page for voting purposes.

The seven selected photographs will be projected during the concert to a specific piece of the programme. The winners will get a single free ticket for the performance, and all the winners will receive credits in the printed concert programme and be mentioned on the Facebook Page and Essi Kiiski’s website.

Time flows in Kuhmo

09/01/2015News2015, Kuhmo Festivalsibelius

The theme for the 2015 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival is time. The total of more than 70 concerts will address the turning points in centuries, the seasons, the eternal circle of transfer and many other time-related subjects. In keeping with the Kuhmo tradition, each day will include both chamber music classics and exciting discoveries.

The festival begins on Sunday 12th July 2015 with a Bach motet and ends on Saturday 25th July with Piazzolla’s Four Seasons. In between, there will be music from the 17th to the 21st century, with five to six concerts each day.

The performers are celebrated musicians and ensembles from Finland and all over the world. The Kuhmo Chamber Music concerts will be held at the modern Kuhmo Arts Centre hall with its excellent acoustics, the traditional Kontio School, Kuhmo’s imposing Church, the intimate Burial Chapel and the Petola Visitor Centre. There will also be concerts at Vuokatti and in Iisalmi.

Works by Jean Sibelius to be performed at the Kuhmo Festival during his 150th anniversary year are:
Valse triste, Op. 44 No. 1 (in the composer’s own piano arrangement)
Five Pieces, Op. 75, ‘The Trees’ for piano
Piano Trio in C major, ‘Lovisa’, JS 208
Pelléas et Mélisande, Suite, Op. 46
String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56, ‘Voces intimae’
Kom nu hit, död! (Come Away, Death!), Op. 60/1 (arranged for voice, harp and strings by the composer)
Valse chevaleresque, Op. 96c (piano version)
Evige Eros, Op. 84 No. 4, for male choir a cappella (performed by vocal quintet)

More information at the Festival’s website.

Source: Kuhmo Festival Press Release, 9th January 2015

Jean Sibelius collector coin

07/01/2015Newscollector coin, Mint of Finland, Suomen Rahapajasibelius

In honour of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the composer Jean Sibelius:

The collector coin’s launch date is 30th January 2015.

Mint of Finland will mint a silver Sibelius collector coin with a nominal value of EUR 10 and a gold coin with a nominal value of EUR 100.

The collector coin’s obverse depicts the starry sky of Ainola and a copse of pine trees, among which Sibelius was often seen lost in thought. The reverse bears the neck of a violin, the composer’s favoured instrument.

Launch date: 30th January 2015

The collector coins are available to order in advance from the Mint of Finland online shop, www.mint.fi, or by phone: +358 9 8943 4343.

Nominal value: €10
Metal: Ag 500
Mintage: 10,000
Designer: Nora Tapper

Source: Mint of Finland / Auli Mikkonen

‘A total goose-pimple extravaganza’

06/01/2015NewsClemency Burton-Hill, John Davis, King Christian II, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä, Radio 3sibelius

Osmo Väkskä and John Davis in Lahti, 2005 — Osmo Vänskä and John Davis in Lahti, 2005

At the end of 2014 I was approached by the management of BBC Radio 3 to kick off their forthcoming contributions to the 150th anniversary of Jean Sibelius. On Thursday 1st January, at around 8.10 am, I was interviewed by Clemency Burton-Hill and asked to introduce my personal pièce de resistance, the Nocturne from the King Christian II Suite, and to explain my adoration of this magnificent work. I said that it contained a big memorable tune, that the orchestration was outstanding, i.e. cantabile strings, woodwind in pairs (cf. for instance the start of the second movement of the Violin Concerto) and brass-orientated climaxes; in other words for me it’s ‘a total goose-pimple extravaganza’ (Clemency loved that expression). I particularly wanted them to use the recording by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, as I had experienced them performing it ‘live’ at the 2003 Lahti Sibelius Festival. On top of that, I’d spoken at length to Osmo Vänskä about the merits of this glorious work overall the next day.

This can be found on the BBC Radio 3 website until 28th January 2015 – follow this link, and it starts around 01:40:40.

