The Philharmonic and Scandinavia

Within the PIANOFORTE series, fully devoted to the sound of the piano, is the opportunity to attend the performance of Carl Petersson on 19th April 2017 at 19:00. “Excellent technique, unique interpretative imagination, perfect play” – music critics do not spare compliments for this Swede of Polish origins. The young pianist received his education at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen under the supervision of Jose Ribery and at various masterclasses with world leading piano figures. This concert will celebrate Scandinavian Days in Szczecin.

“Scandinavian Symphonies” will constitute the “apple of the artistic director’s eye” (21st April 2017 at 19:00). The Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rune Bergmann and accompanied by Juho Pohjonen will perform compositions by three Finnish conductors:Einojuhani Rautavaara, Esa Pekka Salonen and Jean Sibelius.

Jean Sibelius said ‘he loved the mysterious sounds of fields, forests, water and mountains’. These sounds can be heard in one of his most outstanding compositions – Symphony No.2. After a premiere performance in 1902, the critics compared this Sibelius composition to the best of the symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven. He himself said that this was a most sincere and intimate musical confession dedicated to his motherland.

Einojuhani Rautavaara is said to have been heir to Sibelius. Living in the 20th century, the composer wrote neo-classical, constructivist and neo-romantic pieces. Cantus Arcticus is one of his most important works. In his compositions, Einojuhani Rautavaara used the recordings of singing birds nesting in the Arctic circle region, as well as those near peatlands in Liminka in the north of Finland. A good ear can catch the trills, tweets and even calls of a whooper swan.

Birds of other species were the inspiration of the third Finnish composer, Esa Pekka Salonena. His Piano Concerto is a piece jointly commissioned by the Philharmonics in New York, Berlin, Radio France and the BBC. The premiere took place in 2007. The composition combines traditional folk music with the sounds of cyberspace, where we can hear synthetic bird sounds. As the composer stresses, the pieces written by him are a tribute to Polish writer Stanisław Lem.

The Szczecin Philharmonic and Scandinavia have much more in common than one could imagine. The monument itself, designed by a company from Catalonia, is characterised by an elegant and minimalistic design which is so close to the hearts of the citizens of Northern Europe. As far as architecture is discussed, similar to the magnificent building of the Oslo Opera in 2009, the Szczecin Philharmonic received in 2015 the prestigious Mies van der Rohe award – “Nobel prize in the field of contemporary architecture”.

Szczecin’s geographical location predestines it to be a gate to the north for Central Europe, and for Scandinavia a gate to the south, an open invitation to its partners for a multi sector cooperation encompassing various elements: business, educational, cultural and tourisic.