2010’s

2010´S

2010

The summer 2010, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival was putting on a programme full of variety and surprises. The two-week festival was, while presenting familiar chamber music classics, also including some rarities and concert performances of three whole operas! Performing in the close on 70 concerts were 150 Finnish and foreign artists from Gidon Kremer to Jordi Savall onwards. Audiences also had a chance to meet two of today’s most celebrated composers: Kaija Saariaho during the first week of the festival and Krzysztof Penderecki during the second. The festival began on Sunday July 11 with an opera by Britten and ends with a Schumann concerto on Saturday July 24.

Kuhmo was hit by rain and thunder, at least of the musical sort. It was also examined music on both sides of the Iron Curtain, got caught up in a dancing whirl, met some femmes fatales and daydreamed by the lake. According to Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn, the flow of the festival can be compared to that of a novel. Each day was a theme stated as a title and the theme subdivides into chapters.

Among the festival artists were violinists Gidon Kremer, Pekka Kuusisto, Priya Mitchell, Elina Vähälä and Vasile Pantir, pianists Laura Mikkola, Paavali Jumppanen, Heini Kärkkäinen, Juhani Lagerspetz and Konstantin Bogino, and cellists David Geringas, David Cohen, Martti Rousi and Frans Helmerson. Early music was the domain of the famous violist Jordi Savall. Vocal music was represented by some of the finest talents of the young generation, such as Angelika Klas and the recent winners of the Karita Mattila Prize, Tuomas Katajala and Nicholas Söderlund. The summer’s string quartets were the Danel, Chilingirian, Enesco and Ardeo, and of course Kuhmo’s own resident Meta4. The Storioni Trio and the Kremerata Baltica were also among the other ensembles.

The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival began on Sunday July 11 with the opera The Little Sweep by Benjamin Britten. Monday focused on summer sounds, come rain or shine. It was also introduced the main theme for the first week of the festival, the music of Kaija Saariaho. Tuesday visited various gardens and end in nocturnal mood. Wednesday, was dedicated to dynasties, was begin with music by the Bach family, including that of a distant relative, P.D.Q. Bach. The evening passed in the company of the Mendelssohns and Schumanns and a performance of the seldom-heard Piano Concerto by Clara arranged by Robert Schumann.

Thursday looked at queens of different heavens, femmes fatales from the Lorelei to Salome and to Maria of Buenos Aires in the opera by Astor Piazzolla. On Thursday audiences met Kaija Saariaho and heard her talk about her works. Friday heard for Vienna, calling on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven on the way to a great Schubertiade in the evening. The themes of the five Saturday concerts were mythical characters from Orpheus to the devil and the day ended with music from either side of the Iron Curtain. Waltzes and courtly dances played by Jordi Savall was the order of the day on Sunday, in moods ranging from gypsy music to Purcell.

The second Kuhmo week began with music on a water theme (Mare nostrum) and a rare experience – Messiaen performed on six ondes Martenot. The opera scheduled for Monday was The Emperor of Atlantis, a 20th century masterpiece composed by Viktor Ullmann. Tuesday was reserved for classics, but Pekka Kuusisto and Iiro Rantala had a free hand in the evening for building their programme. On Wednesday Beethoven and Gubaidulina will meet Schubert and Prokofiev. Rounding off the day was music by the festival’s eagerly-awaited guest composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

Thursday was set aside for Chopin and Russian composers. Friday began with Mozart, continued with Beethoven and ended with a long concert retracing Zito the magician’s flight via Check Point Charlie. Saturday July 24 was offering six concerts, and the final notes of the 2010 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival were played by Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica in a violin version of Schumann’s Cello Concerto.

Premieres have always been an essential part of the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, and this year there were two. The Trio for clarinet, cello and piano by Sebastian Fagerlund, jointly commissioned by Ondine Oy and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, got its first hearing on July 24. Last year a number of works that had won prizes in international composition competitions were heard at Kuhmo. This year the competition harvest included the string sextet Pine Tree, Dreaming by Matthew Whittal, to was premiered on July 12, and the Trio for clarinet, cello and piano entitled Three Poems from the Afterworld by Jouko Tötterström, on July 17.

