Friday
April 11th. After having got all my application papers sent of to Berlin I came back to
Tampere city centre and went straight to the Tampere Hall. I was very lucky, I
arrived about at 20:20, just when the intermission was about to end. My friend
Suvi working in the cloak room of Tampere Hall, who is accustomed to me being late
concluded “Well today you are officially late!”. I of course didn’t have a
ticket and the ticket office was closed, but my friend, composer Jonne Valtonen said there was a free
place beside him.
I was
absolutely exhausted, starving and through frozen (due to so much waiting for the bus in the rain), and it was like heaven being able to sit down and relax on the
soft and comfortable chair of Tampere Hall, with no more responsibilities and
no hurry anywhere.
The
programme of Rock Crushers was:
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Anna-Maria Helsing – conductor
Cho-Liang Lin – violin
Harri Vuori: Die Elfenmusik (first
performance of new version) (2009)
Jukka Tiensuu: Hou (concerto for violin
and orchestra) (2012)
Documentary film Super M – konsertto murhaajalle
(1982) Director Arvo Ahlroos, music Usko Meriläinen: Kivenmurskaajat (first
performance of orchestral work) (1981)
Documentary film Hanasaari A (2009)
Directors Hannes Vartiainen ja Pekka Veikkolainen, new orchestral score Perttu Haapanen (first performance,
commissioned by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra) (2014)
Produced by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
 |
| Helsing conducting a rehersal with Tampere Phil. © Maarit Kytöharju |
It was a
pitty I missed Jukka Tiensuu’s piece,
because everything I have heard so far by Tiensuu I absolutely love! Anyway, no
can do. So after the intermission we were presented two films accompanied by
live music. The films reminded very much about each other, even to the extent
that Hanasaari A (2009) almost could
be thought of like a “re-make” of Super M
– konsertto murhaajalle” (1982).
In the
programme book it was written like this about Hanasaari A:
“Hanasaari
A (2009) is a short (15min) documentary about the last moments of the old
coal-fired power plant in Hanasaari in Helsinki. It reflects a profound change
in the cityscape: the disappearance of the industrial environment of the 1950s,
which will be replaced with a modern complex of apartment buildings on the sea.
The film combines animation, live action and graphic elements. It is a
composite of half a million photographs taken during the last two years of the
existence of the power plant.”
The music
by Usko Meriläinen was quite
peculiar, almost like a potpourri of different musical elements, but at times
stunning and impressive. Then again Perttu Haapanen’s soundtrack to Hanasaari A was absolutely brilliant, I loved it! And I must say that Haapanen is an supreme master at orchestration!
 |
| Helsing conductingthe the concert with Tampere Phikharmonic 11.4.2014 © Maarit Kytöharju |
The Tampere
Philharmonic played very well as always but I was completely stunned by the conductor Anna-Maria Helsings performance tonight! After having personally being attending conducting
courses and having an adequate amount of trouble keeping my nose enough out of the score,
remembering to show in different instruments and also being able to express
music at the same time, the prospect of someone additionally having to follow a
film and its tempos was just something over my understanding! And Helsing did
an absolutely fantastic job! All her timings were perfect and
musically it was well formed and moreover she was a joy to watch while conducting.
 |
| Helsing conducting a rehersal with Tampere Phil. © Maarit Kytöharju |
After the
concert I went with my composer friends Jonne Valtonen, Dante Thelestam and Juho Miettinen to eat Chinese food at a restaurant nearby. (I can get very
dangerous if I get very hungry, and only having eaten breakfast, I was getting
very close to that danger point at 21.30…) I told Dante about my application day and we both laughed at the fact that it seems like you end up always having
to chose the “extra-quick-express package” for getting your things on time in,
at least if you are a composer…
After a great Chinese meal I was as happy as can be! It’s incredible how much food can improve my mood! Anyway, we headed to Telakka for listening at the final gig of the day: Folk Pop, Progressive Rock and All That Jazz.
After a great Chinese meal I was as happy as can be! It’s incredible how much food can improve my mood! Anyway, we headed to Telakka for listening at the final gig of the day: Folk Pop, Progressive Rock and All That Jazz.
The
programme of the gig was:
Sepia
Victoria Lindqvist - voc, Lauri Schreck - gtr,
voc, Riku Kantola - gtr, voc, acc
Ice Loving Animals
Marzi Nyman - gtr , Niko Kumpuvaara – acc,
Arttu Takalo – vibr, Jaska Lukkarinen – dr
“The wonderfully expressive voice of Victoria Lindqvist and Lauri
Schreck’s mastery of the guitar form the core of Sepia, a combo that blends folk
music with pop and progressive rock. Ice Loving Animals, on the other hand, is
a soul food combo that serves up imagined dances from the Balkans, some sort of
jazz and very curious progressive rock”
 |
| Sepia © Maarit Kytöharju |
 |
| Ice Loving Animals © Maarit Kytöharju |
I hadn’t
noticed when I read the programme book that the first band Sepia included my friend Victoria
Lindqvist, and I was ever as surprised when I walked in to Telakka when I
noticed someone was singing in Swedish and then noticed I also knew the person!
Victoria has taught me ensemble singing at the Wegelius summer music camp in
2006. So Sepia plays music that
blends folk music with pop and progressive rock, very enjoyable.
 |
| Victoria Lindqvist © Maarit Kytöharju |
When
Anna-Maria Helsing arrived at Telakka I went and thanked her for the fantastic
concert. It is a very funny story how I know Anna-Maria: I have been conducted
by her at the Wegelius summer music camp in about 2003 when I played cello in
the B-orchestra! Yes, I have played cello for three years (so on a very basic
level) and Anna-Maria was still a conductor student at the time. So I have to
say it’s pleasant to notice that she has developed tremendously in the past 10
years, and I also told her that. At the moment she works as a freelancer and I
asked how it was and she replied “well, the same as every freelancer; you
always have too much or too little work, but never a suitable amount” which
sounds very familiar…
This night
my friend Dante was staying at my place, and luckily we both were about as
tired at 1.30 and wanted to go home and get some sleep.
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