HiGHLiGHTS - Gehrmans Musikförlag

n o r d i c
HIGHLIGHTS 1/2013
N E W S L E T T E R F R O M G E H R M A N S M U S I K F Ö R L A G & F E N N I C A G E H R M A N
Paavo Heininen
C R E AT I O N – VA R I AT I O N – S I M U L AT I O N
Jörgen Dafgård
– music gives colour to life

N E W S
Maurice Karkoff in memoriam
Composer Maurice Karkoff passed away on
20 January, at the age of 85. His composing
was rich and varied: he wrote lyrical songs,
choral works, chamber music and symphonic
works. Significant are the large number of smallscale
works, always composed with a strong
personal imprint and warm fervour. Having
written 12 symphonies, he is also reckoned
among the great Swedish symphonists.
Chestopal plays piano
works by Yagling
Victor Chestopal is giving a recital at the
National Library of Finland on 20 March.
The programme consists of piano works
by cellist-composer Victoria Yagling, his
mother, and will include the premiere of
her last composition, the Sonatina for Piano
No. 4 (2011). There will also be a small
exhibition of Yagling´s manuscripts, letters
and recordings that have been donated to
the National Library.
Gramophone praises Aho as the greatest
living symphonist
In the February issue of Gramophone David Fanning
wrote that Kalevi Aho has a strong claim to the title of
greatest living symphonist. “This is music that takes wings
and flies....it is eager for adventures and discoveries of its
own. It can be warmly emotional or blistering.”
Aho has written 15 symphonies so far , the most
recent a commission from the BBC and Lahti Symphony
Orchestra. He has also been active in writing other orchestral
works. His Gejia receives its world premiere in China
on 17 March – a commission from the National Centre
for Performing Arts in Beijing.
Major Martinsson commission
Tonhalle Orchester Zürich is the main party
in a commission of a new song cycle by
Rolf Martinsson for soprano Lisa Larsson,
to be premiered in January 2015 under the
direction of John Storgårds. The joint
commissioners include The Netherlands
Philharmonic Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra London,
The Helsinki Philharmonic
Orchestra and The Gothenburg
Symphony Orchestra, and all
will feature the songs on their
programmes during the
2015/2016 season.
Lisa Larsson
Photo: Peter Kislinger
Photo: Andrea Diglas
Umeå to be European Cultural Capital 2014
The city of Umeå is promoting newly written music for the Norrlandsoperan
Symphony Orchestra in 2014, the year it will take over
as the European Capital of Culture. Mirjam Tally has composed a
large-scale work for choir and orchestra, From Darkness to Light, set
to poems by the Samian poet Paulus Utsis, to be premiered on 28
February next year. The project “Beethoven and Beyond” includes the
performances of Beethoven´s nine symphonies, at the same time as our
time will be reflected through nine short recently written orchestral
works by nine different composers, among them Fredrik Högberg,
Sven-David Sandström, Tobias Broström and Mirjam Tally.
n o r d i c
HIGHLIGHTS 1/2013
NEWSLET TER FROM GEHRMANS MUSIKFÖRLAG & FENNICA GEHRMAN
Sound samples , video clips
and other material are available at
www.gehrmans.se/highlights
www.fennicagehrman.fi/highlights
Cover photo: Music Finland/Saara Vuorjoki
(Paavo Heininen), Bilbo Lantto (Jörgen Dafgård)
Background photo: Animation from Fredrik
Högberg´s Ice Concerto
Editors: Henna Salmela and Kristina Fryklöf
Translations: Susan Sinisalo and Robert Carroll
Design: Göran Lind
ISSN 2000-2742 (Print), ISSN 2000-2750 (Online)
Printed in Sweden by TMG Sthlm, Bromma 2013
Photo: Saara Vuorjoki/Fimic
Linjama to the fore this year
Music by Jyrki Linjama will be very much to the fore
this year. His Vanitas for choir and orchestra is scheduled
for performance at the Helsinki Music Centre
on 24 April and will be followed on 29 June by his
Finnish Stabat Mater at the Lohtaja Church Music
Festival. Essi Luttinen and Ilmo Ranta will perform
his song cycle Mechthild-Lieder in Kemiö Church in
July; Linjama is Composer-in-Residence at the Kemiö
Music Festival this summer. His church opera
Die Geburt des Täufers can be heard in a concertante
performance both at the Organ Night and Aria festival
in Espoo and in Kemiö in July.
H i g h l i g h t s 1 / 2 0 1 3

Photo: Repin Media
Concert of music by Lars Karlsson
Finnish composer Lars Karlsson was 60 on 24
January. Music by him can be heard at a concert
at the Sibelius Academy on 8 November, when
Gabriel Suovanen will give the first full performance
of his Seven Songs to Texts by Pär Lagerkvist.
There will also be other works by him on the
programme, along with the Wegelius String
Orchestra conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing.