The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival has been held since 1970 and has long been Finland’s biggest chamber music festival in terms of audience figures. In 2009 it was Finland’s fourth biggest festival, attracting visitors from Australia to Canada and from Europe to Japan, and recorded 38,898 concert attendances. The budget for the 2010 festival was €980,000.

The concerts were held at the Kuhmo Arts Centre, opened in 1993 and renowned for its excellent acoustics, the traditional Kontio School and Kuhmo Church. Some concerts were also held at Lentiira Church and the Salakamari.

Concurrent with the festival were the traditional Kuhmo music courses under the artistic direction of Junio Kimanen. The teachers on these courses, designed primarily for future professionals, were members of the festival faculty and tuition was provided in piano, strings and woodwinds. The course students performed in concerts. The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival also featured poetry at meetings of the Live Poets club.

2011

Kuhmo Chamber Music was once again featuring familiar classics and some surprising discoveries under its umbrella theme Metamorphoses. There were 75 events in all, performed by 130 fine artists from Finland and abroad. The feast of chamber music began with music associated with the planets on Sunday, July 10 and ended with a wide selection of works from the global village on Saturday, July 23.

The festival was also traveling on the Orient Express, plucked the strings of the soul, attended lessons, experienced a frisson of passion, journeyed backwards and forwards in time, daydreamed, sliped into Latin mode, gazed at musical paintings and generally had fun. But the great theme running right through the festival, from the first note to the last, was metamorphosis – the history of borrowings, doctrines and influences in music.

One of the items on the programme for the concert in Kuhmo Church at 11 am on Tuesday, July 12 was Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048 by J.S. Bach. Jukka Tiensuu was commissioned by the Festival to assume the role of Bach and to compose a second, middle movement for the Concerto.

Among the 21 violinists at Kuhmo were Priya Mitchell, Antti Tikkanen, Minna Pensola and Elina Vähälä, among the pianists Paavali Jumppanen, Jeremy Menuhin, Henri Sigfridsson and 17 others familiar to Kuhmo audiences. The cellists were included Martti Rousi and Marko Ylönen, and the clarinettists Kari Kriikku, Michel Lethiec and Christoffer Sundqvist.

Several singers, such as Charlotte Hellekant and Jaakko Kortekangas, were heard at Kuhmo this summer. One particularly eagerly awaited vocal guest was Soile Isokoski. The ensembles were included the Borodin, Danel, Enescu and Meta4 quartets and the Storioni Trio. Also making its Kuhmo debut was the UMO Jazz Orchestra.

This year’s Kuhmo Chamber Music began on Sunday, July 10 with a concert of works gazing at the planets, moon and earth. On the programme for the last concert that day was Mahler’s Lied von der Erde. The whole of Monday was spent on the Orient Express, listened to what Kari Kriikku and co. had to say on the topic.

Tuesday plucked the strings of the soul, and Wednesday was about lessons – students and teachers. Passion Thursday spotlighted famous couples from Romeo and Juliet onwards. Some metamorphoses and a meeting with Faust was fixed for Friday, and on Saturday, July 16 it was time to step on a time machine.

The second Kuhmo week began on Sunday, July 17 with the music of dreams. Monday kept company with Paganini and his followers, and Tuesday catched a Latin beat. No fewer than six Strausses met on Wednesday. Thursday, July 21 looked at colours and paintings in sound, and Friday was devoted to games.

The last Kuhmo Chamber Music Saturday was spent in the global village, travelling from a Viennese market all the way to Broadway. Audiences heard anything from an alphorn to a big band, and music from Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen to an Ellington version of The Nutcracker.

