Käsiohjelma: Synt­he­sis, Re­mi­niscence, ja Drun­ken Toucan

Julkaistu 11.6.2024 | Päivitetty 11.6.2024

13.6. at 19:00 Sibelius-Akatemian konserttisali

Performers:

Marcus Hu, composer & cellist
Sauli Niemi, composer & pianist
Niki Main, composer & performer
Tuule-Helin Krigul, flute
Aaro Lehtovaara, bassoon
Nuutti Tossavainen, trumpet
Kristīne Tukre, kokle
Teuvo Taimioja, guitar
Minna Ristamäki, accordion
Elina Rautiainen, piano
Olli Mikkonen, piano
Alex Martin Augustin, percussion
Matilda Nikkinen, soprano
Heidi Hämäläinen, performer
Venla Saavalainen, violin
Adele Xiang, cello
Otto Nuoranne, cello

PROGRAM

Fleeting Miniverse for kokle, by Niki Main; 2′

Kristīne Tukre, kokle

Fleeting Miniverse was written in a residency where artists were tasked with creating a new work in less than 24 hours. The piece explores not only fleeting time but also fleeting spaces. I think of a space as four-dimensional, not just a physical location but who it is shared with and when and why.

Two Pieces for piano, by Sauli Niemi

Barcarolle; 3.5′
Scène dansante; 4′

Sauli Niemi, piano

Barcarolle oli ensimmäinen sävellykseni Matthew Whittallin opeissa. Tämä syntyi pitkän kesän aikana patoutuneen inspiraation seurauksesta hyvin nopeasti lukuvuoden alettua heti elämäni ensimmäisen ja toisen sävellystunnin välillä. Tämä lisäsi uskoa omiin kykyihini säveltäjänä ja teki luonnostaan myös vahvan ensivaikutuksen opettajaan. Tyylillisesti sävellys on takaisin katsova ja nostalginen kunnianosoitus menneen aikakauden musiikille ja etenkin Alexander Glazunoville, joka suuren modernismin ajan muutoksen keskellä uskoi vankasti vanhoihin sävellystekniikoihin ja konventioihin.

Barcarolle was the first composition I wrote under Matthew Whittall’s teaching. The piece came to being in only two weeks as a result of an inspiration accumulated during the long summer. This impressed the teacher and also increased my faith in my own abilities as a composer. Stylistically, the composition is a retrospective and nostalgic tribute to music of the past and especially that of Alexander Glazunov, who in the midst of the great change of modernism firmly believed in old compositional techniques and conventions.

Scène dansante (ransk. “tanssikohtaus”) on toinen kirjoittamani teos sävellysopintojeni yhteydessä. Toisin kuin Barcarollen, tämän sävellyksen prosessi oli hitaampi ja vaivalloisempi. Kirjoitusprosessin aikana sävellys muutti paljon muotoaan: hylkäsin paljon musiikillista materiaalia sen takia, etten ollut tyytyväinen suunnasta, jonka teos oli ottanut. Lopulta teoksesta muodostui orgaanisesti kuitenkin sellainen, kuin millaiseksi sen halusinkin kehittyä. Teoksen nimi viittaa eräänlaiseen balettikohtaukseen, jollaisia mm. Glazunov ja Tšaikovski kirjoitti baletteihinsa. Näissä tanssi ja draama yhdistyvät muodostamaan yhtenäisen kokonaisuuden.

Scène dansante (French for ”dance scene”) was the next piece I wrote under Whittall’s guidance after Barcarolle. Unlike with the previous piece, the process of this composition was slower and more laborious. During the writing process, the composition went through many changes: I discarded a lot of musical material because I wasn’t happy with the direction the piece was taking. In the end, the piece organically formed into the shape it was destined to. The title of the piece refers to the type of ballet scene that includes both dancing and drama, such as what Glazunov and Tchaikovsky wrote for their ballets.

Two Pieces for soprano and piano, by Auri-Helena Nikkinen

1. Lagoon; 4′
2. Your Music; 1.5′

Matilda Nikkinen, soprano
Olli Mikkonen, piano

Two Pieces for Soprano and Piano is a collection of two pieces of music that although different from each other, have something in common. Both I have composed to my dear sister and a wonderful soprano Matilda Nikkinen. The first piece, Lagoon, portrays a peaceful, magical Lagoon, with even possible mermaids present. With no words, the hypnotic melody and the sound of soft waves calls the listener to use their imagination and relax for a moment in the warm waves of the gentle sea. The second piece, Your Music, is a short and sweet piece dedicated to my first compositional role model and my dear father Jouko Nikkinen. The piece describes how music can bring immense joy and comfort, even to the darkest of situations.