I wish all readers a wonderful 2015 and cannot wait to meet up with many of you for the ‘big one’ this year in Lahti.

John J. Davis
President, Sibelius One

Kullervo in Tokyo

04/01/2015News, UncategorizedKullervo, Laulu-Miehet, Matti Hyökki, Sibelius Society of Japan, Yuri Nittasibelius

The Sibelius Society of Japan is arranging a performance of Kullervo on 3rd March 2015 at the Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo.

Soloists Yukari Komagamine (mezzo-soprano) and Toshiyuki Sueyoshi (baritone) will join the Laulu-Miehet choir from Finland (chorus-master: Matti Hyökki) and Oedo Korarias; the orchestra is Sinfonia Ainola and the conductor is Yuri Nitta.

Yuri Nitta is President of the Sibelius Society of Japan, and both vocal soloists are members of the society. An earlier Tokyo performance of Kullervo was given by Sinfonia Ainola in 2007, the 50th anniversary year of Sibelius’s death.

The Laulu-Miehet choir celebrated its centenary in 2014.

Further information (in Japanese) here.

A Finnish Murder Mystery

24/12/2014Newshelsinki, murder, mystery, novel, Seven Symphonies, Simon Boswellsibelius

If you haven’t yet come across The Seven Symphonies, the intriguing murder mystery set against the backdrop of the Finnish music world – and Sibelius’s symphonies in particular – click here for more information!

Sväng plays Sibelius

20/12/2014NewsAndante festivo, harmonica quartet, Karelia Suite, Sväng, Valse tristesibelius

Confident in the belief that Jean Sibelius took not only his cigar but also his harmonica with him while walking in a forest of Ainola, the Sväng harmonica quartet (Eero Turkka, Eero Grundström, Pasi Leino and Jouko Kyhälä) is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2015 with a comprehensive take on Sibelius’s music.

The players have been working hard on the arrangements and rehearsals and have released a preview of their recent studio work featuring extracts from Valse triste, the Karelia Suite and Andante festivo.

http://www.svang.fi/?lang=en

Two Concertos and a Medal

18/12/2014NewsFolke Gräsbeck, JSW, Lauri Tarasti, Petteri Iivonen, Sibelius Medal, Timo Virtanen, Violin Concertosibelius

Folke Gräsbeck receiving the Sibelius Medal from Lauri Tarasti. Photo: © Miikka Maunula

At Villa Gyllenberg in Helsinki – one of Finland’s foremost private museums – on 15th December 2014 the pianist Folke Gräsbeck was awarded the Sibelius Medal of the Sibelius Society of Finland, presented by Lauri Tarasti, president of the society since 2009. This medal has been awarded since 1965 and was designed by Eila Hiltunen, who also created the Sibelius monument. The medal is awarded both to individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements as performers or supporters of Sibelius’s music, as well as to researchers. Previous recipients have included Urho Kekkonen (President of Finland), Aino Sibelius, Herbert von Karajan and many of Finland’s foremost conductors. In 2010 the medal was awarded to Sibelius One’s Andrew Barnett.

Folke Gräsbeck is the foremost exponent of Sibelius’s music for and including the piano. The American magazine Fanfare wrote of his recordings: ‘Gräsbeck makes a most persuasive case for just about all of this music, and Sibelius’s output for solo piano will likely never again be recorded as comprehensively or as well.’

The medal was presented at an event to mark the launch of the new critical edition of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in Breitkopf & Härtel’s JSW series. The new volume (SON 622) is edited by Timo Virtanen, editor-in-chief of JSW, includes not only the familiar 1905 version of the concerto but also the original 1903/04 version, with detailed comments both in the preface and the critical report. The launch event included a performance of the revised version of the concerto in Sibelius’s own arrangement for violin and piano, performed by Petteri Iivonen – second prize winner in the 2010 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition and Folke Gräsbeck. After receiving the medal Folke Gräsbeck played a piano solo rarity, the Largo in A major, JS 117 (1888).

Sources include: Sibelius-Seura, Breitkopf & Härtel