Sibelius Academy & Royal College of Music, Sakari Oramo, Anu Komsi

Helsinki Music Centre, Concert Hall
Sun 1.9.2024 16:00
Duration: 2h, interval

There will be a massive burst of energy from young musicians, when Professor Sakari Oramo brings together the symphony orchestras of two leading music academies, the Royal College of Music from London and the Sibelius Academy of University of the Arts Helsinki. The combined orchestra will perform at Helsinki Festival’s final concert at the Musiikkitalo Concert Hall on 1 September 2024. 

The concert programme includes Jean Sibelius’ The Wood Nymph Op. 15, Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Lara Poe’s Songs from the Countryside, which will be sung by soprano Anu Komsi. The Finnish-American and London-based Poe’s brand new suite examines our relationship with animals. The BBC commissioned piece was written for Anu Koms. The new work is bookended by giants of Finnish and British music, Sibelius and Holst and will be premiered at the BBC Proms a week before the Helsinki Festival.

Symphony Orchestra of the Royal College of Music (London)
Symphony Orchestra of the Sibelius Academy of University of the Arts Helsinki
Helsinki Chamber Choir
Sakari Oramo, conductor
Anu Komsi, soprano

Jean Sibelius: The Wood Nymph
Lara Poe: Songs from the Countryside
Gustav Holst: The Planets

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The Wood Nymph (Skogsrået, subtitled ballad for orchestra) is a programmatic tone poem composed in 1894–1895 by Jean Sibelius. It is based on a 1882 poem by the Swedish writer Viktor Rydberg, in which a young man, Björn, wanders into the forest and is seduced by a wood nymph, with tragic consequences.

The tone poem consists of four distinctly different figurations, which correspond to the stanzas of the poem, recreating their events and mood. Alla marcia: Björn was a tall and handsome young man, with tremendously broad shoulders and a tighter waist than other men. Vivace assai—Molto vivace: The forest’s dwarves in jet black capes plan mischief among the heather. Moderato: There waves a moon-white shroud, there signals a delicate and round hand, there heaves a bosom, there whispers a mouth. Molto lento: The blue eyes have drawn Björn from harrow and plough. He grows old and unhappy in his empty home, waiting for death and the funeral bier. (V. Rydberg)

The work received a repeat premiere in 1895, followed by a further five more performances during that decade, and it was performed once more, at the composer’s request, in 1936. Then The Wood Nymph was forgotten for 60 years. The modern repeat premiere in 1996 by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra received international media attention.

The critics of the time praised Sibelius for masterfully setting Rydberg’s poem to music. But, like later reviews, they noted that The Wood Nymph lacks a coherent structure. Sibelius simply juxtaposes different figurations without connective elements. His later mastery of the “art of transition” is not present in The Wood Nymph.

The origin of the work is shrouded in mystery. The music of The Wood Nymph may have gradually evolved from an unrealised opera draft by Sibelius. In any case, the work was created as a by-product of Sibelius’ opera crisis in the 1890s. In The Wood Nymph, he is bidding farewell to his earlier idol, Wagner. The third section – the seduction – is said to contain “erotic harmonic language” à la Tristan and the fourth section’s funeral march motif to be reminiscent of Lohengrin’s “forbidden question”.

The possible autobiographical dimensions of the work have also been considered. The fateful intimate connection between Björn and the wood nymph may be a reference to the composer’s own indiscretions of youth.

Back in the 2018 BBCSO Total Immersion Sibelius festival, the evening orchestral concert featured Anu Komsi and Sakari Oramo in several of Sibelius’ orchestral tone poems and works for voice and orchestra. As Anu Komsi came onstage, she began with some ‘kulning’ rather than immediately moving to the repertoire in the programme. Kulning is a folk tradition that has deep roots in the nordic countries, particularly Sweden and Finland. The word ‘kulning’ translates to cow-calling, and indeed, kulning refers to calling cows from the field with a specific style of singing. When I was approached for this commission, I knew I would be writing for Anu Komsi and Sakari Oramo. From this specific concert, I knew that Anu was familiar with kulning, and I was familiar with her voice from other repertoire: a few pieces written specifically for her voice include Kaija Saariaho’s Leino Songs and Saarikoski Songs, George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, Jukka Tiensuu’s Voice Verser, and Christian Mason’s Man Made – among many, many more examples. She has a very particular and extraordinary voice, which is incredibly agile and versatile in very specific ways.

