Gestures

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.

Concert introduction in the main foyer at 5:00–5:30 p.m.

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, and clarinetist Lauri Sallinen.

Tickets 10–35€ + subscription fees (starting at €1.50 + 0.65% of the total amount of the order www.lippu.fi)