It's about a month away, so I've decided to let the "duck" out of the bag. (Click

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for another "duck-related" thread by AndrewB...)

On September 26th, the ZSO ML is kicking off its 2008-09 subscription season with a concert under the patronage of the Finnish Embassy in Prague, the third-such joint-venture that we have undertaken. Featured is Sibelius' Luonnotar, with Jenni Lättilä singing.

The festivities will begin at 18:30 with a lecture given by me about the legend itself, an explanation of the text. When talking about the music, my focus will be on how Sibelius uses orchestral textures to divide the piece into sections, and his ingenious contrast of "active" textures (i.e. the opening figurations and its iterations) behind "passive" text and "passive" textures (i.e. the B-flat minor 3/2 passages with harp) set behind "active" text.

The highlight of the lecture (I hope) will be His Excellency the Ambassador himself reading the text out loud to the audience, so that they can hear the inflections of this incredible language from a native speaker.

The concert begins at 19:30 with the following programme:

Debussy - Prélude a l'apres-midi d'une Faune
Sibelius - Luonnotar
- Intermission -
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5

As I have stated elsewhere, I am absolutely mezmorized by this piece, it is firmly entrenched along with the Fifth Symphony and Tapiola as my very favourite Sibelius works. In my mind it doesn't supercede these two, but after the performance perhaps it will, at least in my heart.

Kurki, all of that sounds awesome. I really wish I could be there to experience it!

Several years ago I met the Finnish ambassador to the U.S. and his wife. He was a very nice guy, though he did not recite any passages of Luonnotar.

Will you be posting this on YouTube like you did with the Scene with Cranes??

Tapkaara wrote:

Will you be posting this on YouTube like you did with the Scene with Cranes?

That's the plan so far. My namesake clip is the only thing you'll find of me on YouTube, as I don't believe in plastering oneself all over the internet. But a few clips here and there of special pieces are OK, and Luonnotar (I hope) will be the second to qualify in that category.

Bold choice - congratulations!

I suppose you'll be using the newish JSW critical edition? (Breitkopf study score No.5514)? Mind you, I don't think there are any dramatic differences... I seem to recall that maybe the text placement changed in bar 71 on ylijumala - the correct one is:
first beat: yli
second beat: ju
third beat: mala
(I haven't heard Jenni L sing but many sopranos learned the piece with the second beat as juma and the third beat as la - a small point maybe, but worth checking!)

And will you get her to sing that last top C flat (staring in bar 128) pianissimo as marked? I hope so!

I have not met Ms. Lättilä yet, but I will point out these details to her. And yes, my score has 'ylijumala' spread out the way that you suggest. As for the pp C-flat, I will ask the orchestra to play softly, perhaps this will give her the confidence to sing it pp as well.

Pokud Vás zajímá koncert, ve kterým ZSO představí Luonnotar Mariánskolázeňskému publiku, klikntěte na níže uvedený odkaz.

For the Czech speakers here, my little write-up of our upcoming Luonnotar performance on the ZSO website can be found

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.

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More to come soon...

Looking good, Kurik...I wish I could be there to hear your performance!!!

Any updates on how the performance went? Will it end up on YouTube?

The performance of Luonnotar at our season-opening concert was very successful, mostly thanks to soprano Jenni Lättilä (

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) who gave a very fine performance. Her voice is very strong with a wonderfully dark colour and her expression created a wonderful atmosphere in the hall.

The concert was preceeded by a lecture about the piece, where I explained its (Kalevalan) origins and how Sibelius uses and transforms a single motive to create a flowing musical narrative. The piece was very warmly received by the audience (who were all most definitely hearing it for the first time) and the orchestra tried very, very hard to make this performance work...

... but I will not post the video for posterity.

It was a fine event in Marienbad in my ongoing introdution of Sibelius' music to our audience in cooperation with the Finnish Embassy. But in terms of the performance itself, it was far from a definitive reading with regards to my orchestra's ability to do the piece (and Ms. Lättilä's performance) full justice. The idiom is simply so strange for the orchestra that even after 3 days of rehearsals they were still thinking extremely technically rather than naturally and musically. My conducting was therefore extremely functional rather than expressive, I was simply trying to keep the orchestra together at all times. Ms. Lättilä's fine sense of the orchestral part helped a lot in this regard, I'm afraid that with a less astute singer there may have been a few disasters caused by the orchestras stubborn inflexibility.

In conclusion, I think we came a long way with the piece, and given the context it was a good first performance but we would have to play it a few more times to really come to grips with the work. I'm very glad we did it, it was a bit of a dream come true for me... but... perhaps next week's Andante Festivo will end up enshrined on YouTube instead.

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Congratulations, Kurki!

You are having same problems with your orchestra than Sibb with Kullervo in first reherseals.

Many congratulations on your great sucess and in having the vision and fortitude to mount this performance of Luonnotar in Marienbad. Any misgivings you may have had about this or that detail pale into insignificance against the fact that the work was warmly recieved--one of Sibelius's very greatest. Well done-kp

Thank you for frank comments, Kurki. I'm sure you are a perfectionist of the highest order, so I understand and respect your decision not to post the performance.

But many congrats to you, your band, and Ms. Lattila for introducing such a strangely moving piece to an audience who, you siad, probably have never heard Luonnotar before. If the audience reacted as warmly as they did, I have no doubts the performance was a success on more levels that even you realize.

It is so important that the music of Sibelius have as many advocates in the world as possible, so my hat's off to Kurki for doing his best to "get the word out." Bravo!