The Helsinki Music Centre Choir blows out ten birthday candles with works whose composers have been enchanted by poetry and painting.

The majestic silence and mystical atmosphere of Piero della Francesca’s frescoes fascinated Bohuslav Martinů. On his summer holiday, Johannes Brahms was moved by a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin and immediately hurried to the sandy beach to sketch a piece. Alex Freeman’s new work is an extensive choral symphony that draws on the ecstatic optimism and energy of verses by four American poets.

JOHANNES BRAHMS
Schicksalslied

BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ
Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca

ALEX FREEMAN
Ghost Light (A Choral Symphony in Three Parts) (world premiere)

NILS SCHWECKENDIEK
conductor

THE HELSINKI MUSIC CENTRE CHOIR