Sandström’s premiere in Berlin
Sven-David Sandström’s monumental St.
Matthew Passion will receive its world premiere
in Berliner Philharmonie on 16 February 2014
with the Philharmonischer Chor Berlin and
Staatskapelle Halle under Stefan Parkman.
Further performances will take place in
Uppsala and Stockholm in April (Gustaf
Sjökvist Chamber Choir/Gävle SO), and
the Notre Dame School of Music will give
the US premiere in June 2014.
New acquisitions
Gehrmans Musikförlag AB has acquired the serious
music sections in the catalogues Elkan &
Schildknecht and Hans Busch from Universal
Music Publishing AB. This includes works by
composers such as Bo Linde, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger,
Ture Rangström, Leif Segerstam
and Lillebror Söderlundh. The music is now
available for purchase and hire.
Photo: Mattias Ahlm
Reinvere writes
an Ibsen opera
The Norwegian National Opera has commissioned
a new opera from Jüri Reinvere. The
new interpretation of Peer Gynt, one of Norway’s
national epics, is scheduled to be premiered
in autumn 2014, and Reinvere will
write his own libretto based on Ibsen’s play. His
opera Purge scored success in Helsinki in
spring 2012. The new opera will be performed
in Norwegian, while the original work will be
written in German. Read more at http://www.
peergynt-opera.net
Schnelzer and Tally to ISCM WMD 2014
Albert Schnelzer’s cello concerto Crazy Diamond
and Mirjam Tally’s Animalistic Hymn for mixed
choir a cappella have been chosen to represent
Sweden and Estonia, respectively, at the ISCM
World Music Days in Wroclaw, Poland in 2014.
New Composers – Tally and Valfridsson
Gehrmans is happy to announce the new collaboration
with composers Mirjam Tally (b. 1976)
and Jonas Valfridsson (b. 1980). Tally, who hails
from Estonia, has lived and worked in Sweden
since 2006. Sounds and timbres are central in
her music, which abounds with playful contrasts.
Her breakthrough came during the ISCM World
Music Days in 2008 with the orchestral work
Turbulence , which was later performed at the
Venice Biennial and also awarded the Little Christ
Johnson Prize. During her period as Composer-in-
Residence with the Swedish Radio P2 (2009/2010)
she composed the orchestral work Density.
Jonas Valfridsson has been highly acclaimed
for his music for orchestra, which is esteemed
for its elaborate treatment of sonorities and innovative
orchestration. He received the 2007
Toru Takemitsu Composition Award for In
Killing Fields Sweet Butterfly Ascend, which was
premiered by The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
He also won the 2010 Uppsala Composition
Competition with The Only Thing that You Keep
Changing is Your Name .
Photo: Cato Lein
P r e m i e r e s
Spring 2013
Jorma Hynninen in Akseli
Kimmo Hakola
Akseli, monologue opera
Avanti! & Finnish Chamber Opera/Ville Matvejeff,
sol. Jorma Hynninen
28.2. Helsinki, Finland
Veli-Matti Puumala
Tear, for chamber orchestra
Tapiola Sinfonietta/Hannu Lintu
1.3. Espoo, Finland
Kalevi Aho
Three Songs to the Texts by Mawlana Rumi
Helsinki Chamber Choir/Nils Schweckendiek
4.3. Helsinki, Finland (Klang concert series)
Gejia, Chinese Images for Orchestra
NCPA Concert Hall Orchestra/Kristjan Järvi
17.3. Beijing, China
SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM
Requiem
Swedish Radio SO & Swedish Radio Choir/
Gustaf Sjökvist, sol. Elin Rombo, Katija Dragojevic,
Olle Persson, Matthew Rose
23.3. Stockholm, Sweden
Tapio Tuomela
Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra
”Swap”
Joensuu City Orchestra/Sasha Mäkilä,
sol. Joonatan Rautiola
10.4. Joensuu, Finland
Paavo Heininen
Kun ja jos - Vakavia lauluja
(Two Songs for Soprano and Orchestra)
Saimaa Sinfonietta/Tibor Bogányi, sol. Jenni Lättilä
19.4. Lappeenranta, Finland
FREDRIK HÖGBERG
Konzert für zwei Posaunen
(version for chamber orchestra)
Västerås Sinfonietta/cond. and sol. Christian
Lindberg and Nils Landgren
20.4. Västerås, Sweden
JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD
Clarinet Concerto No. 1
Swedish Radio SO/Christian Eggen,
sol. Andreas Sundén
4.5. Stockholm, Sweden
ROLF MARTINSSON
Tour de Force
Gothenburg SO/Nikolaj Znaider
15.5. Gothenburg, Sweden
BENJAMIN STAERN
Godai – Concerto for Orchestra
Malmö SO/Marc Soustrot
23.5. Malmö, Sweden
Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Yehia Eweis
H i g h l i g h t s 1 / 2 0 1 3

Heininen sees new possibilities everywhere and compares composing
to casting a net into the sea. His output includes surprising
combinations of instruments and entire families of pieces. In recent
years his adventures with ‘simulations’ of composer identities have
begun to trickle into his own output.
