Met some of the BBCSO players at breakfast here in Lahti this morning. SDB cost a fortune but I had to have it after I'd seen the children's opera based on it in Savonlinna.Ĭan't imagine Kullervo danced, except for the third movement (which could also be staged as an opera with video designs). Stephen Johnson alerted me to TCK and I bought it at Helsinki Airport. Both these books I bought in English editions). You have to get a copy of The Canine Kalevala (and The Seven Dog Brothers, based on a 19th century Finnish classic which I must get in translation. Oramo made it all sound fresh, original and gripping, doubling the woodwind parts and making sure every word could be heard from his choir, the Wagnerian lyric-dramatic soprano Johanna Rusanen-Kartano and handsome young baritone Waltteri Torikka, pictured here at a different performance. Never have the foreshadowings of Janáček- whose first great opera Jenůfa was still some years in the future when Kullervo was premiered in 1892 - been more striking in the speech-melodies and especially the scene where Kullervo seduces his sister. Now I think it's a masterpiece from start to finish. I call it 'transformative' because previously I'd had total faith in the second, third and fifth movements of Sibelius's early mythological canvas, but perhaps not the opening call to arms nor the battle. We'll have a couple more of these comparisons at the end, but first I want myself to sing the praises of Sakari Oramo's amazing Proms performance with his own empurpled BBC Symphony Orchestra and nearly 140 male voices from the stunning Polytech Choir of Helsinki singing alongside the BBC Symphony Chorus.
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