On Stage
All-English night at the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Under Pitkänen's committed leadership, this evening's performance of Elgar's Enigma Variations was a refreshing reminder that this piece is much more than an often-programmed warhorse to be taken for granted. Certain ...
World Premiere of Tomi Räisänen’s Organ Concerto
Angela Metzger deserves to join the select group of organists who tour internationally as soloist with orchestra. A space for a concert organ was originally designed for the main concert hall ...
Gerald Finley sings Lieberson’s heartbreaking Songs of Love and Sorrow
Peter Lieberson's Songs of Love and Sorrow are not only emotionally direct, sincere, and unpretentious, but also heartbreakingly effective. The American composer Peter Lieberson composed the Songs of Love and Sorrow in difficult circumstances. He ...
Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts Pettersson and Sibelius with the Tampere Philharmonic
Under Rouvali's direction, Allan Pettersson's Symphony No. 7 felt like a connected series of very long phrases, each executed with a single breath. In the past half-decade or so, the star of the ...
Olari Elts in all-Russian program with the Finnish RSO
The Estonian conductor Olari Elts is a regular visitor to Helsinki and is often seen on the podium in front of both the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Finnish Radio Symphony ...
A Pettersson double-header with Christian Lindberg and the Norrköping Symphony
Christian Lindberg brought out the epic, almost Bruckner-like grandeur in the brass in Allan Pettersson's Symphony No. 15. In the early 1990s the Swedish record label BIS began an ambitious project ...
The Finnish RSO celebrates Magnus Lindberg
Any given Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra performance of Lindberg's music is both idiomatic and definitive. Throughout his long and distinguished career as a composer of orchestral music, the Finnish RSO, Lindberg's hometown ...
Intensity and commitment: John Storgårds and the Kamus Quartet play Pettersson
Pettersson requires superhuman concentration and virtuosity from the soloist and this is exactly what John Storgårds brought to the table. Like elsewhere in the classical music world, summer in Finland marks ...
Love at first sight : Nicholas Collon and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
After the second date, it looks like the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon have a beautiful relationship ahead of them. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) has had a ...
Gustavo Gimeno in Britten and Shostakovich with the Finnish RSO
One of the most immediately appealing aspects of cellist Tomas Nuñez-Garcés' performance was his understated confidence and assured virtuosity. Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich were two of the greatest composers of ...
Osmo Vänskä’s Americana with the Helsinki Philharmonic
Soloist Jonathan Roozeman handled Barber's fearsome technical demands with ease, particularly the seemingly inhuman left-hand acrobatics required in the outer movements. One of the highlights of the current Helsinki Philharmonic season is the focus ...
Relishing the extremes : Hannu Lintu in Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 with the Finnish RSO
Both Lintu and the orchestra pulled out all the stops in the sprawling final movement. The winters are long and dark in Finland. Coincidence or not, Mahler's Symphony No. 6, the composer's ...
In Helsinki, Mälkki’s cool-headed intensity in Mahler’s No. 9
Susanna Mälkki's take on Mahler's final completed masterpiece focused on tight control coupled with clear, unsentimental intensity. Nearing the end of her second year as music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic ...
The Winners of the International Classical Music Awards – ICMA 2018
For the International Classical Music Awards 2018, the ICMA Jury has once more selected musicians and organizations that have distinguished themselves through outstanding achievements. The independent and international jury has ...
Passionate and virtuosic : Tianwa Yang in Britten’s Violin Concerto
Yang brought a devilish and almost unhinged quality to the dancing second movement of Britten's Violin Concerto, which further highlighted her amazing virtuosity. The current Helsinki season has been almost an ...
The sea in many forms: the Finnish premiere of Matthew Whittall’s piano concerto
Matthew Whittall's new piano concerto, Nameless Seas, was effective in evoking not only literal but also metaphorical feelings of the sea. Respighi is best known for his ecstatically colorful symphonic portraits of Rome, which ...
Par excellence : Vilde Frang in Britten’s Violin Concerto
Vilde Frang may have some tough competition, but she could just be the interpreter par excellence of Britten's Violin Concerto. In the past decade or so, frequent performances and new recordings of Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto seem to ...
Ulf Wallin tackles Pettersson’s massive Violin Concerto No. 2
Christian Lindberg made a thoroughly convincing argument of the inherent drama of Pettersson's music while emphasizing the fact that there is ultimately a song informing the music. Even in his native ...
Top class : Renée Fleming and Sakari Oramo at the Helsinki Festival
This evening's performance of Nielsen's Symphony No. 2 provided further evidence that the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra belongs in the top echelon of the world's great orchestras. Sakari Oramo is currently Chief Conductor ...
Finnish premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto
At least on this first hearing, Salonen's new Cello Concerto seemed confident and uncertain at the same time. This evening's concert marked the opening of Esa-Pekka Salonen's second season as Artist-in-Association with the Finnish National ...
Men and Women : Allan Pettersson’s Symphony No. 6 in ballet form
Men and Women by Antoine Jully, chief choreographer of the Oldenburg ballet, on Allan Pettersson's Symphony n°6 expresses a wide range of emotions between the genders. Jully's reflection of the composer's ...
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 at Prague Spring
The Prague Philharmonic and Kühn choirs just might have stolen the show with their power, clear diction, and their ability to conjure up countless shades of color. There are certainly many ...
Sakari Oramo in Elgar’s Symphony No. 2
Sakari Oramo did not hesitate in bringing Elgar's unabashedly passionate and emotional elements to the fore. During his tenure as principal conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO), Sakari Oramo ...
Broadly : Kent Nagano in Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8
Nagano's performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, while abundant in individual highlights, was not quite a fully convincing interpretation of this massive work. Anton Bruckner is arguably the perfect example of ...
Exploring the depths : Osmo Vänskä in Sibelius’ Symphony No. 4
Osmo Vänskä is unrivaled in his ability (and willingness) to explore the deepest depths of Sibelius' Symphony No. 4. Osmo Vänskä earned himself and his former band (the Lahti Symphony Orchestra) international recognition ...
Truls Mørk’s noble Schelomo with the Helsinki Philharmonic
Truls Mørk brought nobility to Schelomo's lamenting qualities. The current, inaugural season of Susanna Mälkki's tenure as music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (HKO) is focused considerably on 20th-century French orchestral music, which ...
Damrau & Grigolo in « Les Contes d’Hoffmann » at LA Opera
For her LA debut, Diana Damrau was scheduled (announced with great fanfare) to undertake the roles of Hoffmann’s three loves. Events, however, proved otherwise… Therefore, a great disappointment ensued, especially when ...
Herbert Blomstedt in Sibelius and Beethoven
This was undoubtedly one of the great performances of Sibelius' Symphony No. 4. Herbert Blomstedt is approaching his 90th birthday and is showing no signs of slowing down. A quick look at his ...
