Finnische Miniaturen

 

Acht kurze Streichquartette

2022/2023

 

 

Finnish Miniatures

 

Eight short string quartets

2022/2023

 

 

Concertino for Guitar & Strings

Uraufführung 25. November 2022 - Konzertsaal Sibelius Musum - Turku

Premiere 25 November 2022 - Concert Hall Sibelius Musum - Turku

Weitere Aufführungen:
25. März 2023 - Oberstdorf - internationales festival forum für neue musik

 

Further performances:
25 March 2023 - Oberstdorf - international festival forum of contemporary music

 

24 - 25 March 2023

 

An event of the municipal music school Oberstdorf and the market Oberstdorf

 

Patron:

Klaus King

First Mayor   

Market Oberstdorf

 

 

 

Theme:

FINLAND

with

 

Patrik Kleemola and the Uusinta Ensemble

 

Works by Tiina Myllärinen, Harri Suilamo, Markku Klami, Harri Suilamo and Hans-Jürgen Gerung

 

Uusinta Ensemble:

Maria Puusaari & Aleksi Kotila, Violin,

Max Savikangas, Viola,

Joasia Cieślak & Pinja Nuñez, Cello,

Aapo Juutilainen, Double bass

 

 

The Oberstdorf Municipal Music School has been cultivating a very special format with the Forum for New Music platform.  The festival was foundet in 2006 by the composer and music school director, Hans-Jürgen Gerung and event is dedicated to one composer, one performer, one ensemble or one country in concerts, workshops and lectures.

Over the years, musicians from all over the world have come to Oberstdorf to share their personal perspectives on contemporary music with our students in small working groups.

The focus of this year's festival is entirely on Finnish contemporary music, or on works that were written in Finland under the impression of Finnish culture. Therfore we’re honoured to welcome this year in March the outstanding Uusinta Ensemble together with Patrik Kleemola. Both Kleemola and Uusinta are among the foremost interpreters of contemporary music in Scandinavia

and we are  pleased that the Finnish composers Jarkko Hartikainen and Harri Suilamo will accompany the musicians to Oberstdorf.

The concert programme includes the German premiere of the latest string quartet by Tiina Myllärinen, the latest guitar work by Harri Suilamo, the concert etudes for guitar by Markku Klami and the concerto for guitar and strings by Hans-Jürgen Gerung.

Gerung - supported by the professional co-authorship of his colleagues Hartikainen and Suilamo - will give a lecture introducing Finnish culture, the country, its people and its music.

 

 

Calendar:

 

Saturday 25 March 2023,

4:00 p. m.

Lecture about the culture of Finland

Hans-Jürgen Gerung

Breitachklamm Hall

Oberstdorf Haus

 

6:00 p. m.

Public rehearsal Uusinta Ensemble

Breitachklamm Hall

Oberstdorf Haus

 

 

 

The music departments of the Allgäu schools

are cordially invited to attend

Moderation:

Hans-Jürgen Gerung & Athira Sukumaran

 

8:00 p. m. 

Concert

Patrik Kleemola & Uusinta Ensemble

Breitachklamm Hall

Oberstdorf Haus

 

 

Greeting by the patron

Klaus King

First Mayor

of the market Oberstdorf

 

 

Concert program:

 

Markku Klami (*1979)

from the Etudes (2021)

Etude No. 6: „Stream“

Etude No. 4: „Agitato nervosamente“

Etude No. 9: „Mirage“

Etude No. 10: „Blaze“

Patrik Kleemola, Guitar

 

Harri Suilamo (*1954)

Die Trauben hängen saftig –

Bernhard-Fragmente II (2020)

         Patrik Kleemola, Guitar

 

Tiina Myllärinen (*1979)

(Bad)Dreams come true (2022)

         Maria Puusaari, Violin

         Aleksi Kotila, Violin

         Max Savikangas, Viola

         Pinja Nuñez, Cello

 

Hans-Jürgen Gerung (*1960)

Concertino for Guitar & Strings (2020)

         Maria Puusaari, Violin

         Aleksi Kotila, Violin

         Max Savikangas, Viola

         Joasia Cieślak, Cello

         Pinja Nuñez, Cello

         Aapo Juutilainen, Double bass

        

Patrik Kleemola, Guitar & prepared Guitar

 

 

 

vitae

 

