12 February
WEDNESDAY SERIES 9
Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00
Mario Venzago, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
Arthur Honegger: Symphony No. 3
(Symphonie liturgique)
I Dies irae (Allegro marcato)
II De profundis clamavi (Adagio)
III Dona nobis pacem (Andante)
30 min
INTERVAL 20 min
W. A. Mozart: Piano Concerto
No. 25 in C Major KV 503
32 min
I Allegro maestoso
II Andante
III Allegretto
Maurice Ravel: La Valse,
a choreographic poem for orchestra
(Mouvement de valse viennoise – Un peu plus modéré –
Premier mouvement – Assez animé)
Interval at about 19.40. The concert ends at about 21.05.
Broadcast live on Yle Radio 1 and the internet (yle.fi/klassinen).
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15 min
Setting out on the orchestra’s lowest
notes, the third movement presents a
rhythmic melody, first on the bassoons,
then the trombones and trumpets. A
French horn comments on this melodic
relay in ominous tones. The trills, chromatic plunges and polytonality create
a tension that is not resolved until the
very end. The tonal weave is made all
the more aggressive by the trumpet
sounds familiar from jazz. The symphony ends with a slow, calm, string
carpet of sound coloured by a warbling
flute reminiscent of a tin whistle.
ARTHUR HONEGGER
(1892–1955):
SYMPHONY NO. 3
(SYMPHONIE
LITURGIQUE)
Arthur Honegger, who initially regarded himself as a composer of
pure, absolute music, deviated from
this ideal in his Symphonie liturgique
of 1946. Composed at the end of the
Second World War, it superimposes
elements in the nature of a chorale
or a prayer on brutally aggressive machine-like music. The movements are
named after the parts of the Catholic
Mass: Dies irae (Day of Wrath), De profundis clamavi (Out of the depths have
I cried unto Thee, O Lord) and Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace). In his symphony, Honegger sought to express
revolt against the tumult of the modern world – the suffering, increasing
bureaucracy and mechanisation.
The first movement could be described as a mechanical, hammering
play with rhythm in which the theme
presented on the cellos is evocative of
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The heartrending melodic motifs on brass instruments in various combinations paint a
picture of the hypnotic chaos of the
modern world.
The second movement opens in
warm, caressing string tones. The
woodwinds and a muted trumpet add
shades of their own to the pastoral
mood. Honegger said he wanted the
movement to have a rich, lush, freebreathing melodic line that symbolised
happiness.
Sanna Qvick (abridged)
W. A. MOZART
(1756–1791): PIANO
CONCERTO NO. 25
In 1786, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
composed his biggest and most brilliant Piano Concerto: no. 25 in C major
(KV 503). He personally performed it
for the last time in 1787, and for a long
time thereafter it lay forgotten. The
next performance was not until 1934,
by which time 147 years had passed;
and Mozart did not really become fashionable until the latter half of the 20th
century. Since the Second World War,
this majestic concerto has been recognised as one of the great masterpieces of its genre, occupying an established place in the concert repertoire.
The solemn, resonant nature of the
concerto is evident from the very first
great, fanfarish chords that lend the
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shatters, and for a while he concentrated on mourning his dead colleagues.
The idea of glorifying the Viennese
waltz also seemed alien in the new
postwar world. When he did return to
his Valse, he painted it in much more
sombre tones. It first appeared in arrangements for solo piano and for
two pianos; the latter he premiered in
Vienna in October 1920, partnered by
pianist-composer Alfredo Casella. The
orchestral version was first heard in
Paris a few weeks later.
La Valse reveals both Ravel’s impressionist mindscape and his phenomenal powers of orchestration. It begins
with an ominous rumble on the basses. Soon, little hints of the waltz theme
join them on various instruments,
but the fragments soon merge with
the heaving mass of sound. Finally, at
first tentatively, the waltz grows to full
strength. La Valse is a deliberate travesty of a Viennese waltz. It is packed with
dissonances, fragments and instability. As the end approaches, the sound
waves raise, like a storm, the tension
into a noisy, despairing turmoil, and
the final, fatal blows fall, unexpectedly,
from somewhere outside the waltz.
first movement a march-like, even military bearing. The second movement,
though marked Andante, is more of
a tranquil Adagio. It resembles sonata
form without a development section
and the music flows freely along.
