Finnish maestros bring Finn composers

Finnish maestros bring Finn composers

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norman lebrecht

August 19, 2020

Klaus Mäkelä becomes chief conductor tonight of the Oslo Philharmonic. He opens his accouint with Mahler’s first symphony, preceded by ‘Wiegenlied’ by a little-known Finnish composer, Sauli Zinovjev.

This is a common ocurrence among that newest breed of Finnish conductors. They like to export their own.

Let’s see who Mäkelä promotes in his other job, at the Orchestre de Paris.

 

Comments

  • PHF says:

    Sauli Zinovjev sounds nice… studied with W. Rihm in Karlsruhe. Young but sounds good.

  • Trevor S. says:

    While 500 other young conductors try to survive and get an assistant position in the second hand german theatre. Well, I think it’s enough music for today (or for this year)

  • Luciano says:

    A common occurrence amongst all generations of Finnish conductors – they are excellent ambassadors for their homeland. All kicked off by Salonen and Saraste.

  • Day Radebaugh says:

    This would be worth hearing; Mahler’s 1st, from a youngster. Watch this space.

  • fflambeau says:

    Why not?

  • icebreaker says:

    is this really surprising? many conductors over the years have successfully promoted their national repertoires, giving concert time to composers and works that might not otherwise get more widespread exposure

  • We privatize your value says:

    This composer is mostly little-known because he’s still very young. Let’s see in 30 years.

  • Composer colleague says:

    Little-known and not a particularly interesting composer are what would very well characterise him. Mäkelä should be promoting higher quality music from Finland. Especially women are rising: Wennäkoski, Tarkiainen, Damström, Leinonen – Saariaho of course is already mainstream. All the above way more interesting and imaginative.

    • Alexander Hales Freeman, Composer Colleague says:

      “Composer Colleague” should focus more on creating music than taking anonymous potshots at composer colleagues. This comment is super lame, hostile, and cowardly for its anonymity.”

    • Newmusicisalive says:

      Well, get ready for more Zinovjev – Mäkelä has stated in an interview a few years ago that he plans to conduct every single piece Zinovjev writes, and so far, he has!

  • William Safford says:

    I’m partial to Kalevi Aho’s music, but I’m game to listen to music by other Finnish composers.

    • We privatize your value says:

      Try Sibelius, for a start.

      • William Safford says:

        Um, I perform Sibelius’s music as well as listen to it, but he’s not exactly a living representative of Finnish composers.

        I did have several pleasant conversations with Aho some years ago, and I like listening to his music. I haven’t yet performed any of his works, but I’m considering tackling one or more of his chamber works. We’ll see.

  • Ben G. says:

    If he ever plans to program a marathon concert of the complete symphonic works of Segerstam, I will definetly buy a front row seat!

    • William Safford says:

      Is there such a thing as a front row berth? 🙂

      (That’s a commentary on the length of the program, not the quality.)

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