May Day Concert: May Day avec Piaf
Singer Valérie Gabail performs Édith Piaf’s classic chansons in a May Day concert by the Tapiola Sinfonietta, brimming with Parisian atmosphere.
Clarinetist Lauri Sallinen is known for breaking down barriers between different art forms. The concert, conducted by Izabelė Jankauskaitė, will feature no fewer than six works, including Lotta Wennäkoski’s Ele.

Izabelė Jankauskaitė, conductor
Lauri Sallinen, clarinet
Jean Sibelius: Suite Mignonne op. 98a
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances
Lotta Wennäkoski: Ele
Edvard Grieg: Two Nordic Melodies for strings op. 63
Witold Lutosławski: Little Suite for Chamber Orchestra
Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta
Clarinetist Lauri Sallinen has become known for breaking down barriers between different art forms. Lithuanian Izabelė Jankauskaitė, who serves as assistant conductor of the Frankfurt RSO, will make her debut as concert conductor. Sibelius’s late Suite mignonne is nostalgic in tone, with waltzes and polkas recalling the good old days. Grieg’s Two Nordic Melodies are also dominated by a melancholic mood, even though cattle breeding was by no means a declining industry in the 1870s. Bartok, Kodaly, and Lutoslawski draw vitality from Eastern European folk dances, whose rhythms sweep away worries, arithmetic, and the sense of time. Lotta Wennäkoski’s Ele for clarinet and strings goes a few dance steps further and reminds us of the physicality of music by notating Sallinen’s movements and expressions.
The theme of the discussion is “Gesture, Movement, and Physicality in Contemporary Music and Classical Composition.” The moderator is Lotta Emanuelsson, and the panelists include the concert’s artists, composer Lotta Wennäkoski, and Reetta-Kaisa Iles, a dance artist and researcher of folk music.
Tapiola Hall, Espoo Cultural Centre
Tickets 10–35€ + subscription fees (starting at €1.50 + 0.65% of the total amount of the order www.lippu.fi)
Tickets 10–35€ + subscription fees (starting at €1.50 + 0.65% of the total amount of the order www.lippu.fi)
Singer Valérie Gabail performs Édith Piaf’s classic chansons in a May Day concert by the Tapiola Sinfonietta, brimming with Parisian atmosphere.
Maria Wloszczowska, concertmaster of the European Chamber Orchestra, makes her Tapiola debut.