The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival has been held since 1970 and has long been Finland’s biggest chamber music festival in terms of audience figures. In 2010 it was Finland’s fifth biggest festival according to the number of tickets sold (about 32,600) and attracted visitors from Australia to Canada and from Europe to Japan. It recorded about 36,000 concert attendances and the budget for this year is €990,000.

Concurrent with the festival were the traditional Kuhmo music courses under the artistic direction of Junio Kimanen. The teachers on these courses, designed primarily for future professionals, were members of the festival faculty and tuition was provided in the piano, stringed instruments and woodwinds. The course students also performed in concerts of their own. The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival further featured poetry at meetings of the Live Poets club.

2012

Kuhmo Chamber Music this year presented not only favourite items from the chamber-music repertoire but also large-scale works: two symphonies, two operas, Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Creation. There were 70 concerts in all, given by such stars as the Kronos Quartet, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and Soile Isokoski. The two-week festival runned from July 15 to July 28.

The programme this year was so wide and varied that Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn refused to single out any particular theme. It could be God, visions, beauty, the limitations of man and the limitlessness of the universe, he said. Or it could be myths, memories, nature, wisdom or courage.

Some 170 top artists from Finland and abroad were appearing at Kuhmo this summer. Among the familiar faces were pianists Paavali Jumppanen, Valeria Resjan, Roope Gröndahl and Henri Sigfridsson, violinists Hagai Shaham, Ilja Gringolts and Elina Vähälä, cellists David Cohen, Martti Rousi and Marko Ylönen, flutist Janne Thomsen and clarinettist Michel Lethiec. One of the most highly-acclaimed musicians of her generation, Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, was making her Kuhmo debut.

Along with ten others, the list of international singers included Soile Isokoski, Martin Alvarado, Jaakko Kortekangas and Mari Palo. The Kuhmo ensembles were the Kronos, Danel, Enesco and Meta4 Quartets and the Storioni Trio. This summer, visitors to Kuhmo also heard a host of rising stars chosen on the basis of auditions.

Kuhmo Chamber Music 2012 began on Sunday July 15 with a concert of music of different religions. The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir was, among other things, performed Bach’s Kreuzstab cantata and Rachmaninov’s All-night Vigil. The theme for the first Monday was opera and the evening culminates in a version of Carmen condensed by Peter Brook and Marius Constant. Carmen was heard in Iisalmi on July 14, before the start of the actual festival.

The first Tuesday was a real feast of traditional chamber music, being dedicated to great masters from Bach to Mendelssohn and some of their finest works. The theme for Wednesday was twos; it examined relationships between composers and presents collaborations between Brahms and Joseph Joachim, Robert and Clara Schumann.

Religion was the theme for the day on Thursday July 19: rites and incantations, not forgetting Finland’s archaic Kalevalaic tradition. Friday conjured up visions of eternity, building up to Mozart’s Requiem in its original, unadulterated version. The first week rounded off with a Saturday concert looking at contrasts and conflicts: Salieri and Mozart, war and peace, for example.

Sunday passed in a world of visions. The evening concert was peopled by spirits, ghosts and Erlkönig, this last as seen by three different composers. This year’s children’s event was devoted to poems on musical topics commissioned specially for the festival. Monday July 23 was spent in nocturnal mood, the theme was serenades and music for the night. Both waltzes and sonatas were heard on Tuesday, and the day ended with an eagerly-awaited recital by Soile Isokoski.

Wednesday began by travelling back a century in time and ended with Piazzolla’s opera Maria de Buenos Aires – a great hit at Kuhmo two years ago. Thursday July 26 was songs-without-words day except for the finale: Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.

Friday spotlighted legendary line-ups in ages past but also a legend in the present day: the Kronos Quartet, winner of many prizes and awards. Almost all the works performed by the Kronos Quartet was received their first hearing in Finland. The theme for Saturday was enigmas of the universe, and finally The Creation, with a host of distinguished artists and the Tapiola Chamber Choir.

