Every week, violist Petteri Poijärvi arrives at the Music Centre around six o’clock in the evening and heads down the stairs to the dressing room. He chats with colleagues, warms up for a while, changes from everyday clothes into a tailcoat, and at 7 p.m. it is time to walk onto the stage of the Music Centre Concert Hall together with a hundred other musicians.
At the end of November, Poijärvi faces something entirely new when he performs as a vocalist accompanied by a string quartet on the Philharmonic at the Library tour. During the month-long tour, musicians of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra give chamber music concerts in libraries across the city, from Herttoniemi to Etelä-Haaga and from Kontula to Käpylä.
In three library concerts, Petteri Poijärvi and a string quartet made up of Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra musicians will perform selections from The Juliet Letters, a work created by British rock musician and songwriter Elvis Costello together with the Brodsky Quartet. The work consists of fictional letters addressed to Juliet Capulet, the character from Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet.
“There will be a wide variety of music, combining rock vocals with the accompaniment of a classical string quartet,” Poijärvi promises.
How different is it to sing among books compared with playing in the orchestra?
“That’s an interesting question,” Poijärvi begins, pausing for a moment to think.
“This is a completely new situation for me, singing with a string quartet. I’ve sung a great deal with bands, though.”
Classically trained, accidentally a singer
Poijärvi, who received classical training as a violist, found his way into popular music singing almost by accident.
“There were too many guitarists at school, but nobody wanted to sing. I wasn’t a good enough guitarist, so I became the singer. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to join any bands.”
While studying at the teacher education department in Jyväskylä, Poijärvi’s roommate was forming a band and invited him to join, naturally as the vocalist. The group, founded with fellow students, performed extensively throughout the 1990s. In 2001, Petteri Poijärvi joined the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant principal viola.
“Popular music provides a counterbalance to my work. I believe it is important for musicians to be versatile. You can draw inspiration from every kind of music and bring it into your own work,” says Poijärvi.
Libraries are the heart of civilisation
Petteri Poijärvi has a deep affection for libraries and can be found at his local library every week.
“Libraries are at the heart of civilisation. They give everyone the opportunity to educate themselves through literature. It will be wonderful to perform surrounded by books at these library concerts.”
Poijärvi usually has several books on the go at the same time, although they rarely deal with music. Instead, he recommends Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita to everyone.
“It is a remarkable work with the same kind of absurd atmosphere that can be found, for example, in the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.”
Text: Hannele Tavi