Jukka-Pekka Saraste is continuing his fine Sibelius series in Rotterdam with two further concerts in November 2021. Also participating are two of Finlan’s top singers, soprano Helena Juntunen and baritone Tommi Hakala, and the YL Male Voice Choir.
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor
Helena Juntunen soprano
Tommi Hakala baritone
YL Male Voice Choir
Venue: De Doelen, Rotterdam
Prices from €10 to €68 per concert
Ticket sales commence:
10.00 on 17 August (series)
10.00 on 31 August (individual concerts)
The ongoing Sibelius discography project has received another update. To download the latest version (free) click this link: Sibelius_Discography_20210604. For more information on the discography project and recent releases click here to visit our Discography & Recordings page.
A concert featuring some of Sibelius’s best-loved choral music alongside works by Elgar and Matthew Whittall will be streamed live from Kings Place, London, on Thursday 3 June 2021 at 7.30 pm. The Carice Singers are conducted by George Parris.
After the live broadcast the event will be available on demand until Thursday 10 June.
Full programme:
Elgar My love dwelt in a northern land Sibelius Min rastas raataa Sibelius Män från slätten och havet Elgar Evening Scene Elgar The Fountain Sibelius Rakastava Elgar Love Elgar Serenade Sibelius Sortunut ääni Sibelius Saarella palaa Elgar Owls (An Epitaph) Elgar O Wild west wind! Sibelius Sydämeni laulu Sibelius Venematka Matthew Whittall Lauantaisauna (Saturday sauna)
Under their director George Parris the Carice Singers are becoming well-known for superb performances and imaginative programmes. Here they focus on two world-famous contemporaries, Elgar and Sibelius who, despite coming from opposite ends of Europe, share many influences, traits and tensions in their music. The programme travels between the Malvern Hills and Finnish forests, ending in the steamy embrace of Matthew Whittall’s evocation of a Saturday evening sauna. The concert is generously supported by the Nicholas John Trust.
Newpaper reviews of the concert overture from ‘The Maiden in the Tower’
On 23 May 2021 the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra under Tuomas Hannikainen performed Sibelius’s 12-minute Concert Overture, consisting of material from the opera Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower), at Helsinki’s Ritarihuone. The work was last heard in April 1900 in Turku, conducted by the composer. The reviewer of Uusi Aura called the piece a ‘ballad’ that ‘attracted much attention’; his colleague in Åbo Underrättelser mentioned that the piece had not been performed in Turku before, and was received with ‘sympathetic applause’.
Previously it has been assumed that the overture performed in Turku was just the orchestral introduction to the opera, some three minutes of music that lack an effective concert ending. When examining the original manuscript, however, Hannikainen became curious about some markings and changes, apparently in Sibelius’s handwriting. Through extensive research into the manuscript and other sources he was able to reconstruct the longer overture, i.e. the Concert Overture, which incorporates material from various different places in the opera.
Among the other music in the concert were Sibelius’s suite from Belshazzar’s Feast and the melodrama The Countess’s Portrait.
Illustration by Jenny Svenberg Bunnel from Konserthuset website
Sakari Oramo’s final concerts as chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra are an in-depth journey through Jean Sibelius’s music, including all seven symphonies in chronological order. All concerts will be available to listen to free online.
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s 22nd International Sibelius Festival will take place at the Sibelius Hall from 2–5 September 2021. Its artistic director is Dalia Stasevska, the new principal conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Guest artists are violinist Pekka Kuusisto, Tomas Djupsjöbacka conducting the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, actor Seela Sella, pianist Tähe-Lee Liiv, bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams, and folk musicians.
Thursday: Timo Alakotila: Prelude to Sibelius’s Kullervo Jean Sibelius: Kullervo
Friday Sibelius’s early piano music and Aino’s letters to Janne Timo Alakotila: Prelude to Sibelius’s Violin Concerto Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto Timo Alakotila: Prelude to Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5
Saturday Runic songs boat trip to Myllysaari Jean Sibelius: Lemminkäinen suite Jean Sibelius: Pohjola’s Daughter Jean Sibelius (arr. Einojuhani Rautavaara): In the Stream of Life Jean Sibelius: The Bard Jean Sibelius: En saga
Innovative technology is set to transform the famous ‘organ pipes’ of Eila Hiltunen’s Sibelius Monument in Helsinki (1967) into a fully functioning concert organ for one day only. The manuals (adapted from two digital pianos) and pedals (attached with superglue to a fibreboard plank) will be positioned behind the separate ‘head’ of the monument and will communicate via Bluetooth with a wind generator that will cause the monument’s pipes to sound. ‘We had some luck with the wind generator’, comments organist Juhani S. Puro. ‘With the current reduction in air travel we were able to borrow a jet engine from Helsinki-Vantaa airport and temporarily convert it to run off electricity. It’s a bit noisy but creates plenty of thrust.’ Electrical power will be sourced from a series of large solar panels that will be located in the bay to the west of the Sibelius Park.
Details of the organ
At 12 noon today Juhani S. Puro will perform Sibelius’s Intrada and Surusoitto, plus a newly rediscovered organ arrangement by Stravinsky of Sibelius’s Canzonetta [Op. 62a] on this unique instrument.