The concerto culminates in a rondo
brimming with Mozartian ingenuity
and genius. The dancing main theme
is borrowed from the opera Idomeneo,
set in ancient Greece, he had composed five years before. Despite the
general heroic and jubilant mood,
Mozart inserts a serious dialogue between the piano and the orchestra by
way of contrast. All of a sudden the
music radiates the fragile beauty and
fleetingness of life. Joy alternates with
pain until Mozart returns his listener
to the Gavotte theme borrowed from
Idomeneo to bring the concerto to a
happy and glorious end in a cheerful C
major.
Jesse Portti (abridged)
MAURICE RAVEL
(1875–1937): LA VALSE
Helena Holsti (abridged)
Maurice Ravel intended La Valse as
a tribute to the Waltz King Johann
Strauss II who had died seven years before. His beautiful idea was to compose
a sort of choreographic poem and to
raise a toast to the Viennese waltz.
He was, however, interrupted by
the First World War and service at the
front. The man who returned home
was sick and exhausted, his nerves in
The programme notes were written
in collaboration with students of
musicology at the University of Turku.
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of the BBC Proms to perform all five
Beethoven piano concertos in a single season. Over the past two years he
has appeared at such prestigious concert halls and festivals as the Lucerne
Piano Festival and London’s Wigmore
Hall, where he has appeared on more
than 60 occasions. His most recent and
forthcoming engagements include performances with the London Symphony
and the London Philharmonic, the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra,
the New York and Los Angeles
Philharmonics and the NHK Symphony
from Tokyo. He can also be heard in
solo recitals at the Royal Festival Hall
in London, the Berlin Philharmonie, the
Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus,
and the Toppan Hall in Tokyo.
Paul Lewis has been the recipient of
many prestigious distinctions, among
them a Diapason d’Or, Edison and
Gramophone awards.
MARIO VENZAGO
The distinguished career of Swiss
conductor Mario Venzago has included
engagements
with
the
Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich
Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus,
the
London
Philharmonic,
the
Melbourne Symphony, the Boston
Symphony and many other great orchestras. He has also been a guest at
the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals.
Honorary Conductor of the Basel
Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor
of the Bern Symphony and Principal
Conductor of the Northern Sinfonia
Newcastle, Venzago is Principal Guest
Conductor of the Staatsphilharmonie
Rheinland-Pfalz
and
“Schumann
Guest Conductor” of the Düsseldorf
Symphony Orchestra.
Venzago’s varied discography has
earned him several major awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque, the
Diapason d’Or and the Edison Prize. He
has recorded the complete symphonic
works of Schumann, Nono and Ravel
with the Basel Symphony Orchestra
and all the orchestral works by Alban
Berg with the Gothenburg Symphony.
THE FINNISH
RADIO SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
(FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish
Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mission is to produce and promote Finnish
musical culture and its Chief Conductor
as of autumn 2013 is Hannu Lintu.
The Radio Orchestra of ten players
founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra strength in the 1960s. Its previous Chief Conductors have been Toivo
PAUL LEWIS
British pianist Paul Lewis is known especially for his performances and recordings of Beethoven’s sonatas, concertos and Diabelli Variations. In 2010,
he was the first pianist in the history
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discs have reaped some major distinctions, such as the BBC Music Magazine
Award and the Académie Charles Cros
Award. The disc of the Sibelius and
Lindberg violin concertos (Sony BMG)
with Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist received the MIDEM Classical Award in 2008,
in which year the New York Times chose
the other Lindberg disc as its Record of
the Year.
The FRSO regularly tours to all parts
of the world. During the 2013/2014 season it will be visiting Central Europe under the baton of Hannu Lintu.
All the FRSO concerts both in Finland
and abroad are broadcast, usually live,
on Yle Radio 1. They can also be heard
and watched with excellent stream quality on yle.fi/klassinen.
Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo
Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam,
Jukka-Pekka
Saraste
and
Sakari
Oramo. The FRSO has two Honorary
Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and
Sakari Oramo.
The latest contemporary music is
a major item in the repertoire of the
FRSO, which each year premieres a
number of Yle commissions. Another
of the orchestra’s tasks is to record all
Finnish orchestral music for the Yle archive. During the 2013/2014 season it
will premiere six Finnish works commissioned by Yle.
The FRSO has recorded works by
Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg,
Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen
and others, and the debut disc of the
opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its
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