Thomas Adès and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra rehearsing Inferno at the Helsinki Music Centre on Tuesday. © Jari Kallio The second installment in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s Thomas Adès festival on Wednesday evening marked the composer’s return to conduct the orchestra for the first time since his memorable 2018 debut. This weeks’s programme,... Continue Reading →
Thomas Adés photographed by © Marco Borggreve On Friday, teaming up with Chief Conductor Nicholas Collon,the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra augured the third rendition of its biennial festival, a key musical event in autumnal Helsinki. Following festivals devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven and Magnus Lindberg, its latest incarnation focuses on the exquisite musical universe of... Continue Reading →
John Williams conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. © Stephan Rabold At the age of eighty nine, John Williams’s creative life seems to be as abundant with activities as ever. In addition to embarking upon his next Hollywood engagement, scoring the forthcoming fifth installment in the Indiana Jones series, there are several podium appearances lined up in... Continue Reading →
John Adams and the Lahti Symphony rehearsing Harmonielehre at the Sibelius Hall on Wednesday. © Jari Kallio Launching their new contemporary music series, Focus, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra teamed up with the composer and conductor John Adams this week, putting together a terrific programme with Adams’s masterful Harmonielehre (1985) as its main piece. One of... Continue Reading →
In regard to the multitude of orchestral albums released this year, the new Ondine Records Žibuoklė Martinaitytė disc, Saudade, is certainly to be counted among among the very finest. Conducted by the wonderful Giedrė Šlekytė, the spellbinding portrait album features four fascinating works by the New York-based Lithuanian composer, all written between 2013-19. In Martinaitytė’s... Continue Reading →
Kaija Saariaho, Susanna Mälkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic rehearsing Vista. © Jari Kallio Wednesday evening’s marvellous concert with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Chief Conductor Susanna Mälkki marked the long-awaited first live performance of Kaija Saariaho’s Vista (2019). Written for large orchestra and lasting twenty five minutes, the two-movement work is Saariaho’s first purely orchestral score... Continue Reading →
Steve Reich photographed by ©Jay Blakesberg On Sunday, 3 October, American composer Steve Reich turns 85. One of the most original and influental figures in contemporary music, Reich’s works have had a huge impact across genres ever since the mid-sixties. Several seminal pieces, such as It’s Gonna Rain (1965), Drumming (1970-71), Music for 18 Musicans... Continue Reading →
Sharon Bezaly, Ryan Bancroft and Tapiola Sinfonietta after the world premiere of Sebastian Fagrelund's Terral (2021) at the Tapiola Hall on Friday. © Jari Kallio There is that certain buzz with world premieres, especially so when there’s a big piece involved, penned by an extraordinary composer, and performed by a group of fabulous musicians. All... Continue Reading →
Artist in Residence Patricia Kopatchisnkaja perfroming Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Concerto funebre (1939/1959) with Kirill Petrenko and Berliner Philharmoniker at the Philharmonie. © Stephan Rabold For this week’s performances at their Philharmonie home, the Berliner Philharmoniker were joined by Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko and Artist in Residence Patrcia Kopatchinskaja for an outstanding twentieth century programme, bringing... Continue Reading →
Leila Josefowicz performing the Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1931) with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon at the Helsinki Music Centre. © Jari Kallio Composing his way out of the roaring success of Le Sacre du printemps (1911-13), Igor Stravinsky went on to pursue several hitherto untrodden paths. While the Great War was brewing,... Continue Reading →