Towards Alienation of Memory for solo cello, by Marcus Hu; 3′

Marcus Hu, cello

Reminiscence for cello and piano, by Marcus Hu; 2.5′

Elina Rautiainen, piano
Marcus Hu, cello

Memories, found and lost, dissolved out to time – what do those moments mean to us? Perhaps they outlast their ephemeral form by appealing to our hopes, and to our fears. But do you feel that forlorn nostalgia, a sudden delirium that melts the vicissitudes of our lives, so that they can return us to a promised future – a renewed vicissitude as our ultimate realities.

Loomis for accordion, by Niki Main; 5′

Minna Ristamäki, accordion

It’s sometimes said that music captures emotion in its most raw, abstract form. Can music, however, capture a person’s mental state—that is, the essential essence and finest emotional gradations unique to an individual? Loomis is an exploration into the mind of a neurotic genius as understood through the analysis of his poetry.

Tyhjiä hönkäyksiä – Hohe for soprano and paper accordion, by Auri-Helena Nikkinen; 5′

Heidi Hämäläinen, performer

Tyhjiä hönkäyksiä (“Empty breaths”) – Hohe for soprano and paper accordion is a dramatic piece, inspired by the themes of creative impotence, impressions of art and the relation of deep and shallow in art and in life. What is art? Is art entertainment? Should it be? Should it not be? Can it still be entertaining? What is high art, and why is it valuable? Is it valuable? The piece raises more questions than it answers, offering the audience only possible feelings of confusion and even slight annoyance.

An Urban Tiger for piano, by Auri-Helena Nikkinen; 5′

Elina Rautiainen, piano

An Urban Tiger is a solo piano piece about the not-always-so-harmonious coexistence of man and nature. The piece examines how things that are beautiful and natural, can cause major problems in an unnatural environment. The piece first started to form in my mind, when I one day wondered how placing a tiger in the middle of a city would be quite catastrophic. In this piece, I try to describe a multitude of properties of a tiger. How it can be fierce and scary, but also soft and cute. It’s not really the tiger’s fault that it is in the wrong place, yet it does not lessen the chaos one bit. Throughout the piece there is a constant sense of tension in the music, marked by the everlasting trill. Overall, the musical language of the piece is quite impressionistic and easy to follow.

~Intermission~

Sonata for solo violin, by Niki Main; 14′

Venla Saavalainen, violin

Illite is a type of clay which is particularly nonreactive, though with enough heat has the potential to crystalize into muscovite. I found this idea of metamorphism from an unresponsive, fairly useless substance into a historically significant crystal mineral an alluring metaphor. This sonata for solo violin is an allegory for striving towards a satisfaction and purpose beyond its own capacity, a desire to carry on a tradition, and a need for metamorphosis. A poem is interspersed throughout the piece, which served as an inspiration for the music:

Go on,
seize her by the sheets with your barren hands
tighter, tighter swift she slips pebble by pebble
hastens as you grapple clench
grasp greechly till her grains turn to glass
screeching gently through the flesh of your palms

Wet soil from the bed
of the stream of creation
keeps firm in the fist

O stream,
pour yourself upon me
so that i may absorb that which is within you
but wash me out to see
nothing more than a mound of that loose gravel

Soon as i stepped in
The gaping hand flew ‘way
every gust a knife
that glints a moment
but i was not so significant as to redden those waters

Hunnuton for soprano and piano, by Auri-Helena Nikkinen; 5′

Matilda Nikkinen, soprano
Olli Mikkonen, piano

Hunnuton (“Unveiled”) is a piece for soprano and piano that was originally commissioned by Hämeenlinna Sibelius society and premiered by Helena Juntunen and Jukka Nykänen. The piece is set to Aila Meriluoto’s poem of the same name that describes a flower in a forest after a summer rain. The piece, while being a beautiful description of a unique moment in nature, also has a clear emotional, even sensual undertone that becomes easily observable with any closer inspection of the poem. The last line of the poem goes “Kaikki hunnuton kosketusta lymyy” or very freely translated “Touch is hiding in all unveiled”.