PA AV O H E I N I N E N :
C R E AT I O N – V A R I AT I O N – S I M U L AT I O N
Paavo Heininen (b. 1938), the most significant
living Finnish modernist composer, cannot be described
as a retiree in any sense of the word. But
these days he likes to describe himself as a ‘metamodernist’
as distinct from the historical modernist
period: the search for all things new is not over.
He is producing new works at a brisk pace and persists
in discovering new possibilities in areas where
no one has gone before. He comes up with new,
surprising genres and categories, combinations of
instruments and entire concert programmes of an
unprecedented nature.
Heininen’s recent output includes not only
symphonies , concertos and sonatas but also
completely surprising items such as 90 minutes
of music for the four bells in the church of the
composer’s home town of Järvenpää; a full-length
concert based on sine waves entitled Sinikosketus
(The Blue Exposure, 1995/2001); the organ-piano
duo Quincunx duplex op. 88bis (2002–03) written
together with composer colleague Jouko Linjama
using the exquisite corpse technique; a hymn-tune
mass for congregational use entitled Sunnuntain
laulukirja op. 110 (Sunday Song Book, 2009); and
a quartet for the unlikely ensemble of harp, guitar,
mandolin and harpsichord entitled Lakkamaalauksia
(Lacquer Paintings, 2012). He also has plans to
use virtual instruments that exist only on a computer,
e.g. a microtonal vibraphone to be paired up
with virtuoso pianist Paavali Jumppanen.
‘Simulations’ of composer identities
Paavo Heininen has also played around with the
identities of other composers: inspired by various
reconstruction projects, he ‘re-imagined’ the lost
Third Violin Concerto of his composition teacher
Aarre Merikanto (1893–1958) (Tuuminki / A
Notion, 1993). He has augmented the history of
Finnish music by writing the hitherto non-existent
string quartet output of Leevi Madetoja (1887–
1947) (Quartet No. 1 in F major, 1999; Quartet
‘The French’, 1999). “Nobody composed these
works, but I have written them,” Heininen says in
response to puzzled inquiries.
In recent years, Heininen’s adventures with
‘simulations’ of composer identities have begun to
trickle into his own output. In Paralleeliaktio op.
97bis (2008), the piano styles of Aarre Merikanto
and Selim Palmgren (1878–1951) are filtered
through Heininen’s own style. The flute concerto
Autrefois (2008/2010) began life through a meditation
on the fact that there are no Finnish Romantic
concertos for woodwind instruments, but
despite its tonal material, this brainchild grew into
such a modern structure in terms of dynamics
and process that it emerged as an exciting stylistic
paradox. Who composed this piece? The very
question is a typical Heininen issue.
In his creative work, as in his career as a composition
teacher, Heininen sees new possibilities
everywhere. He compares composing to casting
a net into the sea. This will never produce a finished
work, though; the catch has to be selected
and organised. “The so-called organic approach is
nothing more than this. If you ask cells how they
live, the answer would be the same!” Heininen’s
verbal images and parables provide a lot of food
for thought. For him, they are a tool for attaining
maximum accuracy in discussing music.
Ideas are germinating
When Heininen’s colleague created genuine contemporary
music out of fragments of Finnish tangos,
Heininen saw an idea for going in the opposite
direction: the result was a 36-minute collection
entitled Mazurki op. 79 (2000–01), where the
musical details are real, incisive Heininen, while in
their overall shape the pieces are undoubtedly mazurkas.
“The challenge here is to use the rhythmic
modes of old dances without getting too close to
them in the details.” Heininen continued with ‘summer
waltzes’ in Pianotansseja op. 97 (Piano Dances,
2009/11), eventually writing a tango himself.
Sometimes an entire family of pieces may
emerge ‘at once’, as was the case with the sonatas
for wind instrument and piano, Vaskisonaatit op.
117 (Brass Sonatas, 2010): the basic idea in these is
Photo: Music Finland/SaAra Vuorjoki
that the piano part is adapted to each solo instrument
so that it is possible to guess the solo instrument
as soon as the piano part begins. The works
were written in parallel, mutually exclusively.
Heininen has been a pioneer among Finnish
composers in adopting new technology. In 1984,
while the libretto of his opera Veitsi (The Knife,
1985–88) was in preparation, one of the first musical
notation programs came on the market. In
a bold leap, Heininen decided to write his opera
using that software. Before this, he had already
written a program in the BASIC programming
language to create his own brand of space-time
notation for a piece based on stochastic principles.