As usual, there were exhibitions during the festival at the Kuhmo Arts Centre: paintings by Outi Heiskanen and graphic art by Janne Laine in the foyer, and sculpture by Jaana Bombin in the Juttua café window gallery. Kuhmo Osuuspankki bank was putting on an exhibition of landscape photos by I.K. Inha.

Concurrent with the festival were the traditional Kuhmo music courses under their Artistic Director Junio Kimanen. These courses, intended primarily for future music professionals, were taught by festival artists. Students on the courses appeared in concerts of their own and together with their teachers at three chamber-music workshops, led by Konstantin Bogino, Yuval Gotlibovich and Anna Gebert. During the festival there also were poetry and music at the Live Poets’ Club sessions.

Held since 1970, Kuhmo Chamber Music has long been Finland’s biggest chamber-music festival in terms of attendance figures. Its concerts were held in the acoustically excellent Kuhmo Arts Centre opened in 1993, the traditional Kontio School and Kuhmo Church. Some concerts were also held in Lentiira Church, Vuokatti and Iisalmi. This summer, for the first time, the Sokos Hotel Vuokatti was offering Kuhmo packages comprising concert tickets, transport and accommodation.

2013

This year Kuhmo Chamber Music presents 70 concerts were spread over two weeks. In addition to classics, it focused particularly on the 20th century and many works that had never before been performed in Finland. Audiences were also met in person four of our most celebrated contemporary composers. As well as chamber music, the programme included opera, and the festival in fact began with a performance of Mozart’s Zaide on July 14. The last concert was on Saturday July 27.

The best musical minds of the world will meet and witness the performances of the more than 160 top artists from all corners of the planet, said Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn of this year’s programme. The timeless voices of God (Vox dei), of the people (Vox populi), which lit with their beauty the whole history of the arts, will have their place of honour among the voices of our time.

One of the greatest musicians of the century was, in Vladimir Mendelssohn’s opinion, Gidon Kremer, for he was also singled out works that have passed unnoticed. Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica awere indeed among the most eagerly-awaited guests at this year’s Kuhmo. Another favourite with Kuhmo audiences was the renowned Eric Ericson Chamber Choir.

Visitors to Kuhmo spoted numerous familiar artists, among them Yuval Gotlibovich (viola), Andreas Brantelid (cello), Janne Thomsen (flute), Nicholas Daniel (oboe and conductor), Michel Lethiec (clarinet), Marcelo Nisinman (bandoneon) and the Meta4 String Quartet. There were no fewer than 25 violinists – Pekka Kuusisto, for example, and the superb Norwegian Vilde Frang, who made her Kuhmo debut last year 2012.

Kuhmo Chamber Music began on July 14 with a Mozart concert in which the main item was his seldom-heard, unfinished opera Zaide. The Monday concerts gazed into a magic mirror, met Kaija Saariaho, saw a lady in a lake, and a rainbow.

Tuesday was opera day – chamber music arrangements of operas and a real rarity, the unfinished opera The Great Lightning (1933) by Dmitri Shostakovich. The evening ended with a marathon for 20th century opera haters. The second of the festival’s four guest composers, Krzysztof Penderecki, was presented on Wednesday July 17, and the day ended with a great concert of serenades.

Thursday looked backwards and forwards, with music by composers ranging from Arvo Pärt to Offenbach, and included an introduction to Orpheus. Magnus Lindberg was the guest composer on Friday July 19 – a day of shadows that roams from north to south. The theme for Saturday, rounding off the first week, was words without sound and culminated in a concert entitled All (you wanted to know) about Gidon Kremer.

The theme for Sunday was Vox Dei – the voice of God – complete with angels, prayers, and The Seven Deadly Sins in Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht style. The theme composer for Monday July 22 was Arvo Pärt. East met West in the evening concert. Vox populi – the voice of the people – was the theme for Tuesday, and some of the chamber music was accordingly seasoned with folk. The night ended with a tango extravaganza in which Finnish tango joined with that of Argentina.

