Wang & Salonen
Explosive energy and charm are key when super pianist Yuja Wang and Esa-Pekka Salonen perform together at the Baltic Sea Festival. Stravinsky’s modernist Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra delights the ear at the right pitch to put everyone in a good mood. Prokofiev’s first piano concerto is youthful and virtuoso – pure joy from beginning to end. Sibelius’ orchestral tale about the reckless womanizer Lemminkäinen, known from Finnish mythology, reflects the protagonist’s personality: playful, lovesick and irresistibly spirited, even though a measure of darkness, characteristic of Sibelius, can be detected in the beautifully sombre third movement, The Swan of Tuonela.
This production is part of one or more concert series.
Kaija Saariaho’s Lumière et pesanteur was composed as a gift to the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, inspired by his performance of her La Passion de Simone (2006) in Los Angeles in January 2009. Simone in the title is the French Jewish philosopher and social activist Simone Weil (1909–11943), whose life and work is portrayed in the work. Lumière et pesanteur is based on the eighth part of the oratory Dieu se retire pour ne pas être aimé comme un trésor par un avare (God withdraws in order not to be loved like miser loves treasure). Saariaho builds up a subtle mood. The mostly slow, reflective music whirls and breathes in hazy harmonies that linger, swell and overlap.
Stravinsky composed Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1929) after his success with Concerto for Piano and Winds (1924). He had moved to Paris to escape the Russian revolution, and he needed to make music to make a living. As the name suggests, Capriccio is a playful piece. The piano leaps and jumps, transporting the listener to a music hall. Stravinsky compared the cimbalom-like cadence in the second movement with “a kind of Romanian restaurant music”.
We get to hear more Russian piano music in Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major from 1911–1912. It is the shortest of the composer’s five complete piano concertos. It only lasts about fifteen minutes, but it is extraordinarily inventive. The first few bars introduce a magnificent, romantic, theme, after which the composer abandons all traditional forms in favour of sparkling great interval leaps and key changes at a furious, energetic pace. This is a very early work in which you can already discern the beginnings of Prokofiev’s personal style.
Jean Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite was originally a draft for a Wagner-inspired opera that would have been called Veneen luominen (The Creation of the Boat), an adventure from the Finnish national epic Kalevala. The composer abandoned the project after a year and rewrote it for the Lemminkäinen orchestral cycle. It consists of four tonal poems based on legends about the heroic character Lemminkäinen, also borrowed from the Kalevala. The popular tonal poem The Swan of Tuonela is frequently performed as a freestanding orchestral work.
Text: Andreas Konvicka
More concerts
15–16 October130 - 475 krMozart, Liszt & Dante’s Inferno — med Adès, Keller & Bota
When Thomas Adès conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a concert awaits where the large-scale visions of romanticism meet the glow of...
21 October100 - 420 krDiscover fin-de-siècle ballet
Through the turn of the century ballet music, a world of rhythms, colours and modernist imagination opens, as Anton Holmer makes his debut with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Gregor Zubicky guides you through the music created for the iconic Swedish Ballet and Ballets Russes in Paris.
22 October100 - 420 krBallet at the turn-of-the-century
When the turn of the century dance scene underwent major changes, a new world of sounds, colours and rhythmic imagination opened. Under the direction of Anton Holmer, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra takes you through a time when ballet moved from playful folk to modernist elegance.
No tickets left24 October180 krHumlan Djojj on an adventure with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
When Humlan Djojj loses his way, he ends up in the middle of Berwaldhallen, surrounded by a live orchestra buzzing like a whole world of insects. Together with his friends and the musicians, Djojj sets off on a playful musical adventure. A warm and interactive concert experience for the whole family, where Djojj’s Grammy-nominated music meets the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.