He developed the logic behind this (after an early
version on an Apple II) first at IRCAM and then
with Mikael Laurson. This was the origin of
Patchwork, the embryonic form of the OpenMusic
program, which today is popular worldwide.
Heininen speaks of ‘pots’ on his computer where
ideas are germinating. He looks in every now and
again ‘in passing’ to see if anything is growing. One
day, one of these pots began to show such promise
that the Sixth Symphony, being written for the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (2012–14), began
to emerge. He is also currently working on a
one-hour Organ Concerto for Jan Lehtola and two
orchestral solo songs – and these are further germinating
new ideas.
The most recent Heininen-recordings include
Jan Lehtola’s double-album Complete Organ Works
1966–2006, and a forthcoming CD with the flute
concerto Autrefois on Alba Records.
J a r k k o H a r t i k a i n e n
This is an abridged version of an article published in Finnish
Music Quarterly 1/2013 entitled “The Constant Variation
of Creation” (translation Jaakko Mäntyjärvi).
H i g h l i g h t s 1 / 2 0 1 3

“Sometimes the morning mist lies like
an airy blanket over meadows and
woodland glades. Then a slight breeze
comes, transforming the mist into “veils”.
They say that the fairies are dancing…”
(from Veils programme note)
Imagination is important to Jörgen
Dafgård, who wants to rouse people
with his music, and spur them to think
in new ways. He is also this year’s
“Composer of Spring” with the Swedish
Radio Symphony Orchestra
at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.
Jörgen Dafgård –
In 1995 Jörgen Dafgård was admitted to the composition
program at the Malmö Academy of Music.
He received his diploma in 1999. Already his
first large-scale orchestral piece, Veils , caught
people’s attention: premiered by the Swedish
Radio Symphony Orchestra under Manfred
Honeck, it won first prize in Berwaldhallen’s composition
competition in the year 2000. In 2003
Veils reached a vast audience, when it was singled
out as one of the top ten among a thousand entries
in the international Masterprize competition.
It cleared the way for Dafgård’s career, and he is
nowadays a well-established composer receiving
commissions on a regular basis.
How do the commissions influence your
catalogue of works?
– The commissions that I have received have been
works that I wanted to write anyway. On the other
hand, the commissions have of course made it possible
for certain pieces to actually get composed.
I have been lucky enough to be able to work together
with competent musicians and ensembles,
and to do this full time without taking odd jobs.
At the same time, I have had sufficient time for
every commission to achieve satisfactory results.
How did music enter your life?
– It was there from the very beginning. My mother
sang and my father was a church musician. Besides
the piano and violin that I played, singing was a
natural gateway to music. I dabbled in art as well,
but when I decided on music I was still intent on
becoming a singer.
But you moved to Stockholm and then on to
Malmö to study composition. Among your
teachers, who has taught you the most?
– My first teacher of composition was Anders
Nilsson, at Birkagården in Stockholm. He had high
artistic demands. Then came Johan Hammerth
and unleashed my creativity.
music gives colour to life
For a while I studied musicology and aesthetics.
My Master´s Thesis “Principles for an Intuitive
Listening” had its point of departure in Debussy´s
“La Mer”. Analysing music was instructive and it
enticed me into composing all the more.
In Malmö I made contact with musicians and it
was possible to try out ideas. It could be anything
from percussion projects to projects for orchestra.
With Hans Gefors I studied the different aspects
of opera, with Kent Olofsson it was electroacoustic
music. And Rolf Martinsson gave me a great deal
of support.
The big event for Jörgen Dafgård in 2013 is that
he has been appointed “Composer of Spring” at the
Berwaldhallen in Stockholm. Already on 15 and
16 February Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducted the
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in the energetic
string orchestral piece Volo. The same orchestra
will perform Veils on 12 and 13 April under the
direction of Manfred Honeck; and the climax will
follow on 4 May: a portrait concert with Christian
Eggen as conductor.
– I am presently in the process of finishing a threemovement
Clarinet Concerto that will receive its
premiere then. My clarinet quintet Whims and
Wizardry , which was premiered in July of last
year, came to function as a preliminary study. In
the concerto I could proceed with a tone language
that is both cantabile and rhythmically vigorous.
The instrumentation is also moderately airy with
much interplay between the various groups of the
orchestra.
We listen to an early sample and encounter a
motorically erratic piece. It seems to offer forward
drive as well as playfulness, and it is hardly
going to give the soloist, Andreas Sundén, a single
moment’s peace in the fast sections.
Esprit is another lively work included in the portrait
concert, 25 minutes of rapid music throughout.
It will now be played with a larger group of
instrumentalists than when it was premiered by the
Nordic Chamber Ensemble last autumn. It starts
out playfully, but gradually the course of events becomes
more adventurous, full of tension and drama.
In the end it arrives at a euphoric conclusion.
Sinfonia No. 1 from 2004 contributes gravitas
and density to the May programme at Berwaldhallen.
