Renée Fleming in Helsinki Music Centre, the 2nd of September, 2017

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with its conductor Sakari Oramo and Renée Fleming visited Helsinki Music Centre on Saturday night as part of Helsinki Festival programme. The evening was indeed a great festival of music and the audience got a chance to clap their hands till they became tender in the end of both parts of the concert.

The orchestra started the evening with Andrea Tarrodi’s “Liguria”. Tarrodi aims in his works to create “a map” and when I was listening to this piece, memories of Italy did indeed pop up in my mind. Really beautiful music!   

Then it was Renée Fleming’s turn and I believe a big part of the audience had actually come to listen to her. First, she sang Samuel Barber’s song “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” that is full of feeling. Usually singers’ voices change quite a lot when years pass, but Fleming’s voice is still lyric and bright and it suited nicely to this song. She was able to create a beautiful picture of a family’s summer day. Before the intermission she sang one additional number which was Barber’s ”Sure on this Shining Night”. I got the feeling that her voice shone even brighter in this song.   

After the intermission Fleming sang “Ich komme, ich komme” from Richard Strauss’s opera Daphne, which she is very familiar with and she was able to perform it with true confidence. The last notes she sang from the sidelines behind a half-closed door. I am not sure how well the notes reached all the audience, but to my seat they sounded truly exquisite. As the additional number Fleming then sang ”Morgen” by Richard Strauss. Joyce DiDonato ended her concert in Music Centre in November with the same song. How is it possible that two wonderful singers with different voice types can make so lovely – though different – interpretations of the same song!

After this the orchestra played Carl Nielsen’s second symphony called ”Four Temperaments”, which turned out to be a very interesting piece. It literally presented four different temperaments and the music varied from bursting march-type melodies to calm and slow tunes. It was such fun to follow Sakari Oramo’s work; I especially enjoyed to watch him during the faster parts

And as a cherry on the desert the orchestra played Kesäillan valssi (Summernight’s Waltz) by Oskar Merikanto. It was super fun to hear this waltz that is known to all Finns played by such a big orchestra! Even the orchestra seemed to have fun playing it.