Friday, October 3

I head for Musikkitalo in the middle of the morning for a free rehearsal concert. Irma got me the ticket and she has managed to get what most count as one of the best seats in the house: Permanto P, row P7, seat 0946. I have a clear unobstructed view from very near the stage fairly near the centre at the end of a very short row.

I photograph the stage as the orchestra arrive and start tuning up and chatting.

Aleksandra Melaniuk will conduct a very interestng programme, performed by Helsingin kaupunginorkesteri and titled Slaavilaiset tanssit.

According to the programme notes:

In 1950, Polish composer Witold Lutosławski received a commission from the Warsaw Philharmonic: “Write something brilliant with which the orchestra can celebrate its rebirth.” His Concerto for Orchestra was composed as a sign of recovery from the devastation of the German occupation.

Some seventy years earlier, Antonín Dvořák also received an interesting commission. A business-minded publisher asked him to write music that would be a hit among the bourgeois families who practiced music at home: catchy pieces based on material from Dvořák’s childhood in the Bohemian countryside. The resulting Slavonic Dances became an enormous success and made Dvořák famous all over the world.