Uusinta Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble founded in 1998 in Helsinki. Composer Jarkko Hartikainen has worked as the Artistic Director of Uusinta Ensemble since January 2023. In addition to its native city Helsinki and native country Finland, Uusinta Ensemble has performed in New York, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Graz, Stuttgart, Buffalo, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Valencia, Oslo, Naestved, Västerås, Copenhagen and Cadiz. Uusinta Ensemble has premiered over a hundred new works and performed more than 200 concerts up to date. International repertoire is the core of the ensemble’s activity, and the ensemble sees as its prime mission to bring the most exciting composers from all countries to its concerts in Helsinki and abroad. The ensemble performs gladly in collaborative concerts with advanced new music groups. Uusinta Ensemble collaborates with the most internationally acclaimed composers of our time such as Beat Furrer (AUT), Kaija Saariaho (FI), Chaya Czernowin (US), Oscar Bianchi (IT/CH), Simon Steen-Andersen (DEN), Mark Andre (GER), Michel van der Aa (NL) and Hèctor Parra (ES). Uusinta Ensemble has recorded five albums so far. The latest of them is the album containing compositions by Sebastian Hilli, which was released in July 2020 by the most famous record label in the field of contemporary music, Austrian KAIROS

 

Patrik Kleemola (b.1981) is one of the foremost Finnish classical guitarists. After winning the II Guitaristival “Takemitsu” International Guitar Competition in Finland 2004 and gaining prizes in other competitions such as Gargnano's International Guitar Competition, his concert career has taken him to London, Buenos Aires, Rome, Dublin, Milan, Athens, Turin, Florence, Tallinn, Helsinki and other cities in South America and Europe. He has appeared as soloist on important music festivals such as LACCS – concert series at London's Queen Elisabeth Hall, Bergamo Festival Internazionale della Cultura (Italy), Turku Music Festival (Finland), Tallinn Guitar Festival (Estonia), Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Italy), Festival 5 Giornate (Italy), Limina Festival (Argentina), Feria del Libro (Uruguay), Lidköping Music Festival (Sweden) and Tampere Biennale Finland). Kleemola has performed guitar concertos by Rodrigo, Ponce, Takemitsu, Giuliani, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Vivaldi, Gerung and Maggio with Orquesta Sinfonica de la Juventud Venezuelana El Sistema, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, San Remo Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Lecce Symphony Orchestra and Uusinta Ensemble. Kleemola plays regularly chamber music with various international ensembles and soloists. Kleemola's wide repertoire includes music from the early Italian 16th century to the newest comtemporary compositions written for him. Kleemola's intense collaboration with composers has led to over 60 premieres of contemporary works for guitar including concertos, chamber music and solo works. Composers like Ada Gentile, Hans-Jürgen Gerung, Mikko Heiniö, Markku Klami, Juha T. Koskinen, Paola Livorsi, Marcela Pavia, Seppo Pohjola, Harri Suilamo and Harri Vuori have composed and dedicated their works to him. Kleemola has released two CDs by Pilfink records Perchitarrasola (2012) and Through Green Glass (2015). The CDs consist of music written for Kleemola by Finnish and Italian composers.

Other CD recordings include Kleemola's arrangement of Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin for guitar and tenor. Kleemola's ever growing content on his personal YouTube channel is gaining a lot of following and has passed the landmark of a million views. In addition to his performing career, Kleemola is Lecturer in Guitar at Turku Conservatory. Kleemola gives regularly masterclasses during concert tours and recently he has given those in London, Buenos Aires, Milan and elsewhere in Italy, Estonia and Finland. Kleemola is the founder and artistic director of Turku Guitar Festival. Kleemola studied the guitar in Turku Music Academy with Timo Korhonen and Ismo Eskelinen, with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena gaining three times Diploma di Merito, and finished his studies and soloist diploma with maximum points at Monopoli Conservatory with Massimo Felici.

www.patrikkleemola.com
www.facebook.com/KleemolaGuitar
www.youtube.com/@PatrikKleemola

 

Markku Klami (*1979)

Markku Klami's music has been described as delicate, elegant, fragile and powerful with strong emotions.

Born in Turku, Finland, Markku spent his early years singing in the boys choir of Turku Cathedral and later on around Europe on the choir’s tours abroad.

Markku has composed instrumental works ranging from solos to works for orchestra with soloists and vocal works including two operas. The use of electronics is a recurring feature in his instrumental works. While being a classically trained composer at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Markku has a background in electronic music as well with his projects in the late 1990’s.

Commissioners and performers of Markku's music include Timo Korhonen, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Thomas Müller-Pering, Patrik Kleemola, Lauri Sallinen, Henrik Sandås, Lucy Abrams, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble MISE-EN, Uusinta Ensemble, Avanti Chamber Orchestra, Pori Sinfonietta, Seinäjoki City Orchestra, The Polytech Choir, Audite Chamber Choir and conductors including Nils Schweckendiek, Jani Sivén, Juha Kuivanen, David Searle and Atso Almila.

His music has been heard in cities from New York to Taipei and Buenos Aires to Rome in festivals including MISE-EN MUSIC, Nordic Music Days, Musica nova Helsinki, Tampere Biennale, Zagreb Music Biennale, Taiwan International Guitar Festival and Atlantic Music Festival.

