I unexpectedly
got a chance to see the Saturday concert by Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Karita
Mattila played at the Sibelius Festival. I cannot say that I am a huge Sibelius expert, though I have heard – like most
Finns – his symphonies and some other pieces. One of the reasons I was especially happy for
this concert ticket was, that the concert consisted of some more rarely performed
pieces, that I hadn’t heard before.
At first
Lahti Symphony orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk performed “The Bard”. It
is a short piece – only about 10 minutes – but I liked it a lot. Harp plays an important
role in it and most of the time the music is very gentle and only a few times
it starts thundering. Interesting
acquaintance!
Next it was
Karita Mattila’s turn, who sang five songs by Sibelius (Arioso, Spring Flies Speedily,
Since Then I have Questioned No Further, The Diamond on the March Snow, Autumn
Evening). Mattila’s performance was excellent. It seemed that she was nervous
about especially the high notes of the last song, but there was no need to
worry. Sure, her voice is not the same it was when she was young and perhaps
the high notes require more concentration, but they still sound fantastic. In addition
to which, the depth of performance brought by age and the absolutely beautiful
low notes made at least me agree that it was well worth the trip to Lahti to
hear her sing. It was a pity, though, that we didn’t hear more songs by her; I
could have easily listened to a second set of songs. As an encore she sang “To
Evening”, which was totally different from the actual concert songs – a much
lighter song. Fun to sing, I am sure, but a bit surprising a choice to end this
program with.
After the interval,
Lahti Symphony Orchestra performed ”Night Ride and Sunrise”, which Sibelius has
said describes the nocturnal ride from Suojärvi to Värtsilä in Carelia (though he has told different stories to
different people about the origin of this composition). I found it fun to try
to hear different features (Nature, animals etc) in the music. Of course, I
thought I recognized some things, but it is hard to say if I was right or not.
But the
absolute peak of the second part of the concert to me was “”En saga”. Lovely music and I especially loved the viola
solos. What wonderful deep tones! I could have easily listened to it a second time right away.
As the
encore Lahti Symphony Orchestra performed ”Finlandia” which was not a huge
surprise. This piece is known to every Finn and it raises a lot of patriotic
feelings. Slobodeniouk’s Finlandia was
striking, rythmic, almost belligerent. Once again it was proved that even a composition
like ”Finlandia” that is performed regularly, can sound totally different when
played by different musicians
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