It is a structurally well-wrought, serious work
with in some places a rather harsh expression, at the
same time that the varying tempi and the orchestral
texture provide a variety that arouses our curiosity
as to the continued progression of the music.
What does being selected as Composer of
Spring mean to you just now and what can
your audiences expect in the near future?
– This feels very encouraging of course!
At present I am working on the orchestration
of my Sinfonia No. 2. It develops ideas that
emerged in connection with the composition of
the concert opening piece Through Fire and Water
for large orchestra, commissioned by the
Malmö Symphony Orchestra, which had a much
acclaimed premiere in 2011. A composition for
the saxophone quartet Rollin’ Phones is also in the
pipeline, it is due to be ready in September!
And finally, the unavoidable question: what
do you want to achieve with your music?
– Of course I want to rouse people. I want to get
the listeners to realise how important imagination
is in our lives. We have a richer inner life than we
are actually conscious of. It is a matter of eliciting
these sides to come forth. Giving people impulses
to think in new ways, that is the point. It is my
experience that music vitalises us. When I listen to
music my feelings take on colour. Without music
our existence is only black and white.
C a r l h å k a n L a r s é n
More information on jorgendafgard.com
Photo: Bilbo Lantto
H i g h l i g h t s 1 / 2 0 1 23

R e p e r t o i r e t i p s
Cello concertos – classics & more unusual ones
Erik Bergman
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
(1998) Dur: 15’
0001(I=c.fag)/0000/str, bullroarer
This intensive Bergman concerto is a product of his late period. Its
breath-taking progress is interrupted by a magical interlude for
bullroarer – possibly an instrument he picked up on his travel in
1998 around the world. The contrabassoon is also assigned a big
role and adds contrast to the cello’s magnetic, expressive force.
Tobias Broström
Cello Concerto No. 1 (2011) Dur: 21’
2222/2200/10/str
Composed for conducting solo cellist, the
concerto opens suggestively and slowly with repetitive chords in
the orchestra, forming the harmonic basis that is expanded gradually.
The solo cello’s pentatonic motif develops from out of the
orchestra’s carpet of sound, a motif that recurs throughout the
entire work. Brisk sections with more temperament and rhythmic
accents alternate with parts that are linked to the harmonies
and motif of the beginning. The end is a slow diminuendo that
fades away far off in the distance.
Sofia Gubaidulina
Aus dem Stundenbuch (The Book
of Hours) (1991) Dur: 58’
4243/4242/14/2hp, zither, egtr, e-bgtr, cel.
amp-hpd.pf/str, baritone, narrator, male chorus
This cello concerto is scored for an unusual combination; it
also has a narrator, a baritone soloist and a male chorus. The
text is borrowed from Rainer Maria Rilke and well reflects
Gubaidulina’s musical credo: Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten
Turm, und ich kreise jahrtausendelang; und ich weiß noch
nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm oder ein großer Gesang. (I
circle around God, around the most ancient tower, and I circle
for a thousand years; and yet I still don‘t know: am I a falcon, a
storm, or a much larger song?)
Tommie Haglund
Flaminis Aura (2000) Dur: 37’
3222/4231/13/pf/str
Tommie Haglund has a sound world all his
own. In the Cello Concerto the fervent cantabile solo part rests
against almost unearthly sonorities. The music expresses both
pain and hope, but here is also an implicit dimension, a cosmic
perspective. In the final section of the concerto the cello is left
alone against a sound background of solar winds and electromagnetic
fields (registered by the American space bureau
NASA), and “the harmony of the spheres” arises.
Joonas Kokkonen
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
(1969) Dur: 25’
2232/4220/timp.2perc/hp/str
Kokkonen’s concerto has been a firm favourite with cellists for
decades now. It has brilliance, natural solo writing and a touch
of both the playful and the heart-rending. The orchestration
is light and airy, so that it never drowns the soloist. A work in
five movements dedicated to Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, it is
woven around a wistful Adagio movement and is a fine demonstration
of Kokkonen’s musical architecture.
Rolf Martinsson
Cello Concerto No. 1 (2005) Dur: 26’
2222/4330/12/hp/pf/cel/strings
A concerto that fires the imagination. Martinsson
brings out all the cello’s possibilities of expression, from
lyrical cantabile to violent frenzy. The romantic features alternate
with highly dramatic sections. Add to that a refined orchestral
texture and a concluding rapid and rhythmically driving race
between cello and orchestra.
Herman Rechberger
Kahraba (Yellow Amber) (1996) Dur: 19’
1111/0000/00/str, darabuka
Kahraba (the Arabic word for electricity)
was commissioned by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Its main
features are superimposed oriental rhythms, maqâm-scale material
and the soloistic dialogue of a Western and an oriental instrument.
However, it only uses scales that are playable without
micro-intervals or non-tempered tuning.
