HPO’S AUTUMN SEASON BRINGS NEW INTERNATIONAL WORKS AND A BRAHMS SERIES WITH CHIEF CONDUCTOR JOHN STORGÅRDS

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra begins the autumn season with a concert conducted by Okko Kamu at the Golden Jubilee Turku Music Festival in which the soloists are Valeria Resjan and the HPO’s own principal trumpet Pasi Pirinen (August 15). During the Helsinki Festival (on August 26) it will give a space concert with John Storgårds designed for the whole family, to mark the International Year of Astronomy.

The Baltic Sea Festival has invited the HPO to the Berwald Hall in Stockholm. The soloist in this concert conducted by John Storgårds is the orchestra’s own cellist Samuli Peltonen and the programme will include the premiere of a new work by Kimmo Hakola as a prelude to Sibelius’s second symphony (August 30).

To mark the historical events of 1809, when Finland passed from Swedish to Russian rule, the HPO is joining forces with the Guards’ Band for a gala concert to be conducted by Emeritus Chief Conductor Leif Segerstam (September 3). The orchestra begins its own season at Finlandia Hall on September 10. The visiting artist in this concert conducted by John Storgårds will be pianist Alexei Lyubimov in Lamentate for piano and orchestra by Arvo Pärt. Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 launches the Chief Conductor’s Brahms series, to be continued on October 22 and November 5 and next spring.

The concert repertoire for the autumn season is spiced with some interesting new works starting with the Pärt work and continuing with the Piano Concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür with Laura Mikkola as the soloist (October 8), HK Gruber’s Busking for trumpet, accordion, banjo and strings starring Håkan Hardenberger (October 22), the premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Partita (November 11 & 12) and a visit from the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra premiering the Double Concerto for Violin and Viola by Anders Eliasson (November 25 & 26).

Chief Conductor John Storgårds is to conduct nine concerts at Finlandia Hall during the autumn season. Among the visiting maestros are Leif Segerstam, Pietari Inkinen, Dmitri Slobodeniouk and Juha Kangas. Making their conducting debut with the HPO are Brazilian Robert Minczuk (October 28 & 29) and German Andreas Spering, the latter in a performance of the Handel/Mozart Messiah (December 17). The autumn’s talent spot is Swedish Wagner baritone Marcus Jupither (September 24).

The stars in the autumn’s galaxy of soloists are among the finest on the international firmament: in addition to those already mentioned, audiences can look forward to a visit by soprano Camilla Nylund (September 30 & October 1), violin virtuoso Vadim Repin in the Brahms Concerto (October 14 & 15) and pianist Roland Pöntinen in Grieg Concerto (November 11 & 12). The soloists in the guest concert by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra are Ulf Wallin, violin, and Lars Anders Tomter, viola (November 25 & 26), while musicians from the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s own ranks Pekka Kauppinen, Tuomas Ylinen, Anni Haapaniemi and Mikko-Pekka Svala will star in the Sinfonia concertante by Bohuslav Martinu (September 16 & 17) and Petri Keskitalo in the Tuba Concerto by John Williams (November 5).

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Ondine have renewed their agreement, thus ensuring that quality recordings will continue to be forthcoming. During the autumn the orchestra will be recording works by, among others, Klami and Tiensuu with John Storgårds as the conductor and music by Rautavaara under Leif Segerstam. The autumn foreign tour is to Budapest and Vienna on November 26-29.

The scheme by which the HPO takes music out into the Helsinki suburbs continues in autumn 2009. Free concerts for both children and adults will accordingly be held out in various suburbs.

HPO autumn season tickets will be on sale at Lippupiste from May 13 to August 28.