Cycles for piano, by Sauli Niemi; 3.5′

Sauli Niemi, piano

Cycles on hieman erilaisempi suhteessa Barcarolle:en ja Scène dansanteen, jotka ovat keskenään sävelkielellisesti samanhenkisiä. Cycles on valmistunut sävellysopintojeni ulkopuolella ja toiminut itselleni vieraiden sävellyksellisten työkalujen “koekenttänä”. Osa tekniikoista on peritty 1900-luvun alun säveltäjiltä, osa on minun itseni kehittelemiä. Nimenä Cycles viittaa musiikinteoreettiseen ilmiöön etenkin melodisista ja harmonisista sykleistä eli sekvensseistä, joiden käyttöön sävellys vahvasti pohjautuu. Lisäksi nimellä on yhteys historiallisiin sykleihin ja tapahtumien uudelleen ilmenemiseen eri yhteiskunnallisilla tasoilla.

Cycles is a bit different in comparison to Barcarolle and Scène dansante which are more akin to each other. It was completed outside of my composition studies and served as a ”testing ground” for new types of compositional tools. Some of the techniques had been inherited from early 20th century composers, some had been developed by myself. The name Cycles refers to a music theoretical phenomenon, relating especially to melodic and harmonic patterns, or sequences, on which the composition heavily relies upon. In addition, the name has a connection to the universal phenomenon of repetition and, among other things, the reappearance of historical periods at different levels of society.

Solitude & Synthesis for guitar, by Niki Main; 4.5′

1. Synthesis of Color
2. Solitude with Bells

Teuvo Taimioja, guitar

Solitude & Synthesis is a set of two intimate, meditative shorts which focus on the guitar’s unique ability to blend its vast color pallet.

Regards from Montes de Toledo for flute, guitar, and cello, by Auri-Helena Nikkinen; 5′

Tuule-Helin Krigul, flute
Teuvo Taimioja, guitar
Otto Nuoranne, cello

Regards from Montes de Toledo is a trio for flute, guitar and violoncello. The title of the piece refers to receiving regards from a loved one from somewhere far away. It describes the feeling of getting a letter from someone important to you, maybe a friend, a lover or a family member. The music aims to demonstrate how you can experience all kinds of feelings, joy, melancholy and longing, second hand, simply by reading a letter.

The piece has a lot of references to Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez which has been a very important piece to me since I was a small child. Whenever I had a fever as a kid, I would just lay on my back with my guitar on top of my stomach, and with the worst playing ergonomy imaginable, try to play the beginning of the second movement of the concerto. That, although did not sound too amazing since guitar was about my fourth instrument, always brought me great solace in my sickness, and for I am forever grateful to Joaquín Rodrigo.

Laulaen for cello, by Niki Main; 8′

Adele Xiang, cello

Laulaen is a rhapsodic piece which I wrote during my first year since moving to Finland. It celebrates the cello’s innate ability to sing, representing a rejuvenation of spirit, a sense of freedom, and the revitalization of my voice in my new home. 

Humoresque pour Maxim – Memoir of a Drunken Toucan for bassoon and piano, by Auri-Helena Nikkinen; 5′

Aaro Lehtovaara, bassoon

Humoresque Pour Maxim – Memoir of a Drunken Toucan is a funny, rowdy, slightly tragicomic piece for bassoon and piano. It tells the tale of a joyful and adventurous, yet helplessly drunk toucan. The piece has an ABA form, and the A theme describes the joyful mood of celebration, whilst the B theme conveys the pain of regret and hangover. The difference in moods is quite drastic, as often tends to be in the case of such toucans.

Tawdry Ives: Arrangement based on Yankee Doodle and Star-Spangled Banner for the 4th of July, for trumpet, snare drum, reciter, piano, violin, and cello, by Marcus Hu; 2.5′

Nuutti Tossavainen, trumpet
Alex Martin Agustin, snare drum
Niki Main, reciter
Elina Rautiainen, piano
Venla Saavalainen, violin
Otto Nuoranne, cello

“…But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still”  -Ronald Reagan, 1989

COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES:

Sauli Niemi (s. 2001) on helsinkiläinen pianisti–säveltäjä, joka on viimeistelemässä kandidaatin opintojaan Sibelius-Akatemiassa pääaineenaan musiikinteoria. Sävellystä Niemi opiskelee Matthew Whittallin johdolla.

Säveltäjän ura on lähtenyt Niemellä käyntiin vasta viimeisen vuoden aikana aloitettuaan sävellyksen opinnot Akatemialla, joskin musiikinteorian opinnot olivat jo kasvattaneet musiikillista ymmärrystä ja laajentaneet työkalupakkia, jolla säveltäjät operoivat.

