Avanti! Summer Sounds XXXIV will arrive in Porvoo on 26 – 30 June 2019. This year the programme has been created by Swiss Baldur Brönnimann. As the theme for 2019 is City of Music, the music will enter the streets and cafés of Porvoo to paint a multitude of thoughts and feelings on the streets and walls of Porvoo with an imaginary paintbrush.
Finland’s premiere of Teoton composed by Jukka Tiensuu for sheng artist Wu Wei will take place at the Art Factory. Sheng or the mouth-organ is an ancient woodwind instrument, related to harmonica for example, known in China and Korea, in particular.
This year as a novelty Summer Sounds will present late-night Lounge clubs where the international stars, like sheng artist Wu Wei and violinist Jennifer Koh, will join the concert audience at the Avanti Hall foyer after the main concerts. The music will descend from the stage among the audience and the concert guests have a possibility to enjoy the high-level of skill and improvisation of international artists. American violinist Jennifer Koh will also perform pieces for solo violin in the cafés of Porvoo on Saturday. Koh is also the soloist for the fantastic violin concerto by György Ligeti on Friday evening.
The legends of Finnish music Matti Salminen and M.A. Numminen meet again, as the incredible Humppavanti! returns to Summer Sounds. Avanti Hall will witness music from Finnish composers M.A. Nummisen and Unto Monosen as well as Schubert and Wagner in a way not often seen in concert halls. At the final concert, the festival’s folk theme will culminate on Sunday in the works by György Ligeti. The festival will end with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony number 3, “Eroica”.
Summer Sounds will bring to Porvoo music composed by king Henry VIII performed by Avanti’s viola da gamba ensemble as well as compositions from the times of Valle Rosenberg (1891-1919), gifted expressionist painters from Porvoo who died at early age. As in the earlier years, the festival programme includes a composers’ workshop with music written to old avantgarde short films and a concert for children where one can touch the music.
Avantis 34th Summer Sounds festival receives kind support from the City of Porvoo, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden and the Aktiastiftelsten in Porvoo.
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The tickets are sold on the website of Lippupiste as of Friday 22 March at 9.00. For festival pass inquiries, please contact the Avanti! office directly (contact details below). For the full programme, click here.
For further information:
Avanti Office, avanti@avantimusic.fi, +358 50 581 0409
www.avantimusic.fi
Text edited on 24.5.: The name and number of Beethoven’s symphony in the final concert updated.
In spring 2017, Chamber Orchestra Avanti! treats the audience to a colourful selection of classical and contemporary music – without forgetting choice Baroque-era hits. The highlight of the season will be concert Kevään lumous (The Spell of Spring), with the dramatic soprano Karita Mattila dazzling in the lead. A premiere of a new orchestral piece by Lauri Kilpiö will open the concert.
Avanti!’s spring season comprises three concerts: in February Avanti! caps the festival Musica Nova by paying homage to György Ligeti; March will see the orchestra revisit the acclaimed concert Rite at Porvoo Cathedral; and the season will be wrapped up in May by casting the Spell of Spring.
On the last Saturday of May, Helsinki Music Centre will play host to Avanti!’s anticipated end-of-season concert with the brilliant Karita Mattila. Mattila was catapulted to international attention in 1983 when she won the singing contest Cardiff Singer of the World. As chance would have it, Avanti! was founded the same year, and now the paths of these two veritable phenomena of Finnish music cross again with love and its many hues – longing, romance and joy – being unleashed in the late May evening.
The concert will open with the premiere of a new orchestral work by composer Lauri Kilpiö, one of the most interesting voices of his generation. The piece has been commissioned by Pro Musica Foundation, which also supports the concert.
The pieces to be performed by Mattila portrait the feelings of love and longing in the lightness of spring. French composer Henri Duparc’s songs are filled with elegant saudade and sensuality. The damsel in Jean Sibelius’s song ‘Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte’ falls victim to an infidel lover. In Rydberg’s ‘På verandan vid havet’ the pregnant silence expresses omnipresent longing, whereas in ’Våren flyktar hastigt’ by Runeberg the mere memory of spring encourages to love.
Contentment of the heart shines through Robert Schumann’s symphony “Spring”, too: for the that time newly-wedded composer the season is swarming with tokens of romance.
Conductor Olari Elts.
NOTE: The concert program has changed. The information is updated on Jan 23th 2017.
The first concert of the season will limelight Hungarian-born avant-garde composer György Ligeti and his musical heritage. The public will remember Ligeti’s music especially from the Stanley Kubrick films 2001:Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. The concert In the Spirit of Ligeti closes the festival Musica Nova and delves into the pervasive Ligetian influence in the works of his son and major students.
