G.P. - Tag - Finland

Xmas Concerts in Mikkeli and Hirvensalmi

Sasha Mäkilä — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:48:00 +0100

I am so late with my concert reports, but what the heck, it's Holiday Time! So, exactly one week ago I came back from Mikkeli where I worked with the St Michel Strings. It is a 12-member string ensemble which sometimes performs on their own, sometimes with a guest conductor. This time they wanted to make a Xmas concert with a choir and an organ soloist, so they had to use a conductor. And I am happy that their choice was me!

I worked with some of these players last January, when Lappeenranta City Orchestra joined forces with them to play a very difficult program under my baton. That co-operation was a resounding success, and this invitation was one good thing resulting from that concert.

Organist and chorus master Matti-Veikko Kuusi

This time I did not only have rehearsals with the orchestra, but had rehearsals with the choir as well! Mikkeli Oratory Choir is a 40-strong amateur ensemble which sings a couple of concerts a year. Organist and chorus master Matti-Veikko Kuusi had rehearsed two Buxtehude works (Magnificat and Das neugeborne Kindelein) with them over the past couple of months and I took over two days before our first concert. I have to admit, it was more than a year since I last worked with a choir, but everything went well and the choir made a big progress in a matter of few days!

The program also included some instrumental music: Xmas Concerto by Giuseppe Valentini, Organ Concerto in B-flat Major by Händel (soloist Matti-Veikko Kuusi) and Allelui and Fugue by Allan Hovhaness. I especially enjoyed conducting Hovhaness - a new name for me, even though he had a close relationship with our Sibelius!

We performed the program twice. The first concert was played in the small Hirvensalmi church, where we had to fit the orchestra around the organ at the organ loft, and put the chorus on the side balcony! Poor singers could not rely on what they heard because of the distance, but with a little extra concentration the concert went surprisingly well. The second concert was on their "home ground", the St Michel's Cathedral in Mikkeli. The church was packed with people and everything sounded great!

Singers of the Mikkeli Oratory Choir after a successful concert

I really enjoyed working both with the orchestra and the choir. We had a very short and condensed rehearsal period and the program was nice and short and not too difficult. I am interested to see what happens if I get a chance to conduct something more challenging with the St Michel Strings in the future!

News Update 3 - Söderblom to leave the Lappeenranta Orchestra

Sasha Mäkilä — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:57:00 +0200

It seems that the conductors are having a busy autumn here in Finland! Today's news tells that Jan Söderblom, who has led the Lappeenranta Orchestra since 2000, is resigning as a protest to the lack of interest from the governors of the city towards their orchestra! The orchestra, which is only 21 members strong, needs first of all more string players, but the mayor of Lappeenranta says they cannot support a bigger orchestra.

I have personal experience of this orchestra, having conducted it in two concerts this year. We prepared a very demanding program in co-operation with St Michel Strings, and I must say that the orchestra (or, better to say, the orchestras...) worked wonderfully and with great attitude and enthusiasm. Even during this short visit I heard and saw a lot of potential there. I must agree with Söderblom, that the musicians deserve better support and they should get the extra strings in one way or another. Now their numbers are just enough to perform "authentic Haydn", not much more!

ADDITION October 18th - I found an article in the local newspaper already speculating about Söderblom's successor. Just for your interest, the names mentioned were Tibor Boganyi, Shuntaro Sato, Dmitri Slobodeniuk, Hannu Koivula, Hannu Lintu, Atso Almila, Esa Heikkilä and Jani Telaranta.

P.S. It is interesting how sensitive musicians are when it comes to reporting orchestra news. Last week on a certain discussion forum I was critiziced by an anonymous Helsinki Philharmonic musician of being bitter, when I had mentioned in this blog that seeing the same names over and over again seems a little dull! It maybe was not clear what I meant - I never said that I should be the next chief conductor of Helsinki Philharmonic! What I meant is that the world is full of interesting conductors who are not Finnish! Why not bring some new blood in the play? The nationality does not matter - only quality!

News Update 2 - FNO & Franck

Sasha Mäkilä — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:29:00 +0200

Today the Finnish National Opera opened its doors after a six-month renovation including enlargening the orchestra pit and installing new stage machinery. Because of all the speculations in the air, the journalists naturally had to ask the outgoing (!) chief conductor Mikko Franck whether he intends to stay now that there is a new General Manager appointed to the theatre. Surprisingly or not, he did not give away any details about his future plans. He nevertheless reminded, that the decision maker in this respect is not the new GM, but the Governing Board of the FNO! So it might be that my first prediction about the reshuffling of the Finnish musical chairs was totally wrong. We will wait and see!

News Update - The Chamber Orchestra of Lapland

Sasha Mäkilä — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:00:00 +0200

The orchestra pictured here is NOT the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland

Today's orchestral newsflash was, that John Storgårds will stay in lead of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland, in the condition that they will hire one additional musician per year until 2011 to make this very small but virtuosic ensemble more versatile. He stated, that the municipality of Rovaniemi had promised to hire new players already back in the 80's.

This sound like very good news to the world's northernmost orchestra, so let's hope they will get the posts they need. Storgårds put a deadline for hiring the first extra musician before the end of 2007, so we are witnessing a lot of interesting deadlines. Which one will prevail, money or art?

Playing musical chairs in Finland

Sasha Mäkilä — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:37:00 +0200

The Nike "Musical Chairs" commercial

In today's news we read that Leif Segerstam will become the "Chief Conductor Emeritus" of Helsinki Filharmonia and John Storgårds from Tampere Filharmonia will take up the post of the chief conductor next year. By following the news coming from the Finnish orchestral field past couple of months, I think we are now witnessing a chain reaction started by the resignation of Mikko Franck from the Finnish National Opera.

Let's see the events in chronological order:

14.2. Chief conductor of the Finnish National Opera, Mikko Franck resigns. According to his contract he has to stay one year after the resignation.

14.6. Erkki Korhonen, the General Manager of the FNO resigns. Korhonen also was the main reason why Leif Segerstam refused to become the chief conductor of FNO some six years ago.

31.7. John Storgårds announces his resignation from Tampere Filharmonia after the 2008-2009 season.

6.9. Tampere Filharmonia announces that Hannu Lintu will be their next chief conductor.

27.9. It is announced that Päivi Kärkkäinen will become the new General Manager of FNO starting in December, 2007.

2.10. Helsinki Filharmonia announces John Storgårds will be their next chief conductor starting season 2008-2009.

My guess is, that the next news we will get in December when the new GM of FNO will start her post. The news will probably be: "Leif Segerstam starts as the new Chief Conductor of the FNO, starting 14.2.2008."

The unfolding events look like a huge game of "musical chairs", and this time it is Mikko Franck who has to find work elsewhere. But it seems he does not mind it, which is a pity for Finnish cultural life! We saw before that when Osmo Vänskä went to Minnesota, freelancing Jukka-Pekka Saraste came to Lahti. And it has happened so many times before! I would just say that seeing the same names in the headlines over and over again betrays a certain lack of dynamism in the Finnish orchestral scene.