K. Müller-Berghaus: Die Kalewainen in Pochjola opera on YLE

[jani]

Performance of opera "Die Kalewainen in Pochjola" by Karl Müller-Berghaus will be broadcast on 4.3.2017 in Finnish Radio (YLE Radio 1), starting at 19.03 local time.

World premiere of this opera is on 28th February (on Kalevala Day) in Turku.

Louhi - Johanna Rusanen-Kartano
Ahti Lemminkäinen - Christian Juslin
Ilmarinen - Tommi Hakala
Ismo - Kaisa Ranta
Väinämöinen - Petri Lindroos
Luonnotar - Anna Danik

Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Leif Segerstam
Chorus Cathedralis Aboensis

This opera was written 127 years ago, but only 2nd act was performed in 1890.

You can hear short excerpt from rehearsals on yesterday in this news program:

http://areena.yle.fi/1-4001194

[Alan Howe]

Is anyone able to record this important event, please?

Friends will remember the existing thread on this opera:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6006.msg63630.html#msg63630

[BerlinExpat]

I plan to, Alan.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, me too. Unfortunately the excerpt isn't really long enough to judge the style of the piece, although the few bars we did hear certainly smacked of Wagner.

[eschiss1]

The 160+11 pages preface(?) vocal score was published by Zumsteeg in 1892. (See Hofmeister Monatsberichte, 1892, p.262.)

(Librettist was Fr. Spengler, freely after the Kalewala.) Maybe someone (archive.org??) has it digitized somewhere? (Full title given @ Worldcat for the copy @ Harvard & Newberry is "Die Kalewainen in Pochjola. Finnische Mythe in 4 Bildern, frei nach dem finnischen National-Epos, Kalewala".)

(BTW the Free Library of Philadelphia, including the Fleisher Collection, has his Hungarian Violin Concerto Op.60 (full score & parts), his 2 string quartets opp.11&12, some other works, and quite a few arrangements and orchestrations he made of others including works by some Raff guy. At present IMSLP does have the first quartet, an aubade for piano, but that's all...)

[Alan Howe]

Thanks in advance to Colin and Mark.

[jani]

Librettist is Friedrich Wilhelm Otto Spengler (1841-1915). A poet from Hamburg, if I remember correctly.

I'm one of the editors who did new performance material for this production. Old scores are full of errors and text is very difficult to read, and there weren't orchestral parts for whole opera. New scores will be available for free later through Finnish Music Heritage Project. But, if anyone is interested, PM me, I can email scores for study.

[eschiss1]

Thanks! (Same project as has been preparing works by Melartin? Name rings a bell.)

[jani]

Here is link to broadcast of the opera at YLE 1 (Finnish Radio) on Saturday 4.3.2017 at 19:03

http://areena.yle.fi/1-3921601

[jani]

You can see yesterday's performance of "Die Kalewainen in Pochjola" at Turku Philharmonic Orchestra webpage http://www.tfo.fi/en/node/3123

There you can also download libretto in four languages.

[Mark Thomas]

BerlinExpat and I are currently debating which of our recordings to post, but there should be one from one of us in the next few days.

[Alan Howe]

Excellent, thanks!

[Mark Thomas]

First impressions are very positive. I don't think it's a masterpiece, but it's an impressive achievment for a composer who otherwise seems mainly to have churned out arrangements of other composers' lighter works. There's a monumental quality to it, as befits a mythological tale, but plenty of drama and also lyricism in the writing which belies the rather Wagnerian sound world and yields moments of real beauty. I'll have to listen to the whole thing rather than just substantial extracts, but I was reminded more than once of Dvorak's Dimitrij. It's sung in the original German, and that's my only major issue with the performance. None of the principals appear to be German and liguistically their perfomances lack definition. 

BerlinExpat's excellent recording is now available for download here.

[jimsemadeni]

I appreciate very much the links, especially the one to Turku Phil site and the video. I wasn't ready to watch it carefully, but listened to the whole thing just for the music, which I thought was beautiful. I have no other "erudite" response than that. Don't care if it is a masterpiece or not, anyone can decide that for themselves. Anyway, thanks again to Jani.

[scottevan]

I was favorably impressed as well; I heard more "Rheingold" than "Dmitrij," though that would be first-draft Rheingold, to be sure.  There was that quality of Dvorak, however (Dmitrij in particular) in the chorus and vocal ensembles.

I found nothing particularly memorable or compelling in the first act, and the tenor (Lemmenkainen) didn't sound capable of tackling heroic feats if vocal strain was that pronounced so early on. Fortunately, his role in the story receded. Once into the "Sampo" scene I thought the work really picked up steam, sounding better and better. It helped that, apart from the tenor, the vocalists, particularly the soprano and mezzo, were in great voice, and the orchestra and overall production were superb (the usual live performance audience sounds were noticeably absent.)  Would that more unsungs -- especially premieres such as this -- received such treatment.

I do agree that it would sound even more impressive if sung in the original Finnish: this is their core epic, after all.