Lukas Ligeti’s piece ‘Curtain’ marries European modernism and African rhythms. Inspired by visual arts, the piece applies the technique of layering to music in a way that justifies comparisons to animation artist William Kentdrige. Ligeti paints on the melodic and harmonic canvas provided by the string quartet, creating an intriguing tension between the quartet and the larger ensemble.
“Thall” (Mask), the last part of Unsuk Chin’s cosmigimmicks, is a tribute to György Ligeti. In the centre of this musical pantomime is the guitar. Using only of a few repetitive microtones, the guitar plays a pseudo melody that changes according to the harmonies of other instruments – just like the expression on a mime artist’s face.
Benedict Mason, another important student of Ligeti’s, too, nods to his mentor in his piece “Hinterstoissener traverse”. By restricting itself to the use of only one note, g, this extremely minimalistic piece manages to direct its attention fully to the exploration of rhythm and dynamic.
The concert is a part of the festival Musica Nova and it will be conducted by Clement Power.
First performed in Helsinki’s Temppeliaukio church in April 2016, the much-lauded concert phenomenon Riitti (Rite) returns this spring. This time, Avanti! takes the theme concert to the atmospheric Porvoo Cathedral on 14 March. Rite brings together old and new music and takes advantage of the solemn space and peculiar acoustics of the church milieu.
Of well-known Baroque-era names the programme includes Henry Purcell’s ‘The Queen’s Funeral March’ and Marin Marais’s piece “Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont de Paris”, familiar from the biopic All the Mornings of the World.
Here the title “rite” does not only refer to and describe the programme but the form of the whole concert, as well. From to the flamboyance of the Baroque and its well-known pearls, the concert takes us to the futuristic atmospheres of the 1900s, along with a number of rarely performed pieces from the 1950s. Rite will culminate in concerto “Tarinaoopperabaletti” (Story Opera Ballet) for electronic cello, commissioned from Jukka Tiensuu by soloist Juho Laitinen.
The concert is a part of the concert series Taidetehtaan Klassikot and it will be conducted by Lauri Ahokas.
Musica Nova Helsinki 2017 festival program has been published. The final concert of the festival in Music Centre on Sun Feb 12th by Avanti! presents the legacy of György Ligeti through the works of his pupils and son, Lukas Ligeti.
The whole program for Avanti’s spring season will be published soon!
Avanti!’s concert The sound of Welfare continues the orchestra’s series of concerts with a political theme. This performance tackles the relation between art and the welfare state seriously, but with humor.
Jaakko Kuusisto conducts the concert with guest soloist e.g. Johanna Rusanen, Petri Bäckström and Jaakko Kortekangas.
The welfare state has taken ill as the commonplace goes. Can art provide the remedy? Simultaneously with cuts being introduced, arts are being hailed as a form of therapy and funded with this end in mind. But should welfare music be cheery and simple? Can it be played in minor or does this fail to produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number? Could it be that a sign of true social welfare is art that is autonomous and free from all predetermined purposes?
Avanti! will perform with three versatile programs during the fall season. The concerts vary from a thematic orchestra concert at the Cable Factory to an early music club gig with periodic instruments all the way to contemporary new music concert at the Helsinki Music Centre.
Composer Lotta Wennäkoski will be planning the program for 32nd Avanti Summer Sounds festival, to be organised on 28 June – 2 July 2017. This year’s Summer Sounds Festival, which consisted of fourteen concerts and other events in Porvoo and Pernaja, was attended by an audience of roughly 3 000 people.
Lotta Wennäkoski was the artistic co-ordinator of The Tampere Biennale Festival in 2008–2010 and the composer-in-residence of Tapiola Sinfonietta during the season 2010–2011. Her compositions have been performed widely in Finnish and international concert halls and festivals, including The Helsinki Festival, Musica Nova, Märzmusik Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and The Other Minds Festival. She has also composed a number of commissioned works for the likes of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
“I was very flattered and surprised by the invitation to become the artistic co-ordinator of the Summer Sounds. It will be a very exciting opportunity to plan the programme for a festival that delivers chamber and orchestral, classical and contemporary music. What a range of possibilities that opens up!” says Wennäkoski.
Closed on 3 July, this year’s Summer Sounds was curated by Moscow-born Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk. The five-day festival saw fourteen concerts and other events, six of which free, take place around Porvoo and Pernaja. In all, the festival was attended by roughly 3 000 visitors. Like in previous years, a bus service operated between Helsinki and the Art Factory, taking visitors to the festival and back during the festival.
The principal supporters of the Summer Sounds are the City of Porvoo, Aktiasäätiö, Neste, Porvoo Art Factory and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.
Avanti! warmly thanks the festival audience and supporters and wishes all friends of the orchestra a wonderful summer!
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Avanti! Summer Sounds XXXIV – programme published
/in News /by avantiadminFinland’s premiere of Teoton composed by Jukka Tiensuu for sheng artist Wu Wei will take place at the Art Factory. Sheng or the mouth-organ is an ancient woodwind instrument, related to harmonica for example, known in China and Korea, in particular.
