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13 February THurSDay SerIeS 7Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00

Mario Venzago, conductorPaul Lewis, piano

Arthur Honegger: Symphony No. 3 30 min (Symphonie liturgique) I Dies irae (Allegro marcato) II De profundis clamavi (Adagio) III Dona nobis pacem (Andante)

INTERVAL 20 min

W. A. Mozart: Piano Concerto 32 min No. 25 in C Major KV 503

I Allegro maestosoII Andante III Allegretto

Maurice Ravel: La Valse, 15 min a choreographic poem for orchestra

(Mouvement de valse viennoise – Un peu plus modéré – Premier mouvement – Assez animé)

Interval at about 19.40. The concert ends at about 21.05.

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arTHur HONeGGer (1892–1955): SyMPHONy NO. 3(SyMPHONIe LITurGIQue)

arthur Honegger, who initially re-garded himself as a composer of pure, absolute music, deviated from this ideal in his Symphonie liturgique of 1946. Composed at the end of the Second World War, it superimposes elements in the nature of a chorale or a prayer on brutally aggressive ma-chine-like music. The movements are named after the parts of the Catholic Mass: Dies irae (Day of Wrath), De pro-fundis clamavi (Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord) and Dona no-bis pacem (Grant us peace). In his sym-phony, Honegger sought to express revolt against the tumult of the mod-ern world – the suffering, increasing bureaucracy and mechanisation.

The first movement could be de-scribed as a mechanical, hammering play with rhythm in which the theme presented on the cellos is evocative of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The heart-rending melodic motifs on brass instru-ments in various combinations paint a picture of the hypnotic chaos of the modern world.

The second movement opens in warm, caressing string tones. The woodwinds and a muted trumpet add shades of their own to the pastoral mood. Honegger said he wanted the movement to have a rich, lush, free-breathing melodic line that symbolised happiness.

Setting out on the orchestra’s lowest notes, the third movement presents a rhythmic melody, first on the bassoons, then the trombones and trumpets. a French horn comments on this melodic relay in ominous tones. The trills, chro-matic plunges and polytonality create a tension that is not resolved until the very end. The tonal weave is made all the more aggressive by the trumpet sounds familiar from jazz. The sym-phony ends with a slow, calm, string carpet of sound coloured by a warbling flute reminiscent of a tin whistle.

Sanna Qvick (abridged)

W. a. MOZarT (1756–1791): PIaNO CONCerTO NO. 25

In 1786, Wolfgang amadeus Mozart composed his biggest and most bril-liant Piano Concerto: no. 25 in C major (KV 503). He personally performed it for the last time in 1787, and for a long time thereafter it lay forgotten. The next performance was not until 1934, by which time 147 years had passed; and Mozart did not really become fash-ionable until the latter half of the 20th century. Since the Second World War, this majestic concerto has been re-cognised as one of the great master-pieces of its genre, occupying an estab-lished place in the concert repertoire.

The solemn, resonant nature of the concerto is evident from the very first great, fanfarish chords that lend the

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first movement a march-like, even mil-itary bearing. The second movement, though marked Andante, is more of a tranquil Adagio. It resembles sonata form without a development section and the music flows freely along.

The concerto culminates in a rondo brimming with Mozartian ingenuity and genius. The dancing main theme is borrowed from the opera Idomeneo, set in ancient Greece, he had com-posed five years before. Despite the general heroic and jubilant mood, Mozart inserts a serious dialogue be-tween the piano and the orchestra by way of contrast. all of a sudden the music radiates the fragile beauty and fleetingness of life. Joy alternates with pain until Mozart returns his listener to the Gavotte theme borrowed from Idomeneo to bring the concerto to a happy and glorious end in a cheerful C major.

Jesse Portti (abridged)

MaurICe raVeL (1875–1937): La VaLSe

Maurice ravel intended La Valse as a tribute to the Waltz King Johann Strauss II who had died seven years be-fore. His beautiful idea was to compose a sort of choreographic poem and to raise a toast to the Viennese waltz.