Sven-David Sandström
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
(1988) Dur: 28’
2222/2220/11/str
Sandström has called his cello concerto “an autobiographical diary”.
The form is somewhat rhapsodic and consists of thirteen
short sections, “emotional pages of my life”, in which we find
both sentimentality and playfulness. He lets the romanticism
burst into full blossom, but combines this with modernistic outbursts.
The concerto concludes with a long drawn-out, varied
allusion to the hymn `Nearer, My God, to Thee´.
Albert Schnelzer
Cello Concerto – Crazy Diamond
(2011) Dur: 23’
2222/4321/12/pf/cel/str (version for orchestra)
2222/2200/11/pf/cel/str (version for chamber orchestra)
Schnelzer reawakens the feelings of melancholy and loss
that Pink Floyd’s music evoked when he listened to them as
a teenager. The music is full of wondrous sonorities and lyrical,
lengthy melodic lines, as well as Schnelzer’s unmistakable
rhythmic, dance-like motives. It is dramatic and expressive. The
concerto concludes with an achingly beautiful song for the cello
that lingers on after the music has fallen silent.
Victoria Yagling
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
No. 1 (1975) Dur: 22’
3223/4231/11/hp/str
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2
(1984) Dur: 23’
3222/4231/11/hp/str
Yagling’s cello concertos are works of virtuosic brilliance and violent
outbursts but also of a melancholy emotional charge that
strikes straight to the heart. The slow movements of both well
reflect the lyrical side of her music. The beauty is often tinged
with a certain mournfulness and a striving towards unfamiliar
paths reaching out into new realms. Yagling has written three
concertos in all; the third is entitled the Symphonic Concerto for
Cello and Orchestra.
R E V I E W S
Pettersson’s precious 6 th
Lindberg captures Pettersson’s painful mixture of tragedy
and majesty so well…The all-conquering lyrical
element that winged the Seventh to fame is there in
the Sixth…A repeated groaning ostinato cell […] propels
the music mournfully and sometimes jaggedly
forward under the melody. It’s a simple device yet
very effective…The final balm-like four minutes are a
calming benison to troubled souls…Precious music.
Rob Barnett/Music Web International January 2013
Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 6
CD: Norrköping SO/Christian Lindberg (BIS-SACD-1980)
Sublimely beautiful A. S. in Memoriam
…it’s a tribute to the hyper-Romanticism of
Schönberg but it works very well in its own right,
with some ultra-lush harmonies…it’s harmonically
extremely rich but instrumentally fairly transparent,
and some of the chording, especially towards the
end, is sublimely beautiful.
Seen and Heard International 27.1
Rolf Martinsson: A. S. in Memoriam
Scottish ChO/Andrew Manze, 25.1.2013 Glasgow Scotland, UK
Two new excellent concerti
The soloist has almost a narrative role and the melodic
writing [in Martinsson’s Double Bass Concerto]
is a great vehicle for Styffe’s exceptionally lyrical and
expressive tone…the scoring throughout is exceptional
and gently supports the soloist…
It [Högberg’s Hitting the First Base] is intensely
rhythmic, angular and propelling… The bass writing
is highly effective and idiosyncratic. It is virtuosic yet
exactly right for the instrument. Styffe plays it with brilliance
and mastery, and the piece fits him like a glove.
Bass World January 2013
Rolf Martinsson: Double Bass Concerto,
Fredrik Högberg: Hitting the First Base
CD: Oslo PhO/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Tromsö ChO/Kolbjörn Holte,
sol. Dan Styffe, (Simax PSC1302 “Perspectives”),
(Simax PSC 1325 “Secret Memories”)
Dan Styffe
Photo: Louise Martinsson
H i g h l i g h t s 1 / 2 0 1 3

Enigmatic Lucernaris
Broström took his soloist on a journey that started with
an arching flugelhorn solo, became far more strident
and urgent, passed through an oasis of otherworldly
calm, and ended enigmatically with Hardenberger
floating elegiac echoes from the back of the hall.
The Times 3.2.
The electronics blend prerecorded
effects with
sampling, and when these
sounds accompany the
players at full blast one
feels enclosed in a space
which is at once virtual and
intensely physical. The music
is by turns jazzy, sharply
percussive, and sonorously
Nordic-romantic…It all
worked a treat.
The Independent 4.2.
Tobias Broström: Lucernaris
UK premiere: BBC PhO/
John Storgårds, sol. Håkan
Hardenberger, 1.2.2013 Manchester, UK
Tobias Broström
Sixten’s radiating Christmas Oratorio
Even though Ylva Eggehorn’s texts to the chorales do
not shy away from the darkness, a beauteous light
radiates from Fredrik Sixten’s Christmas Oratorio…
full of ideas, but coherent nonetheless, and strongly
influenced by Swedish folk music.