This year as a novelty Summer Sounds will present late-night Lounge clubs where the international stars, like sheng artist Wu Wei and violinist Jennifer Koh, will join the concert audience at the Avanti Hall foyer after the main concerts. The music will descend from the stage among the audience and the concert guests have a possibility to enjoy the high-level of skill and improvisation of international artists. American violinist Jennifer Koh will also perform pieces for solo violin in the cafés of Porvoo on Saturday. Koh is also the soloist for the fantastic violin concerto by György Ligeti on Friday evening.
The legends of Finnish music Matti Salminen and M.A. Numminen meet again, as the incredible Humppavanti! returns to Summer Sounds. Avanti Hall will witness music from Finnish composers M.A. Nummisen and Unto Monosen as well as Schubert and Wagner in a way not often seen in concert halls. At the final concert, the festival’s folk theme will culminate on Sunday in the works by György Ligeti. The festival will end with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony number 3, “Eroica”.
Summer Sounds will bring to Porvoo music composed by king Henry VIII performed by Avanti’s viola da gamba ensemble as well as compositions from the times of Valle Rosenberg (1891-1919), gifted expressionist painters from Porvoo who died at early age. As in the earlier years, the festival programme includes a composers’ workshop with music written to old avantgarde short films and a concert for children where one can touch the music.
Avantis 34th Summer Sounds festival receives kind support from the City of Porvoo, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden and the Aktiastiftelsten in Porvoo.
***
The tickets are sold on the website of Lippupiste as of Friday 22 March at 9.00. For festival pass inquiries, please contact the Avanti! office directly (contact details below). For the full programme, click here.
For further information:
Avanti Office, avanti@avantimusic.fi, +358 50 581 0409
www.avantimusic.fi
Text edited on 24.5.: The name and number of Beethoven’s symphony in the final concert updated.
Avanti!’s spring season spotlights Karita Mattila
/in News /by avantiadminIn spring 2017, Chamber Orchestra Avanti! treats the audience to a colourful selection of classical and contemporary music – without forgetting choice Baroque-era hits. The highlight of the season will be concert Kevään lumous (The Spell of Spring), with the dramatic soprano Karita Mattila dazzling in the lead. A premiere of a new orchestral piece by Lauri Kilpiö will open the concert.
Avanti!’s spring season comprises three concerts: in February Avanti! caps the festival Musica Nova by paying homage to György Ligeti; March will see the orchestra revisit the acclaimed concert Rite at Porvoo Cathedral; and the season will be wrapped up in May by casting the Spell of Spring.
The Spell of Spring
On the last Saturday of May, Helsinki Music Centre will play host to Avanti!’s anticipated end-of-season concert with the brilliant Karita Mattila. Mattila was catapulted to international attention in 1983 when she won the singing contest Cardiff Singer of the World. As chance would have it, Avanti! was founded the same year, and now the paths of these two veritable phenomena of Finnish music cross again with love and its many hues – longing, romance and joy – being unleashed in the late May evening.
The concert will open with the premiere of a new orchestral work by composer Lauri Kilpiö, one of the most interesting voices of his generation. The piece has been commissioned by Pro Musica Foundation, which also supports the concert.
The pieces to be performed by Mattila portrait the feelings of love and longing in the lightness of spring. French composer Henri Duparc’s songs are filled with elegant saudade and sensuality. The damsel in Jean Sibelius’s song ‘Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte’ falls victim to an infidel lover. In Rydberg’s ‘På verandan vid havet’ the pregnant silence expresses omnipresent longing, whereas in ’Våren flyktar hastigt’ by Runeberg the mere memory of spring encourages to love.
Contentment of the heart shines through Robert Schumann’s symphony “Spring”, too: for the that time newly-wedded composer the season is swarming with tokens of romance.
Conductor Olari Elts.
NOTE: The concert program has changed. The information is updated on Jan 23th 2017.
Opening the Season in the Spirit of Ligeti
The first concert of the season will limelight Hungarian-born avant-garde composer György Ligeti and his musical heritage. The public will remember Ligeti’s music especially from the Stanley Kubrick films 2001: Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. The concert In the Spirit of Ligeti closes the festival Musica Nova and delves into the pervasive Ligetian influence in the works of his son and major students.
Lukas Ligeti’s piece ‘Curtain’ marries European modernism and African rhythms. Inspired by visual arts, the piece applies the technique of layering to music in a way that justifies comparisons to animation artist William Kentdrige. Ligeti paints on the melodic and harmonic canvas provided by the string quartet, creating an intriguing tension between the quartet and the larger ensemble.
“Thall” (Mask), the last part of Unsuk Chin’s cosmigimmicks, is a tribute to György Ligeti. In the centre of this musical pantomime is the guitar. Using only of a few repetitive microtones, the guitar plays a pseudo melody that changes according to the harmonies of other instruments – just like the expression on a mime artist’s face.
