Travelling for a gig

Last weekend was most special, a weekend I will cherish for a very long time. I spent it in Oslo with my son and daughter.

We walked a lot exploring the city.

We visited some sights, naturally.

There were plenty of opportunities to do architecture spotting.

We had our meals at great trendy places my son’s local contacts had tipped him about.

But the cherry on the cake was the fantastic concert we attended on Saturday night. Both my daughter and I had a special anniversary this summer and that is why my son took us to Oslo to see Sufjan Stevens live. What a gig it was! We were thrilled!

I couldn’t have imagined a more splendid, more precious present than those two and a half days.

Hilltop in July

Last week, we revisited the hilltop of the Old Castle of Lieto. The green and red colours of Midsummer shown in my previous post had now turned towards a brown and yellow palette of blooming grasses of all sorts.

Time flies and our summer is short, which feels a bit unfair now that we still haven’t seen a single period of dry and warm weather this season.

Thankfully, there were some new pink blossoms on the hilltop meadow: quite a lot of maiden pinks (ketoneilikka), which is one of my absolute favourite wildflowers, some willow spiraea (pajuangervo) and even a few foxgloves (sormustinkukka) rising from the steep river-side slope. The two last ones must have originated from a garden that used to be somewhere close by.

This time, the reason for our visit was a concert held in the former cowhouse of the manor that has been turned into an event venue and restaurant. The trio Onda3 (Onda três), consisting of talented musicians studying at the jazz department of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, performed bossa nova – both well-known songs and their own compositions – to a hall full of thrilled listeners. Another concert very much to our liking.

Shamanistic virtuoso

The Finnish musician and composer Kimmo Pohjonen has been nicknamed the Hendrix, Björk and Batman of the accordion but – as someone so aptly put it – to call him an accordionist would be like calling Encyclopaedia Britannica a book.

As a child, he was ashamed his father made him play the accordion, an uncool instrument suitable for old men. Now a few decades later he is a supercool celebrated virtuoso who has travelled the world with his instrument for years having charmed and astounded audiences in more than 600 international concerts and festivals all over the globe. 



Pohjonen has revolutionised both the handling and sound of the accordion with his custom-made electrified piece. He can generate most amazing music and noise with his instrument and some electronic aids but that is not all. He may tap it, scratch it, drum it. He may accompany it with his non-vocal shamanistic humming, clucking, shouting and what not. His performances are unique theatrical cross-artistic experiences, above all of music and sound, but also of movement and light. He can offer you anything from highly avant-garde to perfectly traditional but his projects can neither be categorised nor copied.

On Friday, we attended the special gala concert Pohjonen arranged in Tampere to celebrate his 50th anniversary. What a spectacle of sound and vision it was! 



He showed a sort of a retrospective bringing on stage collaborators from many past and present projects, including the retired prima ballerina Minna Tervamäki; the Proton String Quartet; dancer Reijo Kela; professor emeritus Heikki Laitinen, his former folk music teacher at the Sibelius Academy; and the Rämsöö Motormen, that is farmers from the village of Römsöö with their earth machines.

We even saw a bit of accordion wrestling: wrestlers from Helsinki Nelson throwing each other on the mat accompanied by the maestro’s furious accordion. Pohjonen first started to develop this concept when he learnt that accordion used to be played at wrestling matches when Greco-Roman wrestling was very popular around here during the first half of the 20th century. 

Of all the fabulous compositions and improvisations we heard it was the one Pohjonen performed with Ismo Alanko that touched me the most. Alanko is one of the leading musicians of the popular scene in our country and a versatile character in his own right. I’ve always loved his deep baritone. He sung his own piece ‘Syvä maanantai’ (‘Deep Monday’) that is about apathy and greed, two great vices of modern times. I had never heard it before and couldn’t quite catch the lyrics. Nevertheless, the intense performance caused me such powerful vibes I couldn’t help a couple of tears running down my cheek.

Bright Shadow, project with Minna Tervamäki

If you are willing to widen your musical horizons and if you enjoy the kind of rhythmic sound that makes you stamp your feet and move your body I do hope you will be able to hear and see Kimmo Pohjonen live one day. We and our fellow countrymen are lucky: the concert will be broadcast on YLE Teema channel on Christmas Day. Not that any film could ever match the real thing, not even the award-winning documentary on him entitled ‘Soundbreaker’ released a couple of years ago.



“When Kimmo Pohjonen plays the accordion, it is no longer an accordion – it becomes part of the man.” (Riikka Hiltunen, Editor, Finnish Music Quaterly)

Ellen's third song

It is probably clear by now that I am quite emotional. Still I am pretty sure I would never build up anything sensational out of it, such as Stendhal syndrome, for example: too much reason, age and ‘life experience’ preventing any encounters with unexpected ecstasy, I believe. Yet it is not uncommon that emotions overwhelm me in front of exceptional beauty.