Svenska Dagbladet 27.11
Fredrik Sixten: A Swedish Christmas Oratorio
CD: Sofia Vocal Ensemble, Capella Nordica/Bengt Ollén,
sol. Helena Ek, soprano (Footprint Records FRCD 069)
Inner sensitivity from Heininen
Joie de vivre and energy bubble beneath the complex
surface, and as often with Heininen, [the music
has] an inner sensitivity to the text, its rhythm and
meaning. The result is something of fabulous beauty,
full of peace, and meaningful.
Hufvudstadsbladet 13.1.
Paavo Heininen: Kaukametsä, Musta kehtolaulu
(Black Lullaby)
World premiere: Finnish RSO & Tapiola Chamber Choir/Anna-Maria
Helsing, sol. Kaisa Ranta, Niina Keitel, Mati Turi, Rolf Broman,
11.1.2013 Helsinki, Finland
Experimental masterpiece
Taon is an experimental masterpiece in which Puumala places the orchestra round the hall and seeks out un con ven tional
sounds in the double bass…The audience got really carried away by the ritual and the tremendous cadenza.
Helsingin Sanomat 16.2.
Veli-Matti Puumala: Taon (Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra)
Tapiola Sinfonietta/Magnus Lindberg, sol. Panu Pärssinen, 14.2.2013 Espoo, Finland
Kai Nieminen YouTube hit live
The Lieder recital began with the three-movement Landscapes cycle by
Kai Nieminen. The previous time it was performed by Wärnfeldt in Vienna,
the experts were ecstatic about Nieminen’s way of writing music without
grasping at any ism. The songs linger on the moment and stillness.
Pohjolan Sanomat 13.1.
Kai Nieminen: Landscapes, for soprano and piano
Elisabeth Wärnfeldt, soprano, Annaleena Porttikivi, piano, 11.1.2013 Keminmaa, Finland
Photo: Magdalena Prahl Broström
Unique combination of puppet theatre and opera
The symbiosis and encounter of Finnish and French culture was quite unique! Antti Puuhaara is built on
an exciting concept: a combination of puppet theatre and opera. An amusing creation, interesting and
the only one of its kind. All Francophiles should get to know it.
Hufvudstadsbladet 4.12.
Tapio Tuomela: Antti Puuhaara
Musicatreize, cond. Roland Hayrabedian, 2.12.2012 Helsinki, Finland
An Organ Symphony that defies gravity
The red line running through Aho’s gravity-defying Organ
Symphony Alles Vergängliche binds together tradition
and innovation… The result is more than just excellent.
Rondo Classic 11/2012
Kalevi Aho: Organ Music
CD: Jan Lehtola, organ (BIS-CD-1946)
Spectacular Högberg
There was brilliant piano playing by Niclas Sivelöv and
the symphony orchestra performed with gusto during a
spectacular concert evening… Here there were eruptive
cascades, rhythmical long, intensive lines and alternating
rippling interplay that would certainly impress the most
discriminating of listeners. A formidable success…
Västerbottens Kuriren 23.11
An experience for all senses… suggestive scenery
in perfect harmony with Högberg’s rhythmically
intricate sound world.
Folkbladet 23.11
Fredrik Högberg: Ice Concerto
World premiere: Norrlandsoperan SO/Rumon Gamba,
sol. Niklas Sivelöv, 22.11.2012 Umeå, Sweden
Niklas Sivelöv
Elisabeth Wärnfeldt
John Storgårds and Kimmo Hakola in Manchester
Colourful, sumptuous
Violin Concerto
Hakola’s Concerto is a substantial work written in
sumptuous, late Romantic language that Sibelius
would recognise, but with a fearsome technical
virtuosity he possibly wouldn’t.
The Guardian 3.2.
... Storgårds proved no less heroic, finding all the
virtuosity necessary for its formidable technical
demands. Rather than setting soloist and
orchestra in the traditional opposition, Hakola
has them running in parallel but in strikingly different
modes: while the orchestra sets up a tidal
ebb-and-flow like some gigantic accordion, the
soloist delivers jagged pyrotechnics.
The Independent 4.3.
A fun work that entertains and at times even
amuses with a certain surrealistic craziness…
When Hakola does ‘beautiful’, it really can be
beautiful. The slow movement had magical timbres
and sensitive dialogue between the soloist
and the winds.
Helsingin Sanomat 20.1. & 8.2.
Kimmo Hakola: Violin Concerto
World premiere: WRD SO Köln/Jukka-Pekka Saraste, sol. John
Storgårds, 18.1.2013 Cologne, Germany (further performances
in Manchester/BBC PhO and Helsinki/Helsinki PhO)
Eloquent songs on CD
Hakola’s arrangements for orchestra give Kuula’s
South-Ostrobothnian Folk Songs a fine golden
edge. His own Kivi Songs are many times more
tender, unashamedly romantic and nothing
short of eloquent.
Helsingin Sanomat 28.11.