Benedict Mason, another important student of Ligeti’s, too, nods to his mentor in his piece “Hinterstoissener traverse”. By restricting itself to the use of only one note, g, this extremely minimalistic piece manages to direct its attention fully to the exploration of rhythm and dynamic.
The concert is a part of the festival Musica Nova and it will be conducted by Clement Power.
Avanti! Revisits the acclaimed Rite at Porvoo Cathedral
First performed in Helsinki’s Temppeliaukio church in April 2016, the much-lauded concert phenomenon Riitti (Rite) returns this spring. This time, Avanti! takes the theme concert to the atmospheric Porvoo Cathedral on 14 March. Rite brings together old and new music and takes advantage of the solemn space and peculiar acoustics of the church milieu.
Of well-known Baroque-era names the programme includes Henry Purcell’s ‘The Queen’s Funeral March’ and Marin Marais’s piece “Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont de Paris”, familiar from the biopic All the Mornings of the World.
Here the title “rite” does not only refer to and describe the programme but the form of the whole concert, as well. From to the flamboyance of the Baroque and its well-known pearls, the concert takes us to the futuristic atmospheres of the 1900s, along with a number of rarely performed pieces from the 1950s. Rite will culminate in concerto “Tarinaoopperabaletti” (Story Opera Ballet) for electronic cello, commissioned from Jukka Tiensuu by soloist Juho Laitinen.
The concert is a part of the concert series Taidetehtaan Klassikot and it will be conducted by Lauri Ahokas.
Avanti! performs “In the Spirit of Ligeti” at the final concert of Musica Nova 2017 festival
/in News /by avantiadminMusica Nova Helsinki 2017 festival program has been published. The final concert of the festival in Music Centre on Sun Feb 12th by Avanti! presents the legacy of György Ligeti through the works of his pupils and son, Lukas Ligeti.
The whole program for Avanti’s spring season will be published soon!
The Sound of Welfare at the Cable Factory on Tue 20.9.2016
/in News, Uutiset /by avantiadminAvanti!’s concert The sound of Welfare continues the orchestra’s series of concerts with a political theme. This performance tackles the relation between art and the welfare state seriously, but with humor.
Jaakko Kuusisto conducts the concert with guest soloist e.g. Johanna Rusanen, Petri Bäckström and Jaakko Kortekangas.
The welfare state has taken ill as the commonplace goes. Can art provide the remedy? Simultaneously with cuts being introduced, arts are being hailed as a form of therapy and funded with this end in mind. But should welfare music be cheery and simple? Can it be played in minor or does this fail to produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number? Could it be that a sign of true social welfare is art that is autonomous and free from all predetermined purposes?
See more info here
Tickets 27,50/17,50€ www.lippu.fi
Avanti’s fall season 2016 concerts published
/in News /by avantiadminAvanti! will perform with three versatile programs during the fall season. The concerts vary from a thematic orchestra concert at the Cable Factory to an early music club gig with periodic instruments all the way to contemporary new music concert at the Helsinki Music Centre.
See all concerts and ticket information here.
Lotta Wennäkoski in charge of the programme for Summer Sounds 2017
/in News /by avantiadminComposer Lotta Wennäkoski will be planning the program for 32nd Avanti Summer Sounds festival, to be organised on 28 June – 2 July 2017. This year’s Summer Sounds Festival, which consisted of fourteen concerts and other events in Porvoo and Pernaja, was attended by an audience of roughly 3 000 people.
Lotta Wennäkoski was the artistic co-ordinator of The Tampere Biennale Festival in 2008–2010 and the composer-in-residence of Tapiola Sinfonietta during the season 2010–2011. Her compositions have been performed widely in Finnish and international concert halls and festivals, including The Helsinki Festival, Musica Nova, Märzmusik Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and The Other Minds Festival. She has also composed a number of commissioned works for the likes of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
“I was very flattered and surprised by the invitation to become the artistic co-ordinator of the Summer Sounds. It will be a very exciting opportunity to plan the programme for a festival that delivers chamber and orchestral, classical and contemporary music. What a range of possibilities that opens up!” says Wennäkoski.
Closed on 3 July, this year’s Summer Sounds was curated by Moscow-born Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk. The five-day festival saw fourteen concerts and other events, six of which free, take place around Porvoo and Pernaja. In all, the festival was attended by roughly 3 000 visitors. Like in previous years, a bus service operated between Helsinki and the Art Factory, taking visitors to the festival and back during the festival.
The principal supporters of the Summer Sounds are the City of Porvoo, Aktiasäätiö, Neste, Porvoo Art Factory and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.
Avanti! warmly thanks the festival audience and supporters and wishes all friends of the orchestra a wonderful summer!