He was, however, interrupted by the First World War and service at the front. The man who returned home was sick and exhausted, his nerves in

shatters, and for a while he concentrat-ed on mourning his dead colleagues. The idea of glorifying the Viennese waltz also seemed alien in the new postwar world. When he did return to his Valse, he painted it in much more sombre tones. It first appeared in ar-rangements for solo piano and for two pianos; the latter he premiered in Vienna in October 1920, partnered by pianist-composer alfredo Casella. The orchestral version was first heard in Paris a few weeks later.

La Valse reveals both ravel’s impres-sionist mindscape and his phenomen-al powers of orchestration. It begins with an ominous rumble on the bass-es. Soon, little hints of the waltz theme join them on various instruments, but the fragments soon merge with the heaving mass of sound. Finally, at first tentatively, the waltz grows to full strength. La Valse is a deliberate traves-ty of a Viennese waltz. It is packed with dissonances, fragments and instabil-ity. as the end approaches, the sound waves raise, like a storm, the tension into a noisy, despairing turmoil, and the final, fatal blows fall, unexpectedly, from somewhere outside the waltz.

Helena Holsti (abridged)

The programme notes were written in collaboration with students of musicology at the University of Turku.

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MarIO VeNZaGO

The distinguished career of Swiss conductor Mario Venzago has in-cluded engagements with the berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the London Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, the boston Symphony and many other great or-chestras. He has also been a guest at the Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals.

Honorary Conductor of the basel Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the bern Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Northern Sinfonia Newcastle, Venzago is Principal Guest Conductor of the Staatsphilharmonie rheinland-Pfalz and “Schumann Guest Conductor” of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra.

Venzago’s varied discography has earned him several major awards, in-cluding the Grand Prix du Disque, the Diapason d’Or and the edison Prize. He has recorded the complete symphonic works of Schumann, Nono and ravel with the basel Symphony Orchestra and all the orchestral works by alban berg with the Gothenburg Symphony.

PauL LeWIS

british pianist Paul Lewis is known es-pecially for his performances and re-cordings of beethoven’s sonatas, con-certos and Diabelli Variations. In 2010, he was the first pianist in the history

of the bbC Proms to perform all five beethoven piano concertos in a sin-gle season. Over the past two years he has appeared at such prestigious con-cert halls and festivals as the Lucerne Piano Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall, where he has appeared on more than 60 occasions. His most recent and forthcoming engagements include per-formances with the London Symphony and the London Philharmonic, the amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the New york and Los angeles Philharmonics and the NHK Symphony from Tokyo. He can also be heard in solo recitals at the royal Festival Hall in London, the berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, and the Toppan Hall in Tokyo.

Paul Lewis has been the recipient of many prestigious distinctions, among them a Diapason d’Or, edison and Gramophone awards.

THe FINNISH raDIO SyMPHONy OrCHeSTra

The Finnish radio Symphony Orchestra (FrSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish broadcasting Company (yle). Its missi-on is to produce and promote Finnish musical culture and its Chief Conductor as of autumn 2013 is Hannu Lintu.

The radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony or-chestra strength in the 1960s. Its previo-us Chief Conductors have been Toivo

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Haapanen, Nils-eric Fougstedt, Paavo berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. The FrSO has two Honorary Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo.

The latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FrSO, which each year premieres a number of yle commissions. another of the orchestra’s tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral music for the yle ar-chive. During the 2013/2014 season it will premiere six Finnish works commis-sioned by yle.

The FrSO has recorded works by eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera aslak Hetta by armas Launis. Its

discs have reaped some major distinc-tions, such as the bbC Music Magazine award and the académie Charles Cros award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg violin concertos (Sony bMG) with Lisa batiashvili as the soloist recei-ved the MIDeM Classical award in 2008, in which year the New york Times chose the other Lindberg disc as its record of the year.

The FrSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. During the 2013/2014 sea-son it will be visiting Central europe un-der the baton of Hannu Lintu.

all the FrSO concerts both in Finland and abroad are broadcast, usually live, on yle radio 1. They can also be heard and watched with excellent stream qua-lity on yle.fi/klassinen.