The Baltic Seasons

Kaspars Putniņš’ first concert at the Baltic Sea Festival as the Swedish Radio Choir’s Chief Conductor has been named The Baltic Seasons. Seasons, as well as cyclical changes throughout life, form the tonal foundation as the Swedish Radio Choir and star violinist Johan Dalene meet Putniņš.

‘The cycles of nature, big and small, are one of the great wonders of the world,’ says Putniņš. ‘Here in the Nordic countries, the changes of the seasons are so clear, and so beautiful. The frozen lake, how everything comes to life in spring, and the intense greenery of high summer. It’s like breaths, the circle of life. I also think that the strange and dark time of the pandemic is part of a circular movement. This concert is about different aspects of change.’

To Kaija Saariaho, German poet Friedrich Hölderlin’s texts have a special meaning. The poems in her piece Tag des Jahrs dive into the strong colours of the seasons, and follow their ever-changing characters. But what Saariaho returns to is how the texts are dated. They are all signed with a made-up name, Scardanelli, and dated several years before Hölderlin was born. Saariaho, whose mother lost her sense of time and space due to a stroke, asks if Hölderlin might have experienced something similar. The harmonies of the choir are embraced by electronic sounds, a human voice, and distant birds in Hölderlin’s landscape.

In April, Latvia celebrated the great composer Pēteris Vasks, who turned 75. He was born in the small town of Aizpute, which is two hours straight west from Kaspars Putniņš’ Riga, and one day of sailing from Gotland, if the winds are willing. In Three Poems by Czesław Miłosz, Vasks finds an individual who is enveloped in the cyclical nature of the world and of life: in circles of joy and grief, conflict and clarity. Kaspars Putniņš sees rebirth in the piece:

‘The loneliness we have experienced over the past year is a great challenge for us as individuals. But I think that being allowed to exist in the normal, social flow without being forced to focus on oneself can be a deliverance. If we take this seriously, it can mean something new for our civilisation. Spring is inexorable – it comes every year, no matter how hard the winter has been,’ says Putniņš.

Janna Vettergren