Wednesday’s guest was Sofia Gubaidulina, keeping concert company with both Strauss and Schubert. Members of the audience were able to ask her questions last thing at night. Thursday July 25 was Noah’s Ark day, as illustrated by Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Shostakovich’s music for the animated cartoon The Silly Little Mouse was something else to look forward to. The theme composer for Friday July 26 was György Kurtág, and the evening ended with a giant Hungarian musical marathon. The closing day of the festival, July 17, began with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and two other concertos by him not previously performed in Finland, continued with a Bach-Gubaidulina-Beethoven get-together and ended with Mozart.

Once again, chamber music was travelling out and about. In addition to the popular Lentiira concert, Kuhmo artists were visiting Vuokatti and Iisalmi. Mozart’s Zaide was heard in Iisalmi on July 13, before the start of the festival proper. And Kuhmo Chamber Music artists were appearing in the spring in Hämeenlinna, Kuusamo, Helsinki and Paris, and at the Man and the Cosmos event in Kuhmo.

Concurrent with the festival were the traditional Kuhmo music courses under their Artistic Director Junio Kimanen. These courses, intended primarily for future music professionals, were taught by festival artists. Students on the courses appeared in concerts of their own. During the festival there were also be poetry and music at the Live Poets’ Club sessions.

Held since 1970, Kuhmo Chamber Music has long been Finland’s biggest chamber-music festival in terms of attendance figures. Its concerts were held in the acoustically excellent Kuhmo Arts Centre opened in 1993, the traditional Kontio School, Kuhmo Church, Lentiira Church, and the Petola Visitor Centre. Outside Kuhmo there were concerts in Vuokatti and Iisalmi. The Sokos Hotel Vuokatti was offering Kuhmo packages comprising transport, concert tickets and accommodation.

Kainuun Sanomat newspaper and Kuhmo Chamber Music were once again seeking new writers to report about the festival and supplementary events.

2014

Kuhmo Chamber Music 2014 was feast on seven arts and travel to seven cities. In the space of two weeks, it presented 73 concerts given by over a hundred international and top Finnish musicians. As in previous years, the programme was a mixture of traditional chamber music and unexpected rarities. In addition to the former, there were some great, large-scale works, for the festival began and ended with a Bach Passion.

The themes for this year’s festival were even richer than usual, for the topics ranged from the origin of the world to gastronomy, and from cinema to the music of the Tsars. And as Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn said, They will never happen the same way again under the same stars.

The festival began on Sunday July 13 with Bach’s lost but reconstructed St. Mark Passion, performed by the illustrious St. Petersburg Chamber Choir on its first visit to Kuhmo. Monday was dedicated to music inspired by dance, from Baroque to the Valse triste, and rounding off the day was a performance by the celebrated flamenco dancer Bettina Castaño. Tuesday launched the Kuhmo city theme, and the first metropolis to be visited was New York. The programme that day included music by both Dvořák and Benny Goodman. The theme for Wednesday July 16 was Waiting for GODot, a day of church music culminating in Fauré’s Requiem.

Thursday of the first week traveled to Vienna, one of the cities richest in cultural heritage, for a whirl of waltzing – a must – and more recent Viennese music. The genre for Friday was music for the silver screen and an unusual showing accompanied by live music of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The spotlight on Saturday July 19 was on the musical history of London: Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas and other British music.

The second week started with music for the Tsars and later rulers. From Russian music the focus shifts on Monday to the world of theatre, taking in some rarely-performed stage music by Beethoven, a juggler, and Pekka Kuusisto’s one-man band. Tuesday July 22 was dedicated to the musical heritage of Paris, from Couperin to Piazzolla and Babar the Elephant.

On Wednesday the caravan traveled through Hungarian and Romanian landscapes, stopping for the first performance in Finland of Dracula’s Castle by the festival’s Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn, this time in the role of composer. Music inspired by painting was the subject of the programme for Thursday. This naturally required a performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, but there were also some lesser-known music inspired by visual art. Friday was literature day, including the premiere of a setting of texts from the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, by Italian Davide Pitis. The evening ended with some tasty music inspired by cookbooks.

