For the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, April will be ushered in by our Easter concert (Cathedral of Sound, Thurs 6 April), which will be conducted by Leo McFall, who is familiar to Oulu audiences from past years. The programme features orchestral music from the heart of the romantic style period, which strongly and reverently matches the Easter mood. The evening’s opening number, Good Friday Music, is one of the climaxes of Richard Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal. Anton Bruckner’s sixth symphony, which has sometimes been called The Philosopher’s Symphony, will be heard as the second number of this concert without intermission. The Maundy Thursday concert in Oulu Music Center’s Madetoja Hall will start exceptionally at 6 p.m.
On Thursday 13 April at 7 p.m. and on Friday 14 April at 10 a.m., conductor Silvano Pasini will pay tribute to the great legend of Italian film music, Ennio Morricone (1928–2020). Mr Morricone launched an extensive career both in Europe and in Hollywood, composing music for approximately 500 films, the most famous perhaps being the music for Sergio Leone’s Westerns and Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful Eight, for which he was awarded the 2016 Academy Award for Best Music. The concert will feature Mr Morricone’s most renowned cinematic compositions from, for instance, A Fistful of Dollars; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Once Upon a Time in the West; and Cinema Paradiso. Soprano Luana Lombardi will perform as soloist, accompanied by Lasse Joamets, concertmaster of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, as violin soloist; joined by Cassiopeia, the mixed choir of the University of Oulu, which is coached by Kristian Heberg.
Thursday’s evening concert is sold out; so due to the great demand, the day performance intended for school children on Friday at 10:00 a.m. has been opened to public ticket sale. The day performance is shorter in duration: about 60 minutes without intermission. The concert visit on the part of the school groups is also being supported by concert patrons OP (Osuuspankki) Oulu and Oulun Energia Oy.
The chamber music concerts presented by Oulu Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Musicians will continue on Saturday 15 April at the Tulindberg Hall of the Oulu Music Centre, and on Sunday 16 April, at Kierikki Stone Age Centre (Yli-Ii). You can get acquainted during the On Harp Wings concerts with, for example, Claude Debussy’s unique tones and timbres, as well as the more rarely presented quintettes composed by Albert Roussel, Jean Françaix and Nino Rota.
Thursday, 20 April The Amore, Amore concert features classic scenes and arias from Italian opera arranged for trumpet, under the direction of Chief Conductor Rumon Gamba. Matilda Lloyd (UK), who has made a name for herself in the concert halls of the world after winning the 2017 Eric Aubier Trumpet Competition, will be the guest soloist. The spring component of the concert is represented by Italian Ottorino Respighi’s nature portrait, The Birds, as well as the ballet music of American Aaron Copland’s timeless classic, Appalachian Spring, which resounds in the style of the prairies and the American Midwest.
April will culminate, of course, in Sparkling Spring (Sun 30 April), promising all the element of surprise, wizardry and lots of fun. There will be familiar hits, contemporary sounds, entertaining music, lighter classics and everything in between, all spiced up with lively humour. In the concert starting at 4 p.m. on May Day Eve, Aku Hirviniemi will bring his familiar characters from TV’s Putous (Comedy Combat) programme to the stage. The performers will also include pianist Iiro Rantala and actor Lotta Kuusisto. Oulu Symphony Orchestra is directed by conductor Eero Lehtimäki.
Text: Oulu Symphony
Photo: Matilda Lloyd, c Benjamin Ealovega