Classics, film scores, theme concerts and great visitors adorn the spring of Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
The spring programme of Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra features classics of orchestral music from composers such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Stravinsky, Sibelius and Shostakovich. Highlights of the spring include Space Odyssey 2019, a concert of space-themed classical and film music as well as the film Song of the Blood-Red Flower, accompanied by new music from Jonne Valtonen. Families get to enjoy Carnival of the Animals children’s concerts. The spring season also includes the traditional concert of Baroque music, a choir concert on Holy Thursday as well as the May Day concerts. In February, the orchestra will perform Puccini’s La bohème at the Tampere Opera under conductor Alberto Hold-Garrido. The season ends with a concert with the a cappella group Club for Five at Tampere Vocal Music Festival.
The spring season of Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra will be opened on Friday 11 January 2019 by Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum and Psalm 150, two imposing compositions for choir, as well as Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by pianist Olli Mustonen. The opening piece of the concert will be Melodien by György Ligeti, one of the greatest avant-garde composers of the 20th century.
“To me, Concerto No. 2 is incredibly full of light and extreme joy. It is a firework of rhythm and ingenuity,” says Mustonen about the evening concerto.
The soloists for Bruckner’s traditional choir compositions will be the Russian soprano Pelageya Kurennaya, alto Tuija Knihtilä, tenor Tuomas Katajala and bass Timo Riihonen. The choir sections will be performed by Tampere Philharmonic Choir, trained by its Artistic Director Jani Sivén. The evening of five soloists will be conducted by Christopher Warren-Green, one of the favourite conductors of the British royal family. His exceptional two-week visit to Tampere will extend to the second concert of the season on Friday 18 January. The orchestra’s programme for the evening includes music from Sibelius whose work Warren-Green has admired since his days as a student. The concert will also include Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations as well as Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes.
The spring programme of Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra features classics of orchestral music from composers such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Stravinsky, Sibelius and Shostakovich. Highlights of the spring include Space Odyssey 2019, a concert of space-themed classical and film music as well as the film Song of the Blood-Red Flower, accompanied by new music from Jonne Valtonen. Families get to enjoy Carnival of the Animals children’s concerts organised just before the schools’ winter break, and the orchestra’s May Day concerts are also a treat for the whole family. The spring season also includes the traditional concert of Baroque music and a choir concert on Holy Thursday. In February, the orchestra will perform Puccini’s La bohème at the Tampere Opera under conductor Alberto Hold-Garrido. The season ends with a concert with the a cappella group Club for Five at Tampere Vocal Music Festival.
The orchestra’s Chief Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali will conduct five concerts during the spring. In addition to Mr Warren-Green, the orchestra will welcome visitors such as Christopher Seaman, a conductor with a long career in the US, Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Carlos Kalmar, Chief Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, who previously conducted the Tampere orchestra over a decade ago. Pianist Paavali Jumppanen will visit Tampere for the third time. Jess Gillam, a young, award-winning saxophonist from the UK, will star as the soloist of a concert conducted by Rouvali in March, and the famous Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen will grace the concert hall in April. Palmgren’s Piano Concerto No. 2 The River will be performed by Mackenzie Melemed, winner of the 2017 Maj Lind Piano Competition, and Tanja Tetzlaff will perform as the soloist in the Cello Concerto by Korean composer Unsuk Chin. Solo violinist Nemanja Radulović delighted Tampere in the spring of 2018, and she will now return with concerts dedicated to Khachaturian. Tampere Philharmonic Choir will perform Duruflé’s Requiem with soloists Monica Groop and Tommi Hakala.
The orchestra’s 23-year-old series of chamber music will be launched on Sunday 20 January at 3 p.m. in the Small Auditorium at Tampere Hall with Stanley Leonard’s (b. 1931) Fanfare for Trumpet and Timpani. Leonard’s composition welcomes spring and the new light of the season. The series will consist of four concerts during the spring.
