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Turku Music Festival 2010 - Turun musiikkijuhlat 2010
August 12th – 20th, Head Start July 4th
Topi Lehtipuu’s first year celebrates liberty
Turku Music Festival will be celebrated for the 51st time in August 2010. On July 4th, before the actual festival week, we take a head start with the internationally renowned stage-play Infernal Comedy, starring John Malkovich, which in the Nordic countries will be seen exclusively in Turku. The festival starts at the Turku Night of the Arts on August 12th and lasts until Friday following week. With over 40 concerts to explore, the festival week will be filled with different musical experiences.
Turku Music Festival’s new Artistic Director, tenor Topi Lehtipuu has chosen liberty as his theme for the 2010 festival. Topi’s programme is versatile: soprano Helena Juntunen presents her skills not only as a singer but as an actor in a unique lied concert themed happiness, Avanti! chamber orchestra plays with fascinating mechanical inventions, the French violist Antoine Tamestit offers thrilling interpretations, winner of the XI national Turku cello competition Tomas Nuñez-Garcés gets sentimental with Bach, the Italian orchestra Il Complesso Barocco gives first performances of some newly discovered Handel arias, the prized dance theatre Glims & Gloms takes the whole family to a world filled with fairy tales and the new Artistic Director himself sings at a thrilling first concert in the Gas Bell. The festival also offers beat boxing by Felix Zenger, comics in concert, blues by Honey B. & The T-Bones, lute music accompanying a neck massage and traditional Finnish runo song. In addition, music can be heard at the Kakola prison and at the former isolation island Själö.
Tickets can be purchased at Lippupalvelu (a ticketmaster company). The Turku Music Festival Box Office will open on June 1st at Åbo Svenska Teater’s Box Office in the Hansa shopping centre and will be open Mon-Fri 12-15. The entire festival program can be seen at www.tmj.fi.
Detailed information about the program:
Free music, free concerts
At the 2010 festival the concert format is being played with freely. The beloved soprano Helena Juntunen gives a unique concert Helena’s kitchen on Aug 13th – instead of a traditional concert, Helena and guests discuss, make music and surprise their audience in a cheerful atmosphere in Sigyn Hall. The new generation is represented by beat boxer Felix Zenger who, together with pianist Jarkko Riihimäki, offers new views on the concerts heard earlier that day at Simply Sampling evenings at Monk on Monday Aug 16th and Tuesday Aug 17th. Bluesturbiini, with top names of Finnish blues Honey B. & The T-Bones and Seppo Kantonen, nails the essence of freedom at the rough Turbine Hall on Friday Aug 13th. Classical blues pieces as well as modern Finnish blues are on the program. The freedom of improvisation, again, is on the agenda at the concert Improdialogues in Sibelius museum on Saturday Aug 14th. During the first half of the concert, archaic Finnish runo song is combined with freejazz while the other half, called Comics in Concert, witnesses the simultaneous forming of music and picture.
One of Finland’s foremost chamber orchestras Avanti! gets crazy about machines at the concert Mechanical Music on Monday Aug 16th in Sigyn Hall. The wonders of mechanical music make it possible even for Gustav Mahler and Claude Debussy to appear as soloists at the concert that presents the most peculiar mechanical instruments.
Unique first performance and international stars
The festival week will open on Aug 12th in the Concert Hall with an Opening Concert featuring Tampere Filharmonia conducted by Hannu Lintu and soprano Melanie Diener as a stunning soloist. The concert, themed “liberty of women”, offers, among others, Adès’ Powder her Face Suite and Wagner’s touching Isoldes Liebestod. The last concert of the festival on Aug 20th presents the French violist Antoine Tamestit and the German pianist Markus Hadulla, who captivate the audience in Sigyn Hall with interpretations of Schubert, Britten and Shostakovich.
The Italian orchestra Il Complesso Barocco, conducted by early music “guru” Alan Curtis, performs baroque music pearls in the Academy Hall on Thursday Aug 19th. The Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn sings as soloist – and on the program we find some newly rediscovered Handel arias. The Gas Bell, owned by the local energy enterprise, is introduced as a brand new concert venue; it has never hosted a concert before. At the concert In the beginning there was a breath clarinettist Karin Dornbusch, accordionist Mikko Luoma and tenor Topi Lehtipuu captures the audience with music by Perotinus, Tiensuu and Reich, among others. The whole family is entertained by the prize-winning dance theatre Glims & Gloms performing a classic Finnish fairy tale Pessi ja Illusia in Sigyn Hall on Sunday Aug 15th.
Atmosphere
The popular and familiar concerts Bach in candle light and Bach in the afternoon continue with known artists – on the former, we hear some elegant Bach interpretations from the winner of the XI national Turku cello competition Tomas Nuñez-Garcés, and the relaxing afternoons are spent with Bach’s lute music performed by various guitarists, among which the internationally renowned Ismo Eskelinen. This year’s novelty is the series Cantus diurnus, attracting the busy citizens to the Orthodox church situated by the market place, to hear beautiful vocal music performed by Turku Festival Ensemble, a group of skilful singers. On Sunday Aug 15th the same ensemble can be heard at the Festival Mass in the Cathedral.
Experiences!
August’s festival week gets a head start on July 4th when the Concert Hall will be overtaken by the haunting, international stage-play Infernal Comedy. The play is based on a true story and the internationally known actor John Malkovich plays the main character. Orchestra Wiener Akademie, conducted by Martin Haselböck, and sopranos Bernarda Bobro and Aleksanda Zamojska perform arias by Gluck, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Boccherini and Weber, to intensify the plot.
The daylong archipelago trip Själö – the Island of Souls on Sunday Aug 15th and the prison concert Le prisonnier libéré on Aug 14th and 15th offer adventurous experiences of liberty. The excursion to the former isolation island Själö includes a touching concert in Själö church, archipelago cruise, guided tour of the island, brunch and dinner. Le prisonnier libéré captures the prisoners mind with songs of Schumann and Tom Waits, performed by baritone Florian Boesch.
Sibelius museum hosts a new wellbeing concert on Saturday Aug 14th when lutist Eero Palviainen plays relaxing lute music and massagers from Turku massage academy take care of the audience’s neck and shoulders – sweetness for both body and mind.
In addition, music is being taken to schools as well as senior citizens. On the Turku Night of the Arts an outdoor stage on the new Vähätori-square offers a setting for festival artists in the warm August evening. The traditional Evening at the VPK follows the liberty theme with the title Freestyle.
Turku music festival’s traditional master class concerts are held at the Arts museum from Tuesday to Friday Aug 17th – 20th. The master class students are trained by top guitarist Ismo Eskelinen, renowned cellist and chamber musician Erkki Lahesmaa, violin virtuoso Alexander Vinnitski, prize-winning cellist Samuli Peltonen and the legendary song pedagogue Elisabeth Werres. In addition to the master classes, a beat boxing workshop is arranged with Felix Zenger as instructor.
Turku Music Festival is annually funded by the city of Turku, the Ministry of Education, the Art Council of Finland and private foundations. Currently the organisation also produces several cultural capital events and other cultural programs. Turku Music Festival is greatly supported by local companies. Long time supporters include Turku Energia, Turun Seudun Osuuspankki, Turun Sanomat and Turun Osuuskauppa.
For further information, please visit www.tmj.fi
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