Residing in Helsinki, Markku draws inspiration from both urban areas and nature. The arid sceneries, the vast seashores and forests serve as an important counterweight for him in our fast-paced culture.

www.markkuklami.com

www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/5488/Markku-Klami/

www.facebook.com/markkuklami

 

Harri Suilamo (*1954 in Uskela, Finland) initially graduated from the University of Turku with a degree in musicology, theoretical philosophy and cultural history, after which he continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy as a pupil of Paavo Heininen. Suilamo's compositional output focuses primarily on chamber music. He has also composed pieces for children and young performers. By 2016, Suilamo had worked more than two decades as a lecturer in musicology at the University of Helsinki, where his teaching focused on contemporary art music.

Several individual musicians, ensembles and organisations have commissioned compositions by Harri Suilamo, including Ulla Honkonen, Mikko Luoma, Patrik Kleemola, Hans-Jürgen Gerung, Christoph Jäggin (Switzerland), Ondrej Veselý (Slovakia), duo Geir Draugsvoll-Stefan Östersjö (Denmark/Sweden), trio Magnus Andersson-Pascal Gallois-Rohan de Saram, Nuove Sincronie (Italy), Radio France, Ensemble TaG (Switzerland), Time of Music, Tampere biennale and Finnish Broadcasting Company. In 2017, Harri Suilamo was awarded the Finnish State Artist's Pension.

See also Music Finland / core:

https://core.musicfinland.fi/composers/harri-suilamo

 

 

Tiina Myllärinen (b. 1979) writes music that has been described as cheerfully inquisitive, vigorous and original. She has composed orchestral, choral, chamber and solo works and experimented with electroacoustic music and video. Outside Finland works by her have been performed in the United States, Italy, England, Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Iceland and Norway. Among those who have commissioned works from her are the Pro Musica Foundation, the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the University of Helsinki, the Time of Music festival, the Uusinta ensemble, the Polytech Choir (PK) and the “ja kitara soi” guitar festival.

Tiina Myllärinen has recently developed an interest in the application and study of various acoustic phenomena, such as resonance, in her music. She is also working for an artistic doctorate at the Sibelius Academy on the subject. At the moment she is working with the support of a working grant from Koneen Säätiö.

www.tiinamyllarinen.com 

https://www.fennicagehrman.fi/composers-works/myllarinen-tiina/

 

works

 

Markku Klami

from the Etudes for Guitar (2021)

In Etude No. 6 ’Stream’, the focus is on a continuous stream of rapid four-note arpeggios, using the classic p-i-m-a right-hand fingering, occasionally expanded further to five-note arpeggios by the use of a hammering left-hand legato. For classical guitarists, the p-i-m-a fingering is one of the most common fingerings for an arpeggio, but is often tricky at first and requires intense practice before becoming perhaps the most natural of all arpeggio techniques. This etude is a great workout for this technique. While practising, one might imagine a small stream that keeps moving forward infinitely.

 

Etude No. 4 "Agitato nervosamente" showcases hammering notes on the fretboard with both hands. A particular emphasis should be given to maintaining the balance between the two melodic lines: the higher melodic line that needs to be plucked in a traditional manner and the bass line that requires a hammering left-hand legato. On the second system of the second page, there are particular open string legatos in the midst of arpeggios. When using the right hand i-finger on the fourth string, the player should find the correct angle for plucking so that string noise doesn't interfere with the sound.

A prominent feature in Etude No. 9 "Mirage" is the use of a glass slide. The strings are plucked from both sides of the slide, resulting in sounds familiar from traditional slide guitar playing, as well as almost out- of-this-world sonic phenomena typically found in electroacoustic music.

One can think of a mirage-like, even delirious state of mind.

 

Etude No. 10 "Blaze" begins with sonorous dreamlike sections only to develop into a furious and technically demanding finale to the Etudes. At times, the hectic pace is reduced in calmer passages, only to speed up again, leading to a crackling climax at the end of the piece. 

 

The use of very fast scales, tremolos, traditional arpeggios and one-finger arpeggios results in kaleidoscopic textures placing the highest technical demands on the guitarist. 

 

 

Harri Suilamo:

Die Trauben hängen saftig – Bernhard-Fragmente II (2020)

Die Trauben hängen saftig - Bernhard-Fragmente II stems from an idea from a few years ago to rework the guitar as a physical instrument. I manipulated the guitar's strings in a way that drastically narrows the instrument's usual range of available pitches. Whereas the free strings of a normal guitar define an area that can accommodate a total of 25 adjacent keys on a piano, the corresponding area on the guitar I modified is only 4 keys wide. I discarded all strings thinner than the lowest string and replaced them with thick strings, which differ only in tuning. I had put on a straitjacket, voluntarily. On the other hand, the microtonal tuning I used, combining 1/3 and 1/4 steps, increased the pitch space within the octave by a factor of almost four, which slightly eased my discomfort in front of a tabula rasa. With the guitaristic freak in my arms, I began to rustle out a musical poem, with as little concern as possible for the theoretical framework behind the work. The title of the piece provides a link to the literary work of the Austrian Thomas Bernhard, who has had a particular influence on the composition's extramusical tuning (H.S.).

