• Joy of Music – Over 250 years of quality, innovation, and tradition

Tagged with 'Helsinki'

Work of the Week – Richard Ayres: No. 57 (K's Strange Day)

From the background to the limelight: Richard Ayres' work No. 57 (K's Strange Day) for solo timpani and orchestra will be premiered in Helsinki on 4 September 2024. The YLE Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform at Musiikkitalo under the baton of its chief conductor Nicholas Collon.

Ayres wrote his new piece for the orchestra's principal timpanist, Kazutaka Morita. The composer generally uses consecutive numbering for the titles of his pieces, in this case No. 57. The addition (K's Strange Day) can be seen as an allusion to Franz Kafka’s The Trial and the protagonist Josef K. The peculiar thing here is the emergence of the timpani from the background of the orchestra into the limelight. Questions arise: Does the imaginary figure do this voluntarily? In what situation does it find itself? Is she acting or is she subject to the circumstances?

No. 57 (K's Strange Day) by Richard Ayres: Grand entrance for the timpani

For long stretches, Ayres attempts to create a kind of ‘film without images’ in the audience's imagination. The composer has repeatedly been influenced by early cinema and artists such as Charlie Chaplin. There is often a central character around whom the story revolves.

When I was still playing in orchestras, this person seemed to be a mysterious figure sitting alone behind a wall of huge magical cauldrons. He often seemed to lean over the instrument as if he were talking to it. Half musician, half magician. (Richard Ayres)

No. 57 (K's Strange Day) will be performed again in the same place the day after the premiere. The German premiere can be experienced in May 2025 with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz. The next world premiere by Richard Ayres will follow on 13 September 2024 in Amsterdam, where the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble will present Ayres' homage to the current Anton Bruckner year, which is logically entitled No. 58 (Bruckner)

 

Further Reading:

Richard Ayres: Composer Profile

No. 57 (K's Strange Day): Work Details and Online Score 

Website YLE Radio Symphony Orchestra

 

photo: Miguel Chamorro / Adobe

Work of the Week – Sebastian Hilli: You Are the Earth Beneath You

By carefully attending, nature and objects reveal their sounds. On November 22, 2023, soprano Anu Komsi will debut Sebastian Hilli's new song cycle. She will be joined by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and the Vaasa City Orchestra, led by Anna-Maria Helsing. The premiere of You Are the Earth Beneath You will be held at Schaumansalen in Pietarsaari, located on the west coast of Finland in the Swedish-speaking region.

Read more

Work of the Week – Valentin Silvestrov: Symphony No. 7

Valentin Silvestrov is widely regarded as a significant contemporary Ukrainian composer. His compositions have garnered considerable attention since the Russian invasion. The composer had to flee and seek asylum in Berlin. Silvestrov's music relates the story of his homeland and advocates for peace and solidarity. On September 6, 2023, his Symphony No. 7 will have its Finnish premiere at Musiikkitalo Helsinki. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra  will perform it on occasion of its season opening under the direction of Olari Elts.

Read more

Work of the Week – Sebastian Hilli: Honeymoon

Forever embracing emotions as life’s universal language, in Sebastian Hilli’s new work, Honeymoon, for solo trumpet and ensemble, both love and longing unite within the solo voice. On 11 March 2023, the composer himself will conduct the Uusinta Ensemble as they take on the piece’s world premiere at the Musiikitalo Helsinki featuring Tomas Gricius on trumpet.

Read more

Sebastian Hilli Joins Schott

Schott Music is looking forward to working with composer Sebastian Hilli.  The publishing partnership commences with his orchestral works Peach and Miracle followed by new compositions for Ensemble Musikfabrik, Uusinta Ensemble, Time of Music Festival, Gaudeamus Festival, International Ensemble Modern Academy and IRCAM.

Sebastian Hilli is a Finnish composer born in 1990, who received his Master’s degree in Composition from Sibelius Academy in 2016. Hilli has had success in numerous composition competitions by winning the Teosto Prize in 2019, the Gaudeamus Award in 2018, the ”Under 30” category in the International Rostrum of Composers in 2017 and Toru Takemitsu Composition Award in 2015.

Tervetuloa! Welcome, Sebastian Hilli!