Programmes
PROGRAMMES AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT 2022 IN ADDITION TO INDICATED TOURING DATES
Concept: © Hebo
CONTACT
touring 2021
Hasse: Irene – modern premiere (first performed at Dresden Hofoper in 1738, with Faustina Bordoni in the title role)
Julia Lezhneva, Max Emanuel Cenčić, Dara Savinova, Bruno de Sá, David DQ Lee
dir. Aapo Häkkinen
1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 horns, strings 54321, 1 bassoon, 1 lute, 2 harpsichords
28 performers
Julia Lezhneva & HeBO
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touring 2021
Schumann: Genoveva
Carolyn Sampson, Andrew Staples, Johannes Weisser, Vesselina Kasarova, Felix Speer, Cornelius Uhle
Arnold Schoenberg Chor
dir. Aapo Häkkinen
110 performers
Schumann’s only opera is heard for the first time on 19th century period instruments. Visual dramatization by Kristiina Helin seeks to capture and enhance the spirit of Schumann’s vision of a truly epic opera actually impossible for traditional staging. Using sophisticated lights and video technology, in addition to carefully conducted slow-motion ‘moving portrait’ technique of the vocal forces, the performance creates an ineffable multi-arts experience hard to describe in traditional terminology. The mirror in which one beholds one’s own self, past and present, that is at the centre of Schumann’s unique concept, becomes an ageless moral force of terrifying transformative power.
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touring 8–14 March & 10–17 November 2021
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (1721)
dir. Dmitry Sinkovsky, violin
24 performers
The violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky gyrated like a rock guitarist during his gorgeous rendition of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D minor, his effortless virtuosity … and his soulful, aching rendition of the Adagio holding the audience spellbound.
-Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times
Dmitry Sinkovsky & HeBO
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touring October 2021
Liebestod
Monteverdi – Purcell – Wagner
Ann Hallenberg, Nahuel Di Pierro, Artavazd Sargsyan …
I Dodici vocal ensemble
dir. Jay Bernfeld
30 performers
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touring 24–30 November 2021
Paradise Lost
Buxtehude – Reincken – Monteverdi – Carissimi …
Hana Blažíková, soprano
dir. Aapo Häkkinen
8 performers
Monday saw the appearance of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, and a programme of music from the late 17th century Düben Collection in Uppsala, including works by Buxtehude, Förster, Geist and Meder. This was an extremely impressive concert, with excellent playing and singing and a very well thought out and presented programme.
-Andrew Benson-Wilson, Early Music Review
Music from North and South, an opulent programme reflecting vanity, guilt, humankind’s past and future. Music was the only art supported by Lutheranism to express the kind of religious fervour found in the Roman Catholic Church. Darkness and light alternate in a magically Nordic manner.
Schmelzer: Sonata VII (1662)
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touring 2021
Bach: Harpsichord Concertos
Pierre Hantaï & Aapo Häkkinen, harpsichord
2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 violone
7 performers
Kleine Besetzung, maximaler Groove: Die fünf Streicher vom Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, dessen Cembalo spielender Leiter Aapo Häkkinen und der französische Meistercembalist Pierre Hantaï brachten eine überschäumende Energie in die Aula der Göttinger Universität. Mit Präzision, enormer Spielfreude, aber auch ausgefeilter Delikatesse musizierte die aufeinander eingeschworene Gemeinschaft. Und optisch prägnant waren die jungen Finnen überdies: Ein elfenhaftes Wesen umschmeichelte das Cello, während ein mit Piratentuch und Lederhose aufgemachter Bratschist grimmig dreinblickte.
-Georg Pepl, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
The recording of complete concertos for two harpsichords by J.S. Bach (BWV 1060–1062) received a Diapason d’or de l’année in 2018. They can be combined with other works such as the concertos for three and four harpsichords – to be released in autumn 2020 – or with chamber music by Bach’s predecessors such as Kirchoff and Reincken.
Pierre Hantaï & Aapo Häkkinen
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touring 2022
Galuppi: Caduta di Adamo (1747, Rome – Uppsala MS)
4 soloists
dir. Aapo Häkkinen
2 horns, strings 53211, 1 bassoon, 1 lute, 1 harpsichord, 1 organ
22 performers
Galuppi’s settings of Metastasian texts were seen as genuinely ground-breaking by progressive artists all over Europe. This practically unknown oratorio has never been published.
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Monteverdi – Third Practice
Núria Rial, Topi Lehtipuu
Tero Saarinen Company
14 performers (singers, instrumentalists, dancers)
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Young Handel in Italy
Julia Lezhneva, soprano
dir. Aapo Häkkinen
2 oboes, 2 horns, strings 54321, 1 bassoon, 1 harpsichord, 1 organ
23 performers
A singer who rivals the young Bartoli in high-octane virtuosity.
-Richard Wigmore, Gramophone
International media have described the Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva as among ‘few young singers being widely celebrated so early in their careers’ (Independent) and as possessing the voice of ‘angelic beauty’ (New York Times), ‘pure tone’ (Die Welt) and ‘flawless technique’ (The Guardian) while Norman Lebrecht outlined her as ‘heading for the stratosphere’.