Niemen suurimmat taiteelliset inspiraation lähteet ovat olleet taiteen saralla yhdysvaltalainen elokuvaohjaaja Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999), taidemusiikin saralla säveltäjä Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936), sekä ehkä tärkeimpänä Säde Savela (s. 2001), joka on elänyt Niemen rinnalla läpi tämän tähän astisesti suurimman taiteellisen kehityksen.

Sauli Niemi (b. 2001) is a pianist-composer from Helsinki who is completing his bachelor’s studies at the Sibelius Academy, majoring in music theory. Niemi is currently studying composition under Matthew Whittall.

Niemi’s career as a composer only really started this year when he began his composition studies here in Sibelius Academy, although his studies in music theory had already increased his musical understanding and broadened the musical technical palette that is also vital for composers.

The biggest sources of artistic inspiration for Niemi have been the American film director Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999), the Russian late romantic composer Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936), and maybe most importantly Säde Savela (b. 2001), who has lived by Niemi’s side throughout his biggest artistic development so far.

Niki Main is a countertenor, composer, and poet based in Finland and the US. They are currently pursuing their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Sibelius Academy where they study composition with Riikka Talvitie and voice with Ulla Raiskio. Recent composing projects include premieres with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, FRONT International Triennial, Musaics of the Bay, NYKY Ensemble, and as composer-performer at Musica Nova Helsinki 2023. Additionally, they have worked as an arranger with Katarina Barruk and the Lapish Chamber Orchestra. Their first opera, It Takes a Child’s Imagination, premiered with Yolanda Harding in June 2024, making Niki’s debut of combining in a single project their triple threat artistry as composer, performer, and librettist. Other recent stage productions include performing John Cage’s Songbooks at Viitasaaren Musiikin Aika with Joan La Barbara and the roles of Honour in Purcell’s King Arthur and Liberto, Lucano, Littore, and 2nd Famigliare in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Sibelius Academy Opera.

Upcoming projects include an UrbanApa residency in tekstin talo where Niki will work as a poet in July 2024, and a masterclass with Andrew Norman in Oulu as well as a premiere with EMO ensemble in October 2024. In May 2025, a new string orchestra work of theirs will be premiered by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra.

Marcus Hu (b.2002) has pursued composition studies under the honorable tutorage of Lauri Kilpiö (2021-2024) at University of the Arts Helsinki. In his earlier years, Marcus has received an extensive musical education in his native Australia. He attended the music-specialist Conservatorium High School in Sydney (2017-2020) and has received consistent composition training under Richard Gill (2014-2018) and Jack Symonds (2017-2020). He will continue his Masters studies, first pursuing exchange studies at Kunstuniversität Graz for 2024/2025 under Professor Franck Bedrossian.

In creating a work, Marcus pursues a goal of achieving flexible and unrestrained lyricism, ultimately capable of freely modulating between different stylistic mediums, with a flexible intensity that echoes the information saturations of the digital age in our post-modern world. 

Auri-Helena Nikkinen is a Finnish composer and professional musician who draws a lot of her inspiration from nature. Nikkinen comes from Tohmajärvi, a small rural village in Eastern Finland, and to her, music and nature have always been connected in an obvious and inseparable way. 

Nikkinen started composing at age six, and her works have been performed in concerts and at a variety of festivals in Finland, including Oulu October of New Music Festival, Joensuu Winter of Music Festival, Klang Concert Series in Helsinki, and Night of Faith Festival in Tohmajärvi. Nikkinen has written music for a multitude of groups, including Helsinki Police Symphonic Band, Joensuu Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra, Zagros Ensemble and Arctos Ensemble. Having also written a lot of chamber and solo pieces, her music has been performed by many well-known Finnish musicians and soloists, such as soprano Helena Juntunen, pianist Jukka Nykänen and clarinetist Mikko Raasakka.

Nikkinen finds communicating emotions to people through music to be one of the most important aspects of being a composer. Of music and its future she states: “The future of music is in its immense, unique power of conveying emotions, and in its ability to resonate with one’s soul. And in its fun!”. 

Currently Nikkinen studies in the composition department of Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, with Lecturer Lauri Kilpiö. Some of her previous teachers include Ville Raasakka, Inga Grigorieva and Jukka Koistinen. Nikkinen is a graduate of Joensuu Conservatoire, where she studied violin with Dr. of Music Tapani Yrjölä. Nikkinen has also studied music education in Sibelius Academy from 2019 to 2021.