Kimmo Hakola: South-Ostrobothnian Folk
Songs (arr.), Kivi Songs
CD: Ostrobothnian ChO/Juha Kangas, sol. Jorma Hynninen,
baritone (Alba ABCD 348 “On The Fields of Tapiola”)
Photo: Marco Borggreve
H i g h l i g h t s 1 / 2 0 1 3

n e w p u b l i c at i o n s
C H O R A L
Mårten Jansson
Herren är min herde/
Der Herr ist mein Hirte
for female choir
Text: Psalm 23 (Swe/Ger)
GE 12173
Olle Lindberg
Folkvisa (Folk Song)
for mixed choir a cappella
Text: Hjalmar Gullberg (Swe)
GE 12073
Sven-David Sandström
Musik för kyrkoåret
(Music for the Ecclesiastical Year)
for various choral ensembles and
instruments. Nearly 70 works for the
Sundays and holidays of the church year.
All works also available separately.
GE 12173
Johan-Magnus Sjöberg
Sju Haikudikter
(Seven Haiku Poems)
for female choir
Text: Tomas Tranströmer (Swe)
GE 12195
Robert Sund
Som stjärnan uppå
himmelen
(The Star in Heaven)
Arrangement for solo voice
and mixed choir a cappella
Text in Swedish
GE 12225
Emil Sundberg
Stjärnorna ( The Stars)
Text: Karin Boye (Swe)
GE 12224
N E W C D s & DVDs
Kalevi Aho
Works for the Oboe
(Concerto for Oboe and
Orchestra, Solo IX, Sonata
for Oboe and Piano)
Lahti SO/Martyn Brabbins,
sol. Piet Van Bockstal,
Yutaka Oya, piano
BIS-SCD 1876
Paavo Heininen
Works for Organ
1966-2006
Jan Lehtola, organ, Risto
Pulkamo, baritone, Annikka
Konttori-Gustafsson, piano
Pilfink Records JJVCD-114
Uuno Klami
Landscape (Works for
piano and piano & violin)
Esa Ylönen, piano, Sirkku
Mantere, violin
Alba ABCD 352
Leevi Madetoja
Symphony No. 2,
Kullervo, Elegy
Helsinki PhO/John Storgårds
Ondine ODE 1212-2
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Choral Works
various performers
Ondine ODE 1186-2Q/4 CD
BENJAMIN STAERN
Tranströmer Songs
Carina Vinke, alto, Hanna
Shybayeva, piano
8 717953 095701 (Silent Echoes)
C H A M B E R / I N S T R U M E N T A L / V O C A L
Kalevi Aho
Flute Cadenzas for W. A. Mozart’s works
Flute Concerto No. 1 in G Major (KV 313),
FG 55009-671-4
Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major (KV 314),
FG 55009-672-1
Andante in C Major (KV 315), FG 55009-670-7
Rondo in D Major (K. Anh. 184), FG 55009-673-8
SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM
Three Pieces for Violin and Cello
GE 12186
Håll ut näktergal!
for soprano and four percussionists
Text: four Haiku poems by Tomas Tranströmer (Swe)
GE 12193 (score)
From Mölna Elegy
for soprano and piano trio
Text: Gunnar Ekelöf/transl. M. Rukeyser & L. Sjöberg (Eng)
GE 12240 (score), GE 12241 (parts)
GUNNAR DE FRUMERIE
Sonatina No. 1
for piano
CG 4481
DAG WIRÉN
Sonatina
for piano
CG 4484
Kai Nieminen
Landscapes
for voice and piano
Text: Emily Dickinson
(Eng)
FG 55011-130-1
The Life of Eduard Tubin I - II
Estonian Public Broadcasting ERR
© Liivi Muuseum
S C O R E S
TOBIAS BROSTRÖM
Cello Concerto
GE 11946 (score)
GE 11947 (solo part)
JÖRGEN DAFGÅRD
Esprit
for chamber ensemble
GE 12142 (score)
ROLF MARTINSSON
Airy Flight
for solo instrument
and strings,
GE 12070 (score)
for solo instrument
and brass quintet,
GE 12168 (score)
Solo part in Bb or C,
GE 12169
Kai Nieminen
Through Shadows I Can Hear
Ancient Voices… Concerto
for Clarinet and Orchestra
FG 55011-133-2 (score)
Vicoli in ombra
for orchestra
FG 55011-132-5 (score)
Fredrik Pacius
The Complete Works of Musical
Drama, Vol. 2: Prinsessan af Cypern
FG 55011-128-8 (score)
WILHELM STENHAMMAR
Fylgia
for medium voice and orchestra
Orch: Adolf Wiklund
Text: Gustaf Fröding (Swe)
GE 12223 (score)
For further information about our works or representatives worldwide check our web sites or contact us at:
Gehrmans Musikförlag AB
Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 8 610 06 00 • Fax +46 8 610 06 27
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