When I started thinking of how to approach Laulut maaseudulta, I remembered the Sibelius concert, particularly the kulning, and began thinking about my grandmother’s upbringing on a farm in Espoo, Finland. Hearing my grandmother speak about her childhood (she was born in 1928) felt as though she was describing a completely different world to our current one. Although this world feels alien to our current one in many ways, there are a number of important issues from that period that continue to affect us today, such as the ongoing effects of war and conflict. I have also woven other Finnish folk material into the piece, particularly in the movement concerning the Karelians, and this material is transformed and developed in a number of ways. The texts are extracted from transcriptions of interviews from my grandmother, as well as some text provided by my aunt.

Lara Poe

Texts:

Texts II, III, and VI began with a conversation between Lara Poe and Heljä Hakosalo (aka Tidi). Poe recorded this conversation and transcribed it into text format – the song texts were extracted from this transcription and further condensed.

Texts IV and VII came about through collaboration between Lara Poe and Minna Hakosalo. Text I started off as a list of Tidi’s childhood cows, which Poe combined with Finnish kulning.

I. Introduction

Mustike, come,
Mansike, Pähkinä, come,
Lölli, Ruusu, come!
Come, come! 

II. Cows

Mustike was the leader cow. She was black and white; the others were brown and white. Mustike was the largest and she was stubborn and persistent. She was the bellwether. She had a bell around her neck. Mustike was quite the majestic cow.

Mansike was an ordinary cow; she wandered where the rest of the herd went.

Pähkinä was older, and the former leader. Her face was nearly white, but had brown circles around her eyes, almost as a mask. And she had somewhat curved, curling horns.

Lölli was quite a big cow, and was good for milking. She was very light coloured, and only had a few brown spots. Probably a child gave her that name.

Ruusu was quite ordinary, brown and white like they are. And Usva was also quite ordinary, also Rusina.

III. Difficult individuals

Aada was a Swedish cow and came from a Swedish farm. She didn’t quite fit in with the rest. She was a bit of a loner. She wasn’t really accepted into the herd.

One of the cows ran off into the forest as a calf. She was frightened by something and ran straight through the barbed wire fence! Then ran across the train tracks, swam across the river, and pressed on behind the railway station into the forest. When autumn came, she joined another herd of cattle behind Espoo, in Gumböle, at least six kilometers away. From there, they called that your calf has been found here.

Ulla was a bit of a difficult cow, and initially quite difficult to milk. I guess she kicked or swatted with her tail. She would suddenly lift up her head, and then she’d run off! Then my brothers, Eku and Matti, had their work cut out for them: they had little piles of stones when they were shepherding, and when they saw Ulla was about to leave, they’d throw a small rock in front of her. Then she’d turn back and wouldn’t run off. 

Hely, Heluna, and Rusko, the brown calves. They were always with the herd and then would try to escape! They’d go to the neighbours’ fields, and eat clover and whatnot. I think they enjoyed the adventure of exploring. And when we had normal fences, they’d run off even if there was barbed wire. Then we got a partially electrified fence: if a cow came and touched the fence at a certain height, they’d get a small electric shock. But the brown calves would go under the electrified area. They figured it out!

Did the brown calves stay brown into adulthood? Yes, they stayed pretty brown, but their faces were white. The brown colouring started below the neck. Heluna looked a bit like Pähkinä: perhaps she was Pähkinä’s daughter?

Hertta was also there – in terms of coloring she looked a bit like Hely, but not as clearly. Mostly brown, not particularly difficult, as opposed to certain individuals…

IV. The Storm

The light is quite black,
darker than night;
far away, the wind whistles.
The forest awaits, 
the branches settle down.

Now, now it comes:
The first storm of the autumn!
How we have awaited this
Now we can hum and shout!

