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.
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.
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.
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, theSväng 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.
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
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).
Please contact us at the latest by 15th December 2014 if you wish to be part of the Sibelius One group at the Festival in 2015, as tickets and hotel rooms are selling out FAST. Further information on the page ‘Visit Finland’.
On 8th December 2014 a new element is added to the Sibelian landscape in the composer’s home town of Hämeenlinna: a musical experience park, the first of its kind in Finland. In the Sibelius Park, home to one of Finland’s most recognizable statues of the composer, five benches – positioned far enough apart to avoid mutual interference – have been equipped with with sensors so that music is played when visitors sit on them. The music chosen is the popular set of five piano pieces, ‘The Trees’, Op. 75.