The last, but not least, of the seven chosen arts was music. The programme for the final day of the festival comprised some of the greatest Western masterpieces, such as Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata. The whole festival ended with a performance by the Tapiola Choir, festival artists and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra of the greatest of all Baroque masterpieces: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Even before the start of the festival proper, on Saturday July 12, there were a concert on a Spanish theme in Iisalmi. During the actual festival, chamber music were also heard outside Kuhmo at Vuokatti, Lentiira and Vartius. In the course of the spring, Kuhmo Chamber Music artists were giving concerts in Joensuu (February 23), Kuusamo (March 11) and Helsinki (April 13 & 14). The Helsinki concerts were part of the project bringing the province of Kainuu (to which Kuhmo belongs) to the Helsinki region in 2014.

2015

The theme for the 2015 Kuhmo Chamber Music was time – at over 70 concerts. The topics for each day were addressed the turning points in centuries, the seasons, the eternal circle of transfer and many other time-related subjects. In keeping with the Kuhmo tradition, each day were included both chamber music classics and exciting discoveries.

The festival began on Sunday July 12 with a Bach motet and ends on Saturday July 25 with Piazzolla’s Four Seasons. In between, there was music from the 17th to the 21st century, in five to six concerts each day.

The performers were celebrated musicians and ensembles from Finland and all over the world. In addition to some familiar Kuhmo artists, the guests included the phenomenal bandoneon player Marcelo Nisinman, pianist Nino Gvetadze, a Kuhmo first-timer last summer, and mezzo-soprano Romina Basso. Among the ensembles were the Brentano Quartet of A Late Quartet film fame, the Danel Quartet and the Storioni Trio.

The Kuhmo Chamber Music concerts were held at the modern Kuhmo Arts Centre hall with its excellent acoustics, the traditional Kontio School, Kuhmo’s imposing Church, the intimate Burial Chapel and the Petola Visitor Centre. There were also concerts at Vuokatti and in Iisalmi.

Vladimir Mendelssohn, Artistic Director of the Kuhmo Chamber Music, had good reasons for a music festival concentrating on time: 14 billion years ago from a particle a 100 million times smaller than a grain of sand there materialized the stars, the galaxies, earth, water, fire, the Acropolis, the Great Wall of China, Venus de Milo, Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and time started to flow.

The theme for the first day of the festival, July 12, was Fiat Lux (Let there be light). The big opening concert spanned music from a J.S. Bach motet to the new Transient Light by Sebastian Fagerlund. Each of the Monday concerts was devoted to a different century, until the end of time and beyond was reached as midnight approaches. Great composers vie with one another under the heading for Tuesday, Star wars. Wednesday July 15 was a real feast of traditional chamber music, being dedicated to evergreens ranging from a Bach Chaconne via a Schubert Piano Trio to a Schumann Piano Quintet.

Thursday switched to nature mode, storms and gardens. The morning mood of the Friday church concert proceeded to Piazzolla’s Zero Hour tango late at night. The theme for Saturday was The eternal circle of transfer, with time themes tossed from one composer to another. Sunday hovered between fact and fiction, presenting chamber music-like takes on operas and ballets.

Kuhmo Chamber Music began its second week with Jean Sibelius. Monday presented a portrait of both Sibelius himself and his contemporaries, thus creating a musical context for the maestro in this jubilee year celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. Tuesday July 21 concentrated on the human life cycle, from the cradle to the grave.

The theme of the second Wednesday was contrasts, on a day featuring such opponents as angels and devils. Thursday was packed with stories under the heading of Once upon a time. Among the tellers of tales was the pipa, a Chinese folk instrument played by Pui Yee Shui.

Friday of the second week explored different mindscapes, from fear to laughter. The festival’s Time theme culminated on the closing day, July 25, with The Seasons, courtesy of Antonio Vivaldi, Astor Piazzolla and others.

History