The biggest demand for tickets for the 2015 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival has so far been for the concerts on Monday July 20 dedicated to Sibelius and his contemporaries. Next in popularity is the concert on Wednesday July 22 featuring Astor Piazzolla, and in fourth place is the Schubert concert on Wednesday of the first week.

Booking has been slightly brisker than last year, as have sales of one-week passes. Tickets are, however, still available for all the concerts. Kuhmo Chamber Music begins on Sunday July 12 and will run for two weeks.

[subtitle]Some recommendations for first-timers[/subtitle]
As there are over 70 concerts in all, Kuhmo Chamber Music is once again publishing a list of recommendations for first-timers and more experienced Kuhmo-goers. For this list, which has been well received in previous years, we have picked a selection of concerts for all from the wide range on offer, including both some surprises and traditional music. This list may provide an answer to the question: “Why go to this particular concert?”

Concert 1: Everything begins with Bach.
Concert 6: Everyone knows the Valse triste, but few have heard Sibelius’s Scene with Cranes.
Concert 7: Great, stirring works were composed in the 20th century, too.
Concert 11: Aimez-vous Brahms? You can’t help liking Tchaikovsky.
Concert 17: Kuhmo wouldn’t be Kuhmo without Schubert.
Concert 20: A European tour: the Kainuu soulscape in Sibelius’s Trees, Spain in Rodrigo’s guitar concerto and Austria in Strauss’s Tales of the Vienna Woods.
Concert 22: A composition for seven keyboard instruments! Unheard of, surely, even at Kuhmo?
Concert 27: Night music in the early evening already, à la Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.
Concert 28: Powerful moods and exciting instruments in a marathon concert.
Concert 32: How could the magnificent piano concerto by Clara Schumann ever get forgotten?
Concert 34: There’s a unique Bach atmosphere in the chapel.
Concert 36: A children’s concert that adults will also enjoy.
Concert 38: From Rameau via Enescu to Piazzolla – there’s nothing odd about unusual combinations at Kuhmo.
Concert 42: One thing the composers in this concert – Fauré, Debussy and Sibelius – all have in common they all translated the love and yearning of Pelléas and Mélisande into music.
Concert 44: Sibelius was still making music on his deathbed. His arrangement of Kom nu hit död (Come away, death) expresses his dying thoughts.
Concert 48: Mendelssohn’s octet is bursting with youth!
Concert 49: Every Kuhmo summer has to have two fish: vendace and trout. So far as is known, Schubert composed only the latter.
Concert 53: Even the most experienced concert-goer cannot resist the pull of a Piazzolla tangos.
Concert 54: The biggest work this summer is Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins.
Concert 56: A pipa, in case you are wondering, is a Chinese folk instrument.
Concert 60: Stories can be told in music, not just words, as proved by Grieg and other masters.
Concert 63: Sometimes a concert – even at serious-minded Kuhmo – can make you smile.
Concert 67: A composition for two Glockenspiels and Amplified Snow – what on earth? Best find out!
Concert 71: How do the seasons feel in Argentina? And Russia? Come along and all will be revealed!

[b]Further info:[/b]
Kuhmo Chamber Music, tel. +358 8 652 0936