The Hungarian conductor Moshe Atzmon visits Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä

The concert evening of Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä on Wednesday 4th of March promises a classical music evening of intimate moments. The programme is full of soulful melodies from two marvellous maestros, Jean Sibelius and Max Bruch.

On Wednesday 4th of March From Jean Sibelius we can enjoy listening to “The Swan of Tuonela” and his “1st Symphony”. From Max Bruch we will marvel at the joys of “Kol Nidrei” and “Adagio” based on Celtic melodies. The evening’s soloist, cellist Juha Malmivaara who is one the orchestra’s own musicians, will perform two compositions by Max Bruch for the audience. The conductor will be the famous Hungarian conductor Moshe Atzmon and the concert will began at 7 pm at the Jyväskylä City Theatre.

Moshe Atzmon world renowned conductor

Moshe Atzmon has been Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (he is now their Conductor Laureate), Basel Orchestra Society, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul. He was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre de Bretagne in January 2004.

Moshe Atzmon was born in Hungary where he began his musical education in Budapest. When he was thirteen his family emigrated to Israel where he continued studying the cello, horn, conducting and composition. In 1960 he took up his conducting studies again at the Guildhall School of Music in London. After a few years he took second prize at the Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York and the Leonard Bernstein Prize at Tanglewood. In 1964 he was awarded First Prize at the Liverpool International Conducting Competition.

Moshe Atzmon has conducted in all the important music centres of the world working with many of the great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the major London Orchestras. In addition to symphonic work, Moshe Atzmon is well-known in the opera houses. He was General Music Director of the Dortmund Opera for several years and has conducted at the Deutsche Opera Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Basel State Opera and Royal Danish Opera amongst others. His many recordings have been mainly with Deutsche Gramophone, Decca and EMI.

Two compositions of national-romantic period of Jean Sibelius

The most well known Finnish composer Jean Sibelius planned a Kalevala-based opera during the 1890s. The opera called "The Creation of the Boat" was never completed but from the sketches of this opera he composed a four-movement tone poem called Lemminkäinen. The most famous part of Lemminkäinen is The Swan of Tuonela which was initially conceived as an overture for the opera. The first symphony of Jean Sibelius is regarded as the key work of his entire output. It is also the final work for his national-romantic period.

Max Bruch used folk melodies of different nations

The reputation of Max Bruch relies on a couple of compositions. He was a composer of technical superiority and his music is very easy to listen to. Bruch used folk melodies of different nations in his music. In one of his most popular pieces Kol Nidrei he uses traditional Hebrew melodies. The Adagio uses traditional Celtic tunes and it is difficult to understand why this work has been neglected in the orchestral repertoire.

More information: Mari Itäranta, tel. 0400 640 109