Grand Music for Winds & Strings
Chamber Music Concert
Maano Männi, violin
Denice Djerassi, violin
Janne Ahvenainen, viola
Matti Mietola, viola
Vladimir Reshetko, cello
Tuomas Roos, cello
Pontus Grans, double bass
Erica Nygård, flute
Siri Ilanko, oboe
Hugo Olsson, clarinet
Harri Ala-Aho, horn
Zeynep Bozkaplan, bassoon
The spring chamber music concert introduces different centuries through three contrasting works, performed by the city orchestra’s skilled musicians. Louis Spohr’s substantial nonet was created in the early 1800s, when Viennese Classicism was already beginning to give way to more Romantic expression. A hundred years later, the Hungarian-born cosmopolitan Ernst Dohnányi’s string trio still stands at least one step firmly within Romanticism, even though the next musical revolution was already taking shape around them. And what about the Estonian composer Mirjam Tally, who now lives on Gotland? Like many contemporary composers, she crosses genre boundaries effortlessly and does not hesitate to use lively humor—a quality heard clearly in her cheerfully descriptive work Sarvikud sõnelevad.
Ohjelma
Mirjam Tally (1976-)
Sarvikud sõnelevad 2003 for two cellos
Vladimir Reshetko, cello
Tuomas Roos, cello
Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960)
Serenade for String Trio, op. 10
1. Marcia: Allegro
2. Romanza: Adagio non troppo, quasi andante
3. Scherzo: Vivace
4. Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto
5. Rondo (Finale): Allegro vivace
Denice Djerassi, violin
Matti Mietola, viola
Vladimir Reshetko, cello
Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859)
Grand Nonetto in F Major for Winds and Strings, op. 31
1. Allegro
2. Scherzo: Allegro
3. Adagio
4. Finale: Vivace
Maano Männi, violin
Janne Ahvenainen, viola
Tuomas Roos, cello
Pontus Grans, double bass
Erica Nygård, flute
Siri Ilanko, oboe
Hugo Olsson, clarinet
Harri Ala-Aho, horn
Zeynep Bozkaplan, bassoon
Presentation of pieces
Mirjam Tally: Sarvikud sõnelevad
The Estonian composer Mirjam Tally (b. 1976), now based on Gotland in Sweden, graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music in Lepo Sumera’s class in 2000. Today, her catalogue includes a substantial amount of vocal music—often setting poetry by Edith Södergran—as well as orchestral works, but early in her career she focused mainly on chamber music, especially for unusual ensembles. Folk music influences have always been present in her compositions. Sarvikud sõnelevad (“The Horned Ones Quarrel”) from 2003 for two cellos is a somewhat playful depiction of a goat fight, beginning with wary observation and ending in a melancholic reconciliation. Tally uses extended cello techniques very creatively to illustrate the course of events.
Ernst von Dohnányi: Serenade for String Trio
Ernst von Dohnányi (Hungarian: Ernő Dohnányi) was one of the most significant figures in Hungarian musical life in the early 20th century. Born in Bratislava, then part of Austria-Hungary, he studied in Budapest. As a pianist, he followed Franz Liszt as the most internationally renowned Hungarian musician, and he also gained recognition as a conductor, composer, and piano professor. He played an important role in promoting Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály and in advocating for Hungarian composers both at home and abroad.
Dohnányi composed extensively, and although he was a contemporary and friend of Bartók, his musical language remained more rooted in tonality and established forms than that of his more innovative colleague. Chamber music occupies a central place in his output, and even his early Piano Quintet op. 1 was admired by Johannes Brahms. He later combined Brahmsian formal thinking with Lisztian motivic development in a distinctive way.
The Serenade for String Trio op. 10 (1902) is among the first works in which Dohnányi truly found his own voice. Its freshness reminds us of the many possibilities still inherent in tonality at a time of major artistic upheaval. At the same time, the work nods to tradition: like many serenades, it is multi-movement and opens with a march, symbolizing the musicians’ arrival, as serenades were originally evening outdoor music. The violin–viola–cello trio is also a traditional serenade ensemble, as in Beethoven’s op. 8. Dohnányi gives all instruments relatively equal roles, and the work is technically demanding for each. In the coda of the finale, the opening march returns, suggesting the musicians’ departure.
Louis Spohr: Nonet in F major
Beethoven wrote his septet for strings and winds in 1800, and Schubert his octet in 1824. Louis (Ludwig) Spohr’s nonet from 1813 falls almost exactly between these two works and illustrates that no standard mixed ensemble of strings and winds emerged during the Classical period comparable to the string quartet or wind quintet. While Schubert clearly took Beethoven’s septet as a model, Spohr based his nonet on his own ideas—or those of his patron Johann von Tost.
Like Beethoven and Schubert, Spohr lived in Vienna when composing the nonet and knew Beethoven personally. He was a celebrated composer and one of the leading violinists of his time, touring widely across Europe performing mainly his own works. In 1813, however, he settled for a time in Vienna as conductor at the Theater an der Wien and collaborated with von Tost, producing several chamber works including the nonet.
The work is scored for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon) and four strings (violin, viola, cello, double bass). Spohr’s model was Mozart, and the nonet remains firmly rooted in the Classical style, though Beethoven’s influence can be heard especially in the scherzo. The form is four movements, with the scherzo unusually placed before the slow movement. Spohr skillfully balances winds and strings, and the first violin does not dominate as it does in many of his string quartets.
The nonet was immediately popular and performed several times in its year of composition. It has remained one of the few frequently performed works from Spohr’s extensive output, which includes operas and ten symphonies. After his death in 1859, however, tastes changed, and his music fell out of favor, despite the fact that his operas anticipated Wagner, for example in their use of leitmotifs.
Text: Panu Sivonen