Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tarmo Peltokoski & Martin Helmchen

Welcome to the 19th edition of Klarafestival! The theme Crossroads - Come Together keenly evokes the convergence of the audience, the artists and their inspiring concerts. A meeting place where the leading lights of international classical music enter into dialogue with challenging creations and young talent. 

The inspiration for this edition comes from festival artist Claron McFadden. As she told us in an interview, “I stand at a crossroads where styles and generations cross, meet, and collide”. This notion forms the core of the programme. We hope you will enjoy Klarafestival as a sanctuary of hope, polyphony and beauty in all its forms. As a place where the familiar takes on new meaning and where new experiences take you by surprise. 

Jan Raes, chairman

Joost Fonteyne, intendant

Chantal Pattyn, manager Klara

Saariaho (1952-2023)

Kaija Saariaho is considered as one of the leading composers of our time. She studied with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 1980, she discovered the music of Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail, the exponents of French spectralism (a movement which takes the overtones of a note as the starting point for melody, harmony and so on). After visiting the IRCAM (Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique) in 1982, she decided to stay in France to further explore the possibilities of electronic music. In her experimental approach to sound, the composer seamlessly combines traditional instruments and modern technologies. This almost scientific approach, however, did not stop her from seeking her inspiration mainly from nature and literature.

Ciel d'hiver (2013) is an arrangement of the second part of her own orchestral work, Orion (2002). The first performance was on 7 April 2014 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The piece reveals Saariaho’s characteristic ability to create abstract patterns of sound that invite the listener to engage in introspective exploration. Above a sonic layer of deep chords in the low strings, the first violins play an octave higher. Metallic sounds of percussion and a piercing piccolo add mystery to the orchestral texture, which sounds like a sparkling galaxy of stars. Saariaho uses textures and timbres to generate an auditory experience that transports the listener to a landscape of cold, cosmic space and contemplation.

The work opens in a serene and mysterious atmosphere with a three-note motif for the piccolo. This motif serves as a basis for various instrumental solos during the ten-minute work, showing how the same idea can have different effects when played on different instruments. The overall sound is dominated by icy plateaus with a subtle, transparent colour and texture.

In this piece, Saariaho creates an illusion of the perception of time. Ingeniously, she captures the experience of staring at the night sky, where stars and planets move through space at glacial speed.

Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847)

Felix Mendelssohn wrote his first piano concerto in 1830, at the age of 21. Mendelssohn toured Europe as a young concert pianist, much as Mozart did. His own piano concertos were the ideal genre to showcase his genius. He claimed to have composed his first concerto for the piano in just a few days, during a trip to Rome when he also met the pianist Delphine von Schauroth. The concerto is dedicated to her. Mendelssohn considered marrying the pianist and wrote to his elder sister Fanny that Delphine had composed a passage in his piano concerto. However, he never revealed which passage it was.

The first movement, ‘Molto allegro con fuoco’, opens with a dramatic orchestral introduction, and then the piano takes over. The piano part begins after just a few bars from the orchestra, which was very innovative at the time. This section is characterised by an energetic dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra, with highly demanding technical passages. The following movement, ‘Andante’, offers a contrasting atmosphere of lyrical calm. The third part, ‘Presto - Molto allegro vivace’, reprises the liveliness and vitality of the first, with a sparkling finale.

Mendelssohn’s first piano concerto reveals his artistic virtuosity in refined melodic developments, structural nuances and a sophisticated balance between solo bravura and orchestra support. It remains an essential mainstay of classical piano repertoire, thanks to its timeless appeal and musical depth.

Sibelius (1865-1957)

‘I have rediscovered my old self, musically speaking; I am really a tone painter and a poet’, Jean Sibelius wrote to his wife Aino in 1894. The Finnish composer was greatly inspired by Franz Liszt’s ideas, something also borne out by his interest in the symphonic poem. He wrote several of them. Besides Kullervo and En saga (both dating from 1891-1892), he composed the Lemminkäinen Suite in the years that followed. In this cycle of four symphonic poems, Sibelius sketches the adventures of a Don Juan-like character from the Finnish national epos Kalevala in a painterly manner. The second movement, The Swan of Tuonela (Tuonelan Joutsen in Finnish), became world famous and is often performed on its own.

In his choice of material, Sibelius picked up on a popular trend at the time, since Helsinki’s artistic landscape was profoundly influenced by the symbolism of painters such as Magnus Enckell (1870-1925) and Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931). Their imaginative paintings of swans, landscapes and water, characterised by a soft colour palette, were much appreciated. The period later came to be known as the Golden Age of Finnish painting.

The Lemminkäinen Suite is centred around the eponymous hero of Finnish mythology. He is usually portrayed as a handsome young man with wavy, red hair, so attractive that all the girls on the island fall for him. To win the hand of the most beautiful girl, he has to pass a series of tests. For instance, he has to shoot down the mystical black swan on the dark river of the dead with a single arrow. Before he can complete his task, however, Lemminkäinen is hit by a poisoned arrow shot by his rival, and dies. In the third part of the suite, his mother brings him back to life. The composition does not contain a narrative line, instead being a collection of fragments inspired by the events in the story. The extremely atmospheric suite is sombre in tone. It is written for a small orchestra and solo English Horn, which symbolises the swan.

Noa Bols, translated by Helen White

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchestre Berlin

In its long history, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin has been directed by, among others, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly and Kent Nagano and is currently led by Robin Ticciati. In addition to its excellent performances, the orchestra is famous for special traditions such as the 'Casual Concerts', accessible concerts with explanations by the conductor, and the 'Symphonic Mobs' in which the orchestra makes music together with amateurs. The orchestra's home base is the Berliner Philharmonie, but it also regularly tours the leading international venues. It has released various acclaimed recordings and won a Grammy in 2011 with a recording of Kaija Saariaho's opera L'amour de loin.

Tarmo Peltokoski

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski was appointed chief conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra in 2022, at the age of 22. In the same year he was appointed permanent guest conductor at the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also collaborated with the HR Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and with soloists such as Yuja Wang, Matthias Goerne and Janine Jansen. Peltokoski has also won several prizes as a pianist and has played with all the major Finnish orchestras. From the 2024-2025 season he will be the music director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Martin Helmchen

The German pianist Martin Helmchen performs on the leading stages around the world and is acclaimed for his original, sensitive and technically refined interpretations of mainly classical-romantic piano repertoire. As a soloist he has played with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic and under conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Klaus Mäkelä and Andris Nelsons. In 2020 he received a prestigious Gramophone Music Award for his recordings of Beethoven's collected piano concertos with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Andrew Manze.