The Flying Dutchman Programme Book
The Turku Philharmonic OrchestraThe traditions of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra as a champion of symphonic music are almost as long as the history of the symphony itself. When performed in the early days of the Turku Music Society founded in 1790, the symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven were contemporary music and their composers still alive. The tradition was continued in the 20th century by Jean Sibelius, who conducted his own music at 18 concerts in Turku. The oldest orchestra in Finland, and one of the oldest in the world became a municipal institution in 1927, when it had 29 musicians. The fourth biggest orchestra in Finland now has 74 players. The regular conductors of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra have included Tauno Hannikainen, Toivo Haapanen, Ole Edgren, Jorma Panula, Paavo Rautio, Pertti Pekkanen, Igor Bezrodnyi, Jacques Mercier and Hannu Lintu. The Principal Guest Conductor as of autumn 2001 has been Juha Kangas and the Chief Conductor since the beginning of 2003 Tibor Bogányi. Paavo Berglund, a guest conductor of the Orchestra ever since 1953, was awarded the title of Conductor Laureate in 2002. The Orchestra's composers-in-residence are Mikko Heiniö (Turku) and Anders Hillborg (Stockholm). Most of the TPO concerts are held at the Turku Concert Hall designed by Risto Luukkonen (1952), but the Orchestra also performs several times a year in the Cathedral and St Michael's Church. The Suomen Joutsen moored by the Forum Marinum has been the Orchestra's main summer platform since the frigate's centenary concert in 2002. The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra has also toured to Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Poland and China. In spring 2006 it has been invited to appear at one of the leading European music festivals, the Budapest Spring. The Philharmonic works in extremely close partnership with its "own" choir, the Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis. It has often collaborated with the ERI Dance Theatre, most recently for a production entitled Scandal! about Igor Stravinsky. The Aura Promenade (music on the banks of the River Aura) and Philharmonic Week are the orchestra's own events, and an international percussion festival called Perc! was held in 2002 and 2004. Another recent tradition is the European Turku Gala beginning the new musical year since 2001. Other major events in the year are the Good Friday concert, the Last Night of the Season concert in spring, the City of Turku's Independence Day concert, the Orchestra's own Christmas concert and the two annual children's weeks. The Orchestra has been accompanying opera in Turku ever since the days of the Turku Music Society and last played for The Flying Dutchman in 1912! The TPO often also appears at the Turku Music Festival. The Orchestra builds its repertoire around themes. Next year (2006) will mark the culmination of a five-year series tracing a musical map around Turku. Beginning in 2002, it first paid tribute to the city's maritime history and the Suomen Joutsen centenary with the theme of Drop - Stream - River - Sea. The following year it travelled in a horizontal direction along the musical King's Road to the west (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo, Bergen) and east (Järvenpää, Viipuri, St. Petersburg), whereas 2004 celebrated the 775th anniversary of Turku, maritime and cultural city, with music of the Baltic countries. This year the theme is again the vertical 22nd longitude and focuses on music upwards and downwards from Turku, especially Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, ending with the first performance in Finland of all three stage works by Béla Bartók in the All-In series. The main theme rounding off the series next year will be announced at the end of Philharmonic Week in November. Previous All-In series have been devoted to the complete Beethoven, Sibelius and Brahms symphonies, performed in numerical order. Unlike the other major Finnish orchestras, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra does not yet have an agreement with its host city permitting regular recording, radio and TV performances. It has, however, released some isolated records of Finnish music since 1979. Its "Finnish Classical Favourites" (Naxos) earned it a platinum disc, and "Karita's Christmas" (Ondine) starring soprano Karita Mattila and the CCA qualified for a golden disc the moment it was released for Christmas 2002 and a platinum at Christmas 2003. |
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