On Wednesday night, when listening to the award-winning Finnish lyric soprano Soile Isokoski interpret the original German version of Franz Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’ emotions completely overtook me. I couldn’t but stretch out for my handbag and a handkerchief to dry the tears I had no hope of holding back.

The handout given at the entrance included translations of all the foreign lyrics of the concert. Those of ‘Ave Maria’ made me curious. In fact, Schubert’s original version has nothing to do with the Latin ‘Ave Maria’ the melody is now so commonly connected with. The original context is more earthly and the original title as simple as Ellens dritter Gesang or ‘Ellen’s Third Song’.

It is part of a series of seven songs Schubert composed in 1825 based on Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’, which is a fictional story of King James V of Scotland waging war trying to unite the clans. Ellen, the heroine, is the daughter of a supporter to the king. She happens to rescue the disguised king into her boat; hence the title. She is offered marriage by one of the leading rebels, which her father refuses, and therefore has to escape with him to live in a cave. There she fears for her father’s life and sings her third song praying Virgin Mary to save him from the enemies.

Schubert used the German poem loosely translated from the original by Adam Storck. The later adoption of ‘Ellen’s Third Song’ as the tune for the traditional Roman Catholic prayer Ave Maria may simply have sprung from its opening and closing words. It certainly didn’t do any harm the melody is so heavenly. Several versions have emerged during the years having made Schubert’s Op 52, No 6 one of his most popular and beloved compositions.

The concert was a charity fund-raising event arranged by my sister-in-law’s Lions Club in Järvenpää. Ms Isokoski, accompanied by pianist Ilkka Paananen, performed lieds by Franz Schubert and Richard Strauss plus songs by three of our own composers: a few by Leevi Madetoja and Toivo Kuula from the early 20th century as well as a humorous series of recipes for a pie by the contemporary Ilkka Kuusisto.

We enjoyed them all. But if ever anything was divine it was Ms Isokoski’s ‘Ave Maria’, even more touching live than on this video I found. She is a true interpreter, an Ellen of our time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK6RgwS1q2M#aid=P8CDO1ARHjA

Ave Maria or Ellen’s Third Song (Ellens dritter Gesang)

from the Song Cycle on the Lady of the Lake (Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See)

translated from Sir Walter Scott’s poem by Adam Storck

Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild,
Erhöre einer Jungfrau Flehen,
Aus diesem Felsen starr und wild
Soll mein Gebet zu dir hinwehen.
Wir schlafen sicher bis zum Morgen,
Ob Menschen noch so grausam sind.
O Jungfrau, sieh der Jungfrau Sorgen,
O Mutter, hör ein bittend Kind!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! Unbefleckt!
Wenn wir auf diesen Fels hinsinken
Zum Schlaf, und uns dein Schutz bedeckt
Wird weich der harte Fels uns dünken.
Du lächelst, Rosendüfte wehen
In dieser dumpfen Felsenkluft,
O Mutter, höre Kindes Flehen,
O Jungfrau, eine Jungfrau ruft!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! Reine Magd!
Der Erde und der Luft Dämonen,
Von deines Auges Huld verjagt,
Sie können hier nicht bei uns wohnen,
Wir woll’n uns still dem Schicksal beugen,
Da uns dein heil’ger Trost anweht;
Der Jungfrau wolle hold dich neigen,
Dem Kind, das für den Vater fleht.
Ave Maria!

Hymn to the Virgin by Sir Walter Scott

Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden’s prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild,
Thou canst save amid despair.
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
Though banish’d, outcast, and reviled –
Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! undefiled!
The flinty couch we now must share
Shall seem this down of eider piled,
If thy protection hover there.
The murky cavern’s heavy air
Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled;
Then, Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer.
Mother, list a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! stainless styled!
Foul demons of the earth and air,
From this their wonted haunt exiled,
Shall flee before thy presence fair.
We bow us to our lot of care,
Beneath thy guidance reconciled;
Hear for a maid a maiden’s prayer,
And for a father hear a child!
Ave Maria!

Night music

Last week, we went to listen to some baroque music performed in the Espoo Cathedral. Where I come from most of the old churches are wooden so it is always a thrill to visit one of the medieval stone churches, and even more so to attend a concert late in a summer evening.

Every Thursday from June to August, a classical concert of some sort is held in the Espoo Cathedral starting at 10 pm. This is an annual festival that began almost 30 years ago and has grown into a versatile and reputable series of events with quite a number of renowned performers. Last Thursday they were mezzo-soprano Monica Groop (his favourite) and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra. The August evening was already quite dark but we are planning another visit next June to see whether the ambiance of a light summer night will add even something extra to the experience.

The Espoo Cathedral was built in the late 15th century. The bell tower is almost 300 years younger, from 1767. I took the daytime photos last summer when I was driving by and decided to have a stroll in the old churchyard.

The title of the festival is Urkuyö ja Aaria and translates Organ Night and Aria (sorry, their website is only in Finnish).