Oulu Sinfonia’s official autumn season kicks off with a Prokofiev festival, featuring some of Sergei Prokofiev’s most famous works. The autumn season will also include music deeply ingrained in the Finnish soul as well as fascinating pieces from both Finland and around the world.
Oulu Sinfonia will take the stage as usual in August. At the opening concert of the Elojazz Festival on Thursday, 1st August, the new artistic director of the festival, jazz singer Aili Ikonen, along with Oulu Sinfonia, will release the new album Valo, conducted by Chief Conductor Rumon Gamba. Two weeks later, during the Oulu Arts’ Night on Thursday, 15th August, Oulu Sinfonia Open will offer joy for both children and adults alike under the baton of conductor Johanna Almark. The admission-free outdoor concerts in Hupisaari Open-Air Theatre have traditionally been very popular with the audience. August is traditional outreach month, during which the orchestra visits also schools and nursing homes.
The season concerts begin in early September with a Prokofiev festival. The programme features key works by Ukrainian-born Sergei Prokofiev, from the Classical Symphony (Master of Satire on 5th September) to the music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet (Master of Melody on 7th September) and the musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf (11th and 12th September), narrated by actress Alma Pöysti. Inmo Yang, the winner of the XII International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, will perform Prokofiev’s two violin concertos under the baton of Rumon Gamba.
On Thursday, 26th September, in the Exotic Allure concert, Elina Vähälä and Atte Kilpeläinen will perform Miklós Rózsa’s Sinfonia Concertante. Originally composed for violin and cello, the piece will be heard in a premiere arrangement for violin and viola. Tami Pohjola, predicted to be Finland’s next star violinist, will perform Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto as the soloist in the Finlandia concert on Thursday, 5th December, conducted by Eero Lehtimäki.
In the Lost in Nostalgia concert on 14th November, Luka Coetzee, the winner of the VII International Paulo Cello Competition, will interpret Edward Elgar’s melancholic cello concerto. The young Finnish soprano Emma Mustaniemi will perform Jean Sibelius’s Luonnotar on 19th September.
During the autumn season, Oulu Sinfonia will showcase its prowess as an interpreter of some of classical music’s most iconic orchestral works. On 26th September, in the Exotic Allure concert, the orchestra will perform music from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird. On 10th and 11th October, the orchestra, reinforced by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Oulu Sinfonia’s former Chief Conductor Johannes Gustavsson, will tackle Gustav Mahler’s monumental Fifth Symphony in the Mahler V concert. On Don Juan concert on 31st October, Estonian conductor Olari Elts will lead the orchestra in Richard Strauss’s Don Juan and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s overture-fantasy Romeo and Juliet.
During the autumn season, Oulu Sinfonia will present both new works and rare historical gems. On 19th September, the Luonnotar concert will feature the world premiere of Tim Benjamin’s brand-new piece There is Nothing Here. The same concert will include the Third Symphony (1952) by Polish early modernist Grażyna Bacewicz, conducted by young Mateuz Gwizdałła. Among the rarely heard masterpieces is British late romantic Ruth Gipps’s Cringlemire Gardens, which will be performed on 14th November in the Lost in Nostalgia concert.
The 20th Ostrobothnian Contemporary Music Festival will showcase the best of contemporary music in the Wind in my Hair concert on 3rd October, featuring Julia Wolfe’s techno-inspired cello concerto performed by Sirja Nironen and the final part of Andrew Norman’s Play series, inspired by video games. Outi Tarkiainen’s Joye will be performed on 5th December in the Finlandia concert dedicated to Finnish music.
Special concerts continue in October as the orchestra honours the memory of Kaj Chydenius, who passed away in the spring. In the two concerts titled Jos rakastat – Unforgettable Kaj Chydenius on 16th and 17th October, songs will be performed by the composer’s son, Jussi Chydenius, the bass of the vocal ensemble Rajaton. Guest soloist Oona Airola and the composer’s other son, Kalle Chydenius, will also join the performance.
There will be two film concerts this autumn. Stormskerry Maja, which in premiered in cinema in January, will be shown on the big screen at Madetoja Hall on 7th and 8th November, accompanied by the symphony orchestra. The timeless Christmas favourite The Snowman will evoke nostalgic feelings on Tuesday, 10th December. The autumn season concludes on 13th and 14th December with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, featuring Kaisa Ranta, Virpi Räisänen, Tuomas Katajala, and Janne Sihvo at Oulu Cathedral, conducted by Lauri-Kalle Kallunki. The concert will also be performed in Raahe on 12th December.
Text: Oulu Sinfonia
Photo: Kati Leinonen