Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra concerts

   

The colossal character of his eighth symphony came to Gustav Mahler in a flash. After completing the first drafts, Mahler knew he was composing something that would make his earlier works seem like mere preludes. In the closing concert of the season, eight soloists, six choirs and a symphony orchestra gather in the large concert hall at Musiikkitalo in their most magnificent form, not forgetting the organ. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will be reinforced by twenty young international musicians who are participating in the concert through cooperation with the LEAD! Foundation . JUKKA-PEKKA SARASTE conductor MEAGAN MILLER soprano, Magna Peccatrix HELENA JUNTUNEN soprano, Una Poenitentium MAIJA RAUTASUO soprano, Mater Gloriosa ELLI VALLINOJA mezzo-soprano, Mulier Samaritana LILLI PAASIKIVI mezzo-soprano, Maria Aegyptian TOMMI HAKALA baritone, Pater Ecstaticus SIMON O'NEILL tenor, Doctor Marianus TÓMAS TÓMASSON bass, Pater Profundus CANTORES MINORES RUOTSIN RADION KUORO LATVIAN RADION KUORO HELSINGIN KAMARIKUORO MUSIIKKITALON KUORO NILS SCHWECKENDIEK choir coaching HANNU NORJANEN choir coaching GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 8 ”Symphony of a Thousand”

Violinist and conductor Fabio Biondi is a virtuoso of early music who dissects music history with his hawk’s eye and reveals forgotten master composers. Biondi takes the orchestra and audience to the Milan of the late 18thcentury, where the teenage Mozart devoured influences from the Italian masters and the symphony began its triumphant journey of independence from opera overtures to the centrepiece of symphonic concerts. FABIO BIONDI conductor WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 11 CARLO MONZA Symphony "La tempesta di mare" GIOVANNI BATTISTA SAMMARTINI Symphony in G major WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 10 ANGELO MARIA SCACCIA Violin Concerto in E-flat major ANTONIO BRIOSCHI Symphony in D major WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 13

Composer, arranger and chief conductor of the legendary hybrid orchestra Metropole Orkest Jules Buckley is one of the world's most sought-after genre alchemists. He grew up listening to his father's “really cool” record collection: “Music was playing all the time.” In this evening’s concert, Buckley cooks up the music of his idol Quincy Jones as served by the HPO and UMO, featuring dazzling soloists. HELSINGIN KAUPUNGINORKESTERI UMO HELSINKI JAZZ ORCHESTRA JULES BUCKLEY conductor VULA MALINGA soloist EMMA SMITH soloist ROB DE NIJS soloist BRENDAN REILLY soloist HOLLY PETRIE soloist

Our celebration of the queen of instruments continues. Composer Nico Muhly and organist James McVinnie are two friends who share a love for the music of English Renaissance master Orlando Gibbons. Muhly composed his own concerto based on a song by their mutual favourite composer. Pekka Kuusisto invites into the concert hall a quiet, waking Faun and other mythical creatures coloured by French impressionism. PEKKA KUUSISTO conductor JAMES MCVINNIE organ CLAUDE DEBUSSY Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun NICO MUHLY Register, concerto for organ and orchestra (first performance in Finland) MAURICE RAVEL Ma mére L'Oye, Mother Goose, ballet

“Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance, when you're perfectly free.” Anna Clyne's cello concerto revolves around the verses of the Persian mystic Rumi. Inbal Segev plays the concerto with dark tone and deep insight (Gramophone). A rarely heard early version of Sibelius's fifth symphony is preceded by an overture, the strings of which are tied by a band of visiting folk musicians.

Swan, robin, peacock, cranes. Pekka Kuusisto gathers Sibelius' birds into the same flock of notes. The solo violin gives character to Pēteris Vasks’ lonely angel, who hovers over the broken world, fretting and tirelessly guarding it. Anna Clyne composed Within Her Arms in memory of her mother, in which grief leads from cutting pain to comfort and peace. JEAN SIBELIUS The Swan of Tuonela / Hark, the Robin and The Peacock from SwanwhiteSuite / Crane Scene PĒTERIS VASKS Lonely Angel – Meditation for Violin and String Orchestra JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No. 45 "Farewell" ANNA CLYNE Within Her Arms PEKKA KUUSISTO conductor  

Conductor Ruth Reinhardt is a graduate of the famous Juilliard School in New York. She has demonstrated her prowess as an interpreter of Antonín Dvořák's fifth symphony and been acclaimed for her lively and well-crafted performances (San Francisco Chronicle). Jennah Vainio based her commissioned work on The Pauper Girl’s Lullaby by Robert Kajanus with the life story of her orphaned grandmother in mind. JENNAH VAINIO Sylvia’s Lullaby, Helsinki Variations (world premiere) EDVARD GRIEG Piano Concerto ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 5 RUTH REINHARDT conductor ALESSIO BAX piano  

Franz Schubert spiced his sixth symphony with Italian flavours after Rossini's operas swept Vienna. Half a century earlier, Mozart fell in love with Haydn's symphonies in the same city. Theodor Guschlbauer conducts two symphonies whose seeds were sown in his hometown. “The oboe concerto of Vaughan Williams has wonderful folds in which you can enjoy extreme pianissimos,” says the evening's soloist Hannu Perttilä from the HPO's own ranks. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Symphony No. 25 RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Concerto in A minor for Oboe and String Orchestra FRANZ SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6 in C major "The Little" THEODOR GUSCHLBAUER conductor HANNU PERTTILÄ oboe  

Led by two conductors, this concert takes us from Sibelius's mythical primeval forest towards Manhattan, whose fog sirens, riverboats and fire engines enchanted the composer Edgard Varése. Sound and Fury is an international hit in which Anna Clyne has a conversation with William Shakespeare's Macbeth and her fellow composer Joseph Haydn. JEAN SIBELIUS Tapiola JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No. 60 "Il distratto" ANNA CLYNE Sound and Fury EDGARD VARÈSE Amériques JUKKA-PEKKA SARASTE conductor PEKKA KUUSISTO conductor  

Gustav Mahler originally gave a title to each movement of his grand Third Symphony but removed them from the score before the work was published. However, six famous titles have stubbornly remained on the side of the symphony from one generation, programme and concert to the next. Now they will be heard as accompaniments to the culminating concert of Susanna Mälkki's term as Chief Conductor.   Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me What Man Tells Me What the Angels Tell Me What Love Tells Me. GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 3 SUSANNA MÄLKKI conductor VICTORIA KARKACHEVA mezzo-soprano MUSIIKKITALON KUORO CANTORES MINORES

Step into a musical time machine! The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes you to a gala concert presenting exactly the same programme as the orchestra’s very first concert 140 years ago in October 1882. Kajanus is replaced by Storgårds, concertmaster Sattler by concertmaster Kauppinen, the Assembly Hall of the University of Helsinki by the Helsinki Music Centre, and the Grand Duchy by the Republic of Finland, but the concert pieces, their order and the philharmonic spirit are unchanged! LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 FELIX MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides Overture op. 26 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Romance No. 1 MICHAEL HAUSER Hungarian Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra JOHAN SVENDSEN Icelandic Melody JOHAN SVENDSEN The Herd Girl’s Sunday CARL MARIA VON WEBER Jubilee Overture JOHN STORGÅRDS conductor PEKKA KAUPPINEN violin