¿Spain?
Mediterranean tastes with Nordic influences
Haydn–Baguer–Auvinen–Boccherini
Petri Kumela, guitar
Irma Niskanen, violin and leader
Finnish Baroque Orchestra
First violin: Irma Niskanen (cm), Dora Asterstad, Hanna Pesonen
Second violin: Hannu Vasara (prin.), Tiina Aho-Erola
Viola: Laura Kajander
Cello: Lea Pekkala
Double bass: Petri Ainali
Oboe: Piia Maunula, Jon Fredrik Hjemli
Bassoon: Agnieszka Siemiankowska
Natural horn: Merituuli Hirvonen, Otto Kenetti
Percussion: Tuija-Maija Nurminen
Conductor in Auvinen: Heikki Parviainen
cm = concertmaster
prin. = principal
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) had diverse connections to the Iberian peninsula. The best known is the passion music that was commissioned from Haydn for the Good Friday service in 1786 in Cádiz in Andalusia. The composer was also an avid businessman, and he sold manuscript copies to Spain, where the music publishing business hadn’t really yet started. On the other hand, lots of Haydn’s elsewhere published music was imported to Spain.
Haydn’s symphonies were being performed in the churches of Catalonia from the beginning of the 1780s. The influence of Haydn is noticeable in Symphony No. 16 by Carles Baguer (1768–1808), the organist of the Barcelona cathedral. His work, which is full of the warmth of the Mediterranean, was found in an archive in Austria and in FiBO’s concert it is juxtaposed with Haydn’s solemn Symphony No. 4 (1762). In its core, Haydn’s symphony contains a mysterious andante for muted strings.
Antti Auvinen is a well-known Finnish contemporary composer. For him, it was an intriguing challenge to arrange his guitar concerto Andalusian Panzerwagen Jazz (2021/2023) for baroque orchestra. According to the composer, the meanings of the exhilaratingly named work are manifested in the music itself. However, in the background there is an experience of an Andalusian flamenco guitar course. The quick-witted music progresses through many sonic landscapes, from hissing playfulness to glass-like vividness. The music features simple electric instruments, and the soloist Petri Kumela performs the concert on a period guitar.
Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805) was born in a Tuscan family of artists but lived in the vicinity of Madrid for most of his career. He ended up there due to an invitation he received from a Spanish diplomat in Paris. Boccherini worked for a long time for the royal court in Spain, but his reputation did also travel elsewhere: he did remote work as the composer of the king of Prussia for eleven years. Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet No. 4 (1798) begins with a pastorale and ends with a jovial Spanish fandango dance.
Duration: 1 h 45 min (incl. intermission)
FiBO's artistic planner Marianna Henriksson introduces the concert at the House of Nobility on 15 October from 5 pm to 5.30 pm.
NB. In Sipoo, Antti Auvinen’s work is replaced by Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in D major (RV 93), with the guitarist Rolf Lislevand as soloist.