 

Tiina Myllärinen:

(Bad) Dreams come true (2022)

Acoustics fascinate and inspire me. The same music sounds different in different spaces and the space itself creates different atmospheres. What kind of feeling do you get from music that is played in a completely dry and non-resonant space? And what kind of feeling creates music that is played in a big, reverberant cathedral-like space, where things get mixed-up and noisy? If the music in these two spaces is the same and the only difference is the acoustics, how differently do we experience the music? In (Bad) Dreams come true I try to create those different acoustical spaces without changing the acoustics of the actual concert hall; I compose those acoustics, or illusions of them, inside the music. The dramaturgy of the piece grows from the relationship between the musical material and the acoustics related to it, and from the changes in these. The piece moves in a kind of dream-like state, where the cuts between different spaces, acoustics and atmospheres are sometimes very rigid, sometimes floating and sometimes overlapping each other. When I was composing this piece, the war in Europe started. The shock of it and the news from the battles influenced a lot in the piece and the material used in it. I was thinking what kinds of dreams of future people in Ukraine might have had before the war and how it all was crushed overnight and changed into a living nightmare. The fear and suspension of the present, memories of the past and dreams of the future all came part of the piece. (Bad) Dreams come true is dedicated to the people of Ukraine. The piece is co-commissioned by Uusinta Ensemble with funds provided by the Madetoja Foundation, and by the Sea Lapland’s String Quartet. The composing was supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland

 

Hans- Jürgen Gerung

Concertino for Strings & Guitar (2020)

As is well known, the Concertino is in the true sense of the word the solo instrumental group in the Concerto grosso. But what is a Concertino for string sextet and guitar? The title is not only an indication of a form that has been overcome since long, but also an indication of something missing, even unfinished. - And that’s how it is! Due to the lack of the Ripieno voices and the renunciation of the usual concertino - ripieno - tutti sequences, the seven soloists have a particularly delicate task for there is no underlining of the just spoken words by the support of a large orchestra. This effect almost makes the concertino something 'left alone'!

At the same time, there is the exposed role of the guitar - if only by its sound! - which sets itself apart from the group of strings. For reasons of sound aesthetics, the guitar is also positioned separately - a little in front of the sextet, so that the delicate sound and noise-effects are not whitewashed. And so the listener's inner imagination of a great solo concert grows again and again. The role of the guitar is also exposed through the dynamic avant-garde effects assigned to it, from the almost neoclassical first movement to the largely dodecaphonic-based second up to the last movement. Aleatoric elements and alienation of the sound (also through the preparation of the instrument) determine what happens there against the background of a seemingly digital concept, played by the strings. And sometimes the guitar is allowed to break out - show something! - almost as if we’d be really in the solo concerto ... but immediately it is caught again by the other instruments and placed in line.

The Concertino is therefore not a Concerto da Camera, in the sense of the work as it is used by Honegger. It’s rather a work for seven soloists on their way from Neoclassicism to Cage - a small, lost piece of music from a bygone era that tries to survive without its alter εgo.

But the Concertino is also proof of how much Gerung’s work is shaped by traditional forms and mechanisms.

 

 

Hans-Jürgen Gerung

Festival Director

 

 

Athira Sukumaran

Festival Assistance

With the engagement of the young violin virtuoso Athira Sukumaran at the Oberstdorf Music School, we have succeeded in bringing a very exceptional musician to Oberstdorf. Ms. Sukumaran began her music studies at the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai (in collaboration with Middlesex University in London) and graduated with distinction in 2016. Her decision to go to Germany initially led her to the Berufsfachschule für Musik in Plattling, Lower Bavaria. Athira Sukumaran was awarded a prize by the Bavarian State Government in 2018 for her outstanding degree with a grade of 1.0; since 2018 she has been studying violin at the Leopold Mozart Zentrum at the University of Augsburg with Prof. Linus Roth and will receive her Bachelor of Music (IGP Violin) in the summer of 2022. In addition to her extensive studies, the young violinist has already performed numerous concerts at major venues - including the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie and the New Philharmonic in Szczecin. Ms Sukumaran was a finalist in the 2014 David Mendes Violin Competition in Goa and in 2014 she received the "Best Academic Performer" Award from the KM Music Conservatory Chennai as well as performance scholarships in 2014-2016.

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