V. Horses

There were also horses, Finnhorses. Ympyrä (Circle) had been in the war: he would lead the others into the potato cellar when he heard an airplane overhead. He thought that he needed to take shelter: if he was on the road and  heard an airplane, he would try and run off into the forest, over the ditch on the side of the road, regardless of whether or not he was pulling a cart or sled behind him. Back then, everywhere was filled with forests.

Piirto had also been in the war, and she refused to go over bridges. If she came across a bridge, she would stop right there. In the war, bridges would often explode. So she thought it was not safe to cross. This is understandable, but it made life difficult. It was pointless to try and go, for instance, to the other side of the river.

VI. Karelians

A bunch of refugees fled Karelia, and they brought a herd of cows with them. Our cows were Ayrshire cows, and theirs were Eastern Finncattle. The Finncattle (who didn’t have horns) were kept separate from our cattle, in a different, temporary barn.

Finally, the Karelians were given a plot of land to settle on and they took their cattle there. I think it was somewhere in Central Osthrobothnia, so they had to leave again and go somewhere much further away. 

VII. Forest

Now it is finished.
Now the wind has quieted down from the trees,
As the forest bed.
Tired branches drape down,
Quietly, peacefully.

I Mars, the Bringer of War
II Venus, the Bringer of Peace
III Mercury, the Winged Messenger
IV Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
V Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
VI Uranus, the Magician
VII Neptune, the Mystic

Gustav Holst (1874–1934) was an English composer and music teacher. His music combined the international trends based on the styles of Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky and other contemporary composers with traditional English romanticism.

The son of a Swedish father and English mother, Holst studied the bassoon at the Royal College of Music in London. Upon graduation, he earned a living as an orchestra musician. He became Director of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School in 1905 and Director of Music at Morley College in 1907. The first teaching post he held until the end of his life.

In 1913, Holst visited Mallorca. There he was introduced to astrology, which became a lifelong hobby. The planets and their characteristics, as depicted in astrology, got his imagination going. Holst was so enthusiastic about astrology that he gave private presentations on the subject and drew horoscopes for his friends.

Imogen Holst, the composer’s daughter, reminisced that one of her father’s favourite books was Alan Leo’s What is a Horoscope. The orchestral suite The Planets (1914–1917) reflects the book’s characterisations of objects within the Solar System. The group does not include the Earth nor Pluto, which had not yet been discovered. 

The opening movement of the suite, Mars, the Bringer of War (1914), represents the Roman god of war as the title suggests. The war-like mood is emphasised by the march-like percussions and crisp polytonality.

Venus, the Bringer of Peace, brings to mind the Roman goddess of love. The calm, restful music is coloured with delicate orchestral pastels. The horn and violin solos and the dimly glowing string backgrounds create an ethereal tone.

Mercury, the Winger Messenger, is the movement of the suite that was composed last. The mercurial section reflects the human thought process, according to Holst’s view.

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, is all about music rejoicing and dancing. Lurking in the background may be Holst’s interest in English folk dances. The string theme in the middle was later modified into the patriotic hymn I Vow to Thee, My Country.

Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age, was Holst’s favourite movement of the suite. The music begins with an exploring depiction of the start of human life, moving on to the march-like middle age and finally arriving at a funeral march melody describing old age. The end is dominated by a resigned calmness. As the composer put it: “Saturn brings not only physical decay but also a vision of fulfilment.”

Uranus, the Magician, appears in the form of a four-note spell. The brass opening motif is composed of letters in Holst’s name, G–(E)S–A–H. The movement is full of drama and turbulence. The manic dance is followed by a silent and gloomy ending.

Neptune, the Mystic, provides a chilling finale. The entire movement is played pianissimo. The swaying harp melody and the high register of the violins create the impression of a planet at an immense distance. The female choir in the middle section sings outside of the stage, as if disappearing in the vastness of space. Holst proposed that the choir door be slowly closed at the end.

Pluto was discovered four years before Holst’s death. Being far-wise, he did not plan additional movements to The Planets, and Pluto was removed from the list of planets in 2006 and is known officially known as 134340. Prior to this, in 2000, Pluto was added to The Planets suite by British composer Colin Matthews.

